Structuring an Extended Business Travel Assignment Policy

Today, companies are placing emphasis on constructing relocation policies that are more in line with their global mobility goals, objectives, and purpose, along with keeping abreast of changing employee profiles and destination locations. Over the past decade, companies have been searching for ways to adopt more flexibility in their relocation programs while maintaining equitability and cost containment. One more key demographic group that needs a closer look is the extended business traveler.

Extended Business Travelers and Relocation Programs

According to the Cartus 2014 Global Policy & Practices Survey, 50 percent of companies said that they expected their extended business traveler (EBT) population to increase in the next two years. This is in line with companies’ search for lower-cost approaches that still support a flexible, mobile workforce. However, despite the trend in extended business travel, 71% of companies do not have an EBT relocation policy. In fact, this is often the assignment type that leads to the “stealth expat” phenomenon, where companies struggle to ensure that this group of travelers is in compliance with local tax and immigration laws.

Companies also indicated a number of challenges they currently face vis-à-vis  extended business travelers, including:

1. Tax compliance, 67%

2. Visa and immigration compliance, 62%

3. Tracking, 45%

4. Stealth expats, 43%

Relocation Policy: How To Handle Extended Business Travelers

Cartus knows that the global mobility team in an organization is often unaware of these business travelers, yet we see that responsibility for tracking them often falls to this team. We have developed a white paper that highlights the factors that should be considered, and the areas that need to be addressed, when developing an extended business travel relocation policy. The coverage within each benefit can vary depending on the amount of flexibility and budget available for each move, but we will share suggested policy components that can make up an extended business travel policy.

Please contact your Cartus representative, or email us at trustedguidance@cartus.com if you would like to view this white paper. You might also be interested in our permanent relocation, short-term assignment, long-term assignment, and localization solution papers, which explore the various assignment benefits and how and why they may vary depending on your company’s culture, assignment needs, and employee profile.