Sending Employees Overseas? Three Key Ways to Protect Them and the Business

If your business offered employees the chance to work abroad, do you think they would take it? There’s a good chance they would, given that 42% of employees have said they would like the option to work from overseas. This can be a significant change, though, and your business must guarantee a smooth transition if the need arises.

Companies have a duty of care to protect their employees, and this must be considered when sending workers abroad. Employees will have to deal with the stress of moving overseas, but as their employer, you can simplify the process. The steps below can ensure your employees and business are protected in the new location.

Conduct a Thorough Risk Assessment

As employers have a legal and moral obligation to protect their employees, conducting a risk assessment is a crucial step before sending employees overseas for business purposes. This essential process identifies and mitigates potential hazards, ensuring the safety and wellbeing of workers. An employer’s duty of care extends to all aspects of work, including travel to and from the workplace, accommodation, and the work itself.

A risk assessment will consider various factors, including health, local conditions, mental health, travel, and work activities. You will need to consider the destination, travel, and work to identify the risks. After any hazards have been identified, the next step is to determine appropriate control measures to reduce or eliminate the risks. These control measures could include holding pre-trip briefings with employees, finalizing travel arrangements, and providing relevant training.

Comprehensive risk assessments not only protect employees from harm when working abroad, but they also safeguard the business from possible disruptions, legal issues, and reputational damage. Your business can ensure a more productive and successful overseas assignment for your employees.

Secure Travel and Medical Insurance

While a risk assessment can highlight potential hazards and issues, you, as an employer, must make the necessary preparations to keep your employees safe. One such preparation is to obtain suitable insurance coverage. This will include travel and medical insurance, although the two can be combined in a single policy, depending on the provider. However, you must ensure that the coverage is specifically designed for business travel or expatriates.

For the employee, a good business travel insurance policy provides access to medical care and repatriation if they fall ill or have an accident while overseas. This can reduce their stress by knowing that they are protected in the event of an emergency. On the other hand, the company will benefit from financial protection against the risks of lost or stolen business equipment, medical expenses, and other similar losses.

Before selecting an insurance plan, assess the company’s travel needs and patterns. It is best to consider the destinations and frequency of travel, as well as how many employees will be traveling. This information will help you tailor the insurance to fit your company’s specific requirements.

The duration of the assignment should also be considered; travel insurance will only cover short-term business trips, while global insurance for employers and employees can cover those who live overseas. Long-term medical plans can be customized to fit the needs of your employees, and they will ensure your workers are fully protected with coverage for flight delays, lost luggage, medical emergencies, and more.

Provide Pre-Departure Preparations

Once insurance coverage has been sorted, the next preparations need to be finalized before the employees depart. All preparations must be planned to maximize the success of the assignment, minimize culture shock, and promise a smooth transition. This will help employees adapt to their new environment, communicate effectively, and understand cultural nuances, all of which can boost performance and reduce failures.

Some of the best cultural adjustments to prepare workers for include an overview of local customs and etiquette, as well as cross-cultural training. Employees should also be trained in basic language skills to improve their ability to navigate daily life, access essential information, and build relationships in the new country.

Your company should also provide support with logistics like housing, transportation, and visas. This will ease the practical burden of moving and settling in that employees will have to deal with. It is important to help workers understand the financial aspects of working abroad, even for a short amount of time; this will include banking, cost of living, and taxes.

As well as ensuring the workers are safe, they should know what their roles are. Pre-departure training can clarify the employee’s role, responsibilities, and goals for the assignment, which will minimize any misunderstandings that may occur. This should see the company address potential challenges, like communication barriers and homesickness, too. All of this information can be crucial to ensure the assignment succeeds and employees feel valued by the company.

To conclude, when employees are sent overseas for an assignment, the business must ensure they are adequately protected. However, the company must also protect itself. Thankfully, this post has outlined three of the key ways to do this successfully.