5 Ways Global Health Insurance Can Attract & Retain Expat Talent

For any company, looking after the health and well-being of your number one asset, your employees, should be a key priority. This is especially true for SMEs (small or medium-sized enterprises) as they seek to not only retain expat talent, their current staff members but also seek to attract new talent to their global workforce.

Attract & Retain Expat Talent

For SMEs that are based in abroad, this is even more important as many of their staff members will be expats who will be living away from their home country.

For these expats or digital nomads, many of them will want their employers to consider helping them with their health insurance needs. Global health insurance is for those who are living abroad for a prolonged period of time. Many expats choose to have some sort of health insurance when they are living abroad.

This is helpful because otherwise if your employee get sick abroad in another country and your firm hasn’t taken out health insurance, it may be left with the prospect of paying very expensive medical bills.

Be Careful About Putting Expats on Domestic Plans

Some employers will put expat employees on domestic health plans in their work location. Sometimes this may be unavoidable & favorable, but in most circumstances, expats really need to be on global health plans. You can read more about the reasons in our previous article on why global mobility managers should not put expats on domestic plans.

In this article, we will give advice for SMEs that are considering offering health insurance to their staff members posted abroad. We would highly recommend that health insurance is included in any job package for an SME with a global workforce.

In this article, we will explain 5 reasons why global health insurance for your expat workforce can attract and retain talent.

1- Change in staff perspective since COVID-19

Nowadays, and especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, employees are more and more likely to want to feel appreciated by their employers. This means that they may value things beyond just financial compensation for their role and one of those items will be their overall level of health and well-being.

So many employees nowadays will want some sort of medical coverage, as many companies around the world offer plans from large health insurance companies such as Cigna and Allianz.

When you feel good, you work better and more and more businesses are starting to realize the importance of having a happy and motivated workforce. So keep this in mind when it comes to the staff members at your SME.

There can be no doubt that the working environment has changed since the COVID-19 pandemic. Well-being is now crucial for the workforce and so you’ll need to look after the well-being of your current workforce as well as any potential new hires.

2- Added bonus for your employees posted abroad

Especially for your expat workforce, when they move to a new country, they will want to receive extra support from their employer when they are moving abroad. This means that providing your employees with global health insurance is a great tool not only for helping your SME to achieve better business results but also for retaining your staff members and attracting new talent.

For this reason, offering a strong level of health insurance is a great benefit for SMEs to be able to offer. No matter what size of your organization abroad, we would strongly recommend considering offering global health insurance for your expat staff. Consider it a small price to pay for something you cannot put a price on, the health and well-being of your most important asset, your staff.

3- Boost overall morale in the expat workforce

If you offer your employees this benefit of global health insurance, it let’s them know that you value their life outside of their routine 9-5 job. You will be helping to give your employees health and well-being protection and an additional feeling of added security abroad. Doing so will help to demonstrate to your workforce that your SME truly supports them in a particularly sensitive aspect of their well-being.

This can easily boost the level of job satisfaction within your SME. By doing this, you can help improve the work climate and the atmosphere in the team. Investing in the welfare of your staff has never been more important.

4- Go above and beyond for your current and future expat employees

When it comes to attracting retaining talent, it is all about the benefits on offer. Offering global health insurance is a great benefit that you can offer. It has a positive influence on the brand image of any SME, since it allows it to differentiate itself from the competition and consolidate a business culture centered on people.

So this can also be a large benefit in attracting any new talent to join your SME. You’ll be committing to the well-being of your employees, offering them a safe and attractive place to work that allows them to develop both personally and professionally. We should also note that your organization should purchase global health insurance for your global workforce because it will help your firm meet its duty of care. This is vital when you are sending or hiring employees overseas.

5- It can help attract & retain expatriate talent

Finally, remember that offering global health insurance can help deal with the stress that comes with moving abroad. It will give your staff members one less thing to worry about as having major medical insurance can give you added protection in case of emergency. You do not want to have any extra worries as you look to start your new life abroad as an expat.

Overall, this will help your global business to be an attractive place to work for global nomads and expatriates. This is something that will be valued by your current workforce and also any future talent that joins your SME.

Expat Financial – An Expat Health Insurance Resource for Global Employees

Expat Financial offers international health insurance plans for groups of expatriate employees and their dependents. A global health plan for expats can also lower your organization’s risk profile as overseas medical claims and especially evacuations can not only be complex but also very expensive.

Note that expat health plans for individuals are subject to medical evidence and your premium and coverage is also subject to the insurance company’s underwriting approvals. TFG Global, which operates Expat Financial, is very experienced in setting up global benefit plans that include dental, life, disability insurance, evacuation and of course global health insurance. For global employers with just one expatriate employee, we are able to source individual expat health plans as well. Note that a group plan will generally have lower rates and possibly no medical underwriting.

Please get in touch to discuss your global health insurance needs or get a quote online.