As an international employer, it’s important to look after your employees and show them that you value their hard work. You must put things in place to support your workers and ensure they can maintain optimal health and well-being during their time working for your company.
There is a wide range of benefits you might choose to provide for your employees. You may wish to provide benefits that are specific to your company or your employee’s unique needs and wishes. However, there are many general benefits that lots of employers choose to offer in their employee benefits packages.
For the employees who work in other countries, it may be helpful to offer additional benefits as a thank-you for their contribution to the global success of your business. Below, we’ve covered four helpful things to provide for your international employees.
Medical insurance
Medical insurance is a type of insurance that enables your staff to access healthcare services in another country or countries. It also subsidises your employees’ medical costs if they need to receive treatments or surgeries for illnesses and injuries while working abroad for your company.
Most medical insurance policies cover the basics of healthcare, including whilst medical check-ups, hospitalisations, emergency medical care, prescription medications, and common treatments or therapies.
However, there are many specialised policies that offer coverage for more specific or unique medical conditions. There is also the option of enhancing a basic policy with add-ons for maternity, mental health, or dental care.
Medical insurance is a necessity for non-citizens in many countries. Even the countries with free public healthcare require those who aren’t official citizens to have health insurance if they wish to access hospitals and community healthcare facilities.
Providing group international medical insurance coverage for your employees means they can stay happy and healthy while working for your business in another country. They won’t need to pay out of pocket for medical treatments if they need them, enabling them to stay financially stable and easing their budgeting worries.
Fair Compensation
When you hire international employees, you need to consider currency exchange rates when deciding on your wage offerings. Whilst it’s impossible to keep up with the continual fluctuations in exchange rates between different currencies, you should decide on a reasonable and fair annual salary or hourly wage for employees in multiple countries.
Make sure to read about the national wage laws that are applicable to the countries your employees work in, as the laws for minimum wages and other mandatory employee benefits can vary drastically across borders. You might want to work with an expert employment lawyer to ensure you’re legally compliant regarding employee wages.
Advanced Remote Working Tools
When your employees work internationally for your company, they will require tools and software for their remote working arrangements.
As an employer, it’s your responsibility to ensure the software programs and digital platforms you provide for your team are efficient, effective, and easy to use. Consider providing an online community platform where your team members can support and interact with one another despite being located in different countries.
You may also want to provide digital devices to make your employees’ daily tasks easier and standardise the technology you use within your company. Provide each international employee with a desktop computer (or even a 4K TV to use as a computer monitor if it fits within your budget) or laptop, high-speed internet, and a work phone for easier communication and high job satisfaction.
Language Support
It’s important to support your employees when they move abroad to work for your global company. If they don’t speak the native language within their work location, you should provide tools for language support and development.
You might want to provide a free subscription to a language learning app, language courses, and translation services. Doing so will make their transition into international work much smoother and less stressful, contributing to higher employee satisfaction and productivity.
Even for your employees who are working within their home country and speak their native language fluently, you could still provide access to language learning resources. If these employees wish to expand their knowledge of languages, they can do so using the resources you’ve provided for them, and this may improve their job satisfaction and loyalty to your company.
Language support tools may improve communication between your international employees, each of whom might speak a different language. With language learning resources, your employees can learn the basic phrases of their colleagues’ native languages and communicate with them more effectively. These tools may also optimise communication between your employees and customers or clients, further boosting your company’s growth and success.
Before you invest in language learning resources, be clear on which languages your international employees speak and which they need help with learning. You can then purchase the relevant app and course subscriptions to support your employees as much as possible.