Is your company meeting its Duty of Care to expat employees?

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

It 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

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

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:

International Health Insurance
Evacuation
Dental
Long Term Disability Insurance
Personal Accident & Disablement
Life Insurance
International Employee Assistance
Kidnap & Ransom
Pre-assignment & Risk Assessments
Business Travel Insurance for Short Term Assignments.
Security Evacuation

Building a Duty of Care Framework That Actually Works

We like to remind global mobility managers that meeting your duty of care obligations isn’t a one-time task you complete before an employee boards a plane. This is definitely an ongoing commitment that spans the entire assignment lifecycle, from the initial decision to send someone abroad through to their eventual repatriation. Yes, even after they get home as repatriation can be a difficult time for former global employees

Global Mobility is a Process

We find that the strongest global mobility programs treat duty of care as a continuous process rather than a checklist item. That starts with pre-departure preparation, where HR teams work with employees to understand what they’re walking into. This includes country-specific security briefings, cultural orientation, and a clear review of what medical facilities are actually available in the destination city or region. An employee moving to a major hub like Singapore or Dubai will have very different healthcare access than one heading to a remote mining site in the Democratic Republic of Congo or a rural development post in Papua New Guinea. We have clients with expat employees in all those countries!

Communication is Critical

Ongoing communication matters just as much. Employers should have a system in place to check in regularly with expats and their families, not just during emergencies. A quick monthly call from HR or a regional manager can surface small issues, a claim that hasn’t been processed, a clinic that refused direct billing, before they become larger problems that affect an employee’s wellbeing or their ability to do their job.

Documentation Protects Everyone

From a legal standpoint, most experts in this field do encourage employers to keep clear records of the steps they’ve taken to fulfill their duty of care. This includes risk assessments conducted before an assignment begins, copies of insurance policy documents provided to the employee, records of any security or medical briefings, and a log of check-ins throughout the assignment. Should a dispute or claim ever arise, this kind of documentation demonstrates that the company took its obligations seriously and acted in good faith.

Special Considerations for High-Risk Assignments

Employees heading into higher-risk environments, whether that’s due to political instability, natural disaster exposure, or elevated crime rates, require an extra layer of planning. We recommend a formal risk assessment for every high-risk posting, updated regularly as conditions change on the ground. This should feed directly into decisions about coverage, including whether kidnap and ransom insurance, security evacuation services, or enhanced medical evacuation limits are warranted.

It’s also worth building a clear crisis response plan before anything happens, not after. Who does the employee call first? What’s the escalation path? Which evacuation provider is on standby? Having these answers documented and shared with the employee in advance can make all the difference if a crisis does occur.

Duty of Care Extends to Dependents

Many employers focus their duty of care planning entirely on the employee, but spouses, partners, and children often accompany an expat abroad deserve the same level of consideration. Dependents face many of the same risks, unfamiliar healthcare systems, language barriers, personal safety concerns, without always having the same support network their working spouse has through the company. We should also note that the dependents may not be abroad, but instead are covered back in their home country or even a third country. A comprehensive group plan that extends full coverage to dependents is one of the simplest ways to close this gap.

Some Final Thoughts for Global Rewards Managers

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.

Written by: David Tompkins – A global insurance expert with decades of experience in global insurance related topics.