Africa Compensation and Benefits Event – Feb 7th

Posted on January 30, 2013 by | Comments Off on Africa Compensation and Benefits Event – Feb 7th

Author:
Warren Heaps – Birches Group LLC

Are you interested in Compensation and Benefits in Africa?  If you are nearby to Johannesburg, you should plan to attend the Employer Roundtable sponsored by Birches Group, Emergence Growth and Aon Hewitt on February 7, 2013.

The event will be held at Aon Hewitt South Africa offices in Sandton.  You must register in order to attend.  Click here for more information and to reserve your seat.

I look forward to meeting you!

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Posted in Africa, Benefits, Compensation, Developing Markets, International Employment Law

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Salary Scales – Why Can’t We Have Just One?

Posted on August 27, 2012 by | Comments Off on Salary Scales – Why Can’t We Have Just One?

Author:
Warren Heaps – Birches Group LLC

Organizations operating in dozens of international locations have a lot of work to do to maintain separate salary scales in each country. Every once in a while a client suggests they are considering using just one scale for all their countries globally, or in a region. Then they ask me what I think. I tell them it’s a bad idea.

Continue reading →

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Posted in Compensation, Global HR Expertise

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Seven Characteristics of Highly Effective International HR Professionals

Posted on August 12, 2012 by | 7 comments

Author:
Warren Heaps – Birches Group LLC

Working as an international HR professional is a challenge in so many ways. How can you best prepare for success in your role? Here are some tips which I refer to (with apologies to the late Dr. Steven Covey) as the “Seven Characteristics of Highly Effective International HR Professionals.” Continue reading →

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Posted in Cross Cultural Insights, Global HR Expertise, Leadership Development, Professional Development

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Two Tax Planning Strategies to Reduce Expatriate Costs

Posted on July 30, 2012 by | Comments Off on Two Tax Planning Strategies to Reduce Expatriate Costs

Author:
Eric Loff – Global Tax Network

The tax cost of an international assignment can be significant and companies struggle to find ways to manage these costs.  This article outlines two straightforward strategies for reducing the tax costs of your expatriate program.

Where do those excess taxes come from anyway?
Excess tax costs associated with an international assignment include the actual taxes paid by the employer on behalf of the employee which exceed the employee’s tax burden as calculated under the company’s tax equalization policy. But don’t worry. There are a variety of tax planning techniques that can reduce these excess tax costs. Two common ones are:

  • Paying benefits-in-kind in lieu of cash payments
  • Proper timing of the assignment

Read on to learn how these tax savings strategies work. Continue reading →

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Posted in Expatriate Taxation, Expatriates, Global Mobility Services, International Payroll

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Excel Resources for Compensation Professionals

Posted on June 26, 2012 by | 7 comments

Author:
Warren Heaps – Birches Group LLC

Calling all compensation professionals!  OK, some of you prefer the term “comp geek” but either way, I want to share a great resource.

Recently, I discovered a great new website called XLCalibre.  It’s hosted by a chap in the north of England, who prefers to keep his identity a secret for now. I can confirm, however, that the author is male, hence I shall continue to use the male gender for references to him. Continue reading →

7 Comments

Posted in Compensation, General, Global HR Expertise

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Two Surveys Are Better Than One

Posted on June 11, 2012 by | 9 comments

Author:
Warren Heaps – Birches Group LLC

If you work in international HR, you know how important market data is for the management of your international operations.  Finding reliable data in all of your countries is undoubtedly a challenge.  Each country has different survey suppliers, different employers participating in the surveys, and variable levels of quality.  So naturally, when you find a survey you trust, the tendency is to stick with it.  But is one survey enough?  I don’t think so.

Continue reading →

9 Comments

Posted in Compensation, Developing Markets, Global HR Expertise, International Benefits

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Expatriate Orientation – Why, What, When?

Posted on May 30, 2012 by | 5 comments

Author:
Jennifer Stein – Global Tax Network

When individuals relocate, they are bombarded with many changes at once. You may hear the phrase: So much to do, so little time. They may be tempted to skip part or all of the relocation process. Here we’ll discuss three questions related to orientation meetings.

  • Why do we need to provide international assignees with orientation meetings?
  • What should be covered during the orientation meetings with an international assignee?
  • When should this information be provided to the international assignee?

Continue reading →

5 Comments

Posted in Cross Cultural Insights, Expatriate Taxation, Expatriates, Global Mobility Services, Relocation, Talent Management

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Maxi-Devaluation in Malawi – HR Response

Posted on May 13, 2012 by | Comments Off on Maxi-Devaluation in Malawi – HR Response

Author:
Warren Heaps – Birches Group LLC

One of the most challenging situations that compensation professionals face is how to respond to unexpected or unusual external events such as maxi-devaluation, civil unrest, or natural disasters.

Flag of Malawi

On Monday May 7, the new government of Malawi agreed to the demands of the IMF and other donors, and floated the Kwacha, resulting in a 47% devaluation versus the US dollar. The new exchange rate, 246.26 Kwacha per US Dollar as of May 13, is fairly close to the parallel rate that has been in effect for the last several months, so in many ways, this move just makes official a rate that has been operational already in many parts of the economy. Continue reading →

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Posted in Africa, Compensation, Developing Markets, Global HR Expertise

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Expatriate Assignment Checklist Part 2 – Assignment Planning

Posted on April 26, 2012 by | 3 comments

Author:
Warren Heaps – Birches Group LLC

This is the second part of a five-part series, where we present checklists to help international HR professionals plan and manage long-term international assignments. There are five stages we identified for long-term assignment management:

International Assignment Stages

Click to Enlarge

In part one of this series, we looked at candidate assessment, selection and approval. In this installment, we will examine Assignment Planning.

Continue reading →

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Posted in Expatriate Taxation, Global Mobility Services, Immigration

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Expatriate Assignment Checklist Part 1 – Assessment, Selection and Approval

Posted on April 16, 2012 by | 4 comments

Author:
Warren Heaps – Birches Group LLC

If you are an international HR practitioner, then you have probably had to deal with long-term international assignments.  They can be complex, with many different people involved, both internal resources and external suppliers and vendors.

One of the best ways to ensure all the necessary steps are followed is to use checklists.  These are simple yet extremely useful devices that will help you stay on track with your international assignees.  A recommended approach is to develop a checklist for each of the common assignment stages or events that occur, including:

Continue reading →

4 Comments

Posted in Expatriate Recruitment, Expatriate Selection, Expatriates, Global HR Expertise, Global Mobility Services, International Assignee Recruitment, International Assignee Selection, Talent Management

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