The use of short-term expatriate assignments is increasing among nearly half (46.8%) of the multinational participants in HR consulting company ORC Worldwide’s 2009 Survey of Short-term International Assignment Policies. This follow-up to a survey series that began in 2000 reported Asia-Pacific as the region experiencing the highest increase in short-term assignees, followed by Western Europe, North America, and Central and Eastern Europe.

When senior management mandates smaller budgets, HR often focuses on international assignment programmes for opportunities to save money. But cost reduction – even in the present economic climate – is not, perhaps surprisingly, the primary driving force in implementing shorter assignments instead of more traditional postings that last several years.

“The primary driving need for short-term assignments reported by participants is the limited nature of the specific project (67.3%), followed by client demands in a particular host location (50.7%) – and only then by lower costs (43%),” according to Geoffrey W Latta, executive vice president of ORC Worldwide. “Companies headquartered in the Americas are slightly more budget-conscious, as evidenced by lower costs ranking in second place.”

Multinationals generally link the need for shorter assignments to a few common objectives – the company’s need to transfer knowledge and data (74.7%), set up a new business or operation (55.5%), and fill a skill gap (48.1%) or resource shortage (46.1%), among other practical reasons. While such assignments may meet the company’s needs worldwide, as more employees go on these shorter assignments, managing them often becomes a significant challenge, not only for HR but also for business unit managers. The key difficulty reported in ORC’s survey, as well as in the previous one (in 2006), continues to be controlling assignment length. “When a short-term assignment extends beyond the predetermined duration, it inevitably leads to related challenges,” says Geoffrey W Latta, “such as ensuring tax compliance with host-country laws and complying with immigration regulations, as both of these items generally have time limitations that an extended assignment may go beyond.”

In addition, although short-term assignments prove advantageous for dual-career families, where the spouse can remain employed in the home country, family issues may arise if the assignment goes on for a longer period. When the family remains at home, as is typically the case with short-term assignments, what then happens, for example, to the frequency of home visits or reciprocal visits by the family to the assignee’s host location? “These situations may lead to other issues when HR has to address requests for exceptions to policy by assignees looking for special treatment,” explains Latta. “In those cases, HR must try to minimise potential adverse impact on the morale of other expatriates who have not been granted policy exceptions (and who may not have requested them). And beyond that, it’s important to keep an eye on any increase in expenses if exceptions are granted.”

Visit www.orcworldwide.com for more information.

Don’t miss Sue Shortland’s article on the advantages and disadvantages of short-term and commuter assignments, in the Winter issue of Re:locate.