Is your company meeting it’s “Duty of Care” obligations to its expat employees?

expat insurance

An Expat Employer’s Fiduciary Duty of Care for Expats

Sending employees abroad is a significant financial, moral and legal responsibility for expatriate employers. Many professionals are constantly discussing the importance of providing a “duty of care” for expat employees sent to work abroad and even when sending employees for long or short-term assignments and meetings. A duty of care means that the global employer needs to take all steps required to safeguard and prepare for the safety, well-being and health of their employees.

It is the fiduciary responsibility that experienced global mobility managers realize is important regardless of the legal implications. It is a basic moral responsibility. This is especially true today in a world where conflict and terrorism can strike almost anywhere. It makes sense to plan for what your employees may face abroad.

Employers Should Examine Their Obligations

Duty of CareIt is critical that expat employers meet the overseas obligations of their employees, who can find themselves in new and sometimes hazardous regions and countries that they may not be adequately prepared for. It is vital that HR managers carefully read over employment contracts to make sure that the company is fulfilling its obligations to their employees. This means that employers should examine their employee’s needs and locations to prepare for contingencies. Our firm has access to detailed country information packages that can provide global mobility managers with key insights for each destination, including security reports.

Expat Employers Should Identify Risks

When your HR department is sending employees overseas, it often makes sense to identify risk and to adopt preventive measures. You can’t account for all of the risks that your employees and their dependents may face while working or travelling abroad, but you can take steps now to plan and mitigate those risks.

We recently had an employer who agreed to implement a comprehensive kidnap and ransom program with security evacuation, and in the first year of the policy, it was used after bandits kidnaped a group of employees. Luckily, with the assistance of on-site negotiators paid by the insurer, a ransom was negotiated, and the hostages were released unharmed.

Inadequate Insurance Coverage for Expats

Examine Organizations

A recent report from Cigna mentioned that 50% of expatriate employees feel that their expat employers are not meeting their duty of care requirements for the global assignments that they are on. Furthermore, three quarters felt that they did not have sufficient funds to support their healthcare expenses. We often run into situations where new and even existing expat employers will send employees and their dependents on overseas assignments with inadequate planning and insurance coverage.

With more and more companies and non-profit organizations sending employees for short or long term assignments to high risk countries such as Iraq & Afghanistan, the requirement to provide a secure and safe work location is vital. Our firm has extensive experience in working with employers operating in such areas where civil strife and conflict are commonplace.

Common Expat Insurance Deficiencies We Have Observed

Here is a list of deficiencies that we often encounter:

  • No coverage for pre-existing medical conditions
  • No coverage for pregnancy or a 12 month waiting period
  • Many expat employers have no disability coverage in place
  • Coverage is placed with insurers that can’t meet the needs of expats
  • Lack of adequate evacuation coverage that is not fully insured
  • No war or terrorism coverage for employees residing in high-risk countries
  • The inability of expats to find medical centers that can receive medical payment directly from the insurer

How Expat Insurance Coverage Can Help Your Company Meet Its Duty of Care

Medical Coverage plan

A group expat plan that is properly designed and sourced can provide a high level of global insurance coverage that will fully meet the duty of care for your expatriate workforce stationed around the world. We can source the following coverage for our group expatriate clients:

It is critical that your global mobility department fully commit to the duty of care philosophy and provide global coverage for your employees that exceed what is required no matter where they are posted. Our firm can source plans for individuals and groups. For group expatriate benefit plans, some of the insurance providers we work with can set up a plan with as few as two employees if the company has a wider global workforce of at least approximately 25 to 30. Other insurers may require ten or twenty expats. It is all about spreading the risk as far as possible when we are talking about global benefit plans.

For more information on the global benefit plans that we can offer your international workers, please contact us today.