…can you really?
When discussing Global Comp & Ben we often think of employees/managers going to another country to work on differing contracts and compensation packages – or taking on responsibilities of managing employees in more than one country.
The employer has to consider implications of tax, health insurance, pension, cash compensation, house allowances, local labour law and so much more that is dictated by the host country – and what is appropriate in their home country.
Just being an expert, say in one country on pensions is difficult enough, very complex and handling all perspectives on global Comp & Ben in many countries is clearly an up-hill challenge. For example: I never stop being surprised about how many different health profiles people can have – and there are difficulties accommodating these health issues into health insurance providers’ policies and their terms and conditions!
Even if you worked with Global Comp & Ben for a lot of years, which I have, I would not say we are ever experts on Global Comp & Ben – we are probably specialists on how to deal with experts in this field.
So please relax – you will not be able to deal with all of it yourself…!
Is it really that easy?
No, Global Comp & Ben is much more than global mobility.
It also contains implementing strategy and building structures in the Compensation & Benefits area, deciding on company policies, trying to find ways to evaluate and benchmark how the organisation’s benefits are appreciated and if their effort lead to better wellbeing for their staff in the countries where they operate. Global Comp & Ben also includes working environment, working times, place to work etc and I think we better call it Total Rewards, though a great working environment will also affect the employee as much as the compensation.
We hear the expression “Job Crafting” more often nowadays and that is not only about how many days a week an employee could work from home. A lot of things happen in a person´s life over a lifetime and the meaning of Job Crafting is for the employee to design their work schedule, including benefits needed at the time, to match their work into present life situation and will change over time. This is becoming as important as cash compensation for employers to attract new and existing staff.
My daughter was very ill at one point and I will never forget my employer at the time saying “go and come as you please for a while …here is a parking space for you”. No need to say that organisation had the very best of me.
These were some of the topics discussed at the labour market fair “Personal & Chef 2025” in Sweden this month.
