We've learned that the attitude of a spouse or children can make or break the assignment. For that reason, we schedule a trial visit to the country where the employee and family would be living. In some cases, it quickly becomes clear that the assignment isn't likely to be successful, either for UPS or for the employee. Trial visits are expensive, but the cost of sending the wrong person overseas is much greater. Finally, the fifth lesson that UPS has learned is that compensation for expatriates and third country nationals is a highly complex issue.
Tax laws vary widely among nations, as do national pension and health care programs.
To deal with all that disparity, UPS has assigned compensation experts to our various regions. Their job is to make sure not only that our employees on international assignment are fairly compensated, but that the company does not in the process incur inflated costs in the long term. The HR policies we originally developed in the United States can be adapted to meet specific country settings. A global attitude is absolutely indispensable. Communicating across languages and cultures is vitally important, but not easy to achieve.