Expats on overseas assignments more at risk than in previous years

Expats taking on overseas assignments are at more risk of critical incidents than ever before.

Research by a major global relocation firm has shown expat professionals are more at risk from terrorist attacks, medical issues and severe penalties for breaching immigration or tax laws than at any time in the past. The survey revealed some 20 per cent of professionals on overseas secondments and assignments have faced such incidents over the past year, with around 60 per cent having serious problems at some time in the past five years.

An even more worrying survey result showed over 10 per cent of the HR and global mobility teams responding to the study admitted their firm neither monitors host country environmental factors and risks nor does it manage such risks. As many as 66 per cent of businesses regularly send employees overseas on both short and long-term assignments, with the majority of the top seven locations worldwide seeing increases in the number of expat workers.

Estimates show some 56.8 million expats working outside their home countries, with around three-quarters of the total either corporate transferees or individual workers. Total numbers in the entire expat sector have increased by an average of 2.4 per cent over the past five years. Traditionally, managing environmental factors and risks are the responsibility of companies’ internal security departments or are outsourced to professional security firms, but HR professionals are increasingly placing programmes and policies ensuring expat staff are safe and overseas business comply with local rules and regulations.

At the same time, the ever-present UK threat of Brexit seems to have reduced the numbers of British professionals being sent on overseas assignments by at least nine percent. According to a recent report, relocations are now becoming increasingly complicated in spite of the belief still held by business leaders that commercial growth benefits from employee mobility. Major reasons for the fall in numbers seem to be changing political environments and immigration complications, both of which are threatening international mobility.