Terrorism big risk factor for firms sending workers abroad
Global terrorism features prominently among the biggest risks facing recruiters and other firms sending workers overseas, according to findings from global mobility specialist Santa Fe Relocation.
The findings from its 2017 Global Mobility Survey, which surveyed nearly 1,000 global mobility teams and business leaders in 56 countries, reveals nearly a nearly a quarter (22%) of those managing overseas secondments or assignments have faced a ‘critical incident’ in the last year and nearly two-thirds (65%) in the last five.
The biggest risks facing organisations sending workers abroad, ranked in order, are:
- Staff or family medical issue 40%
- Severe penalties for breaching local laws or regulations 37%
- Terrorism 34%
- Political corruption 29%
- Disease 25%
- Death on assignment 19%
- War 19%
- Kidnap 17%
However, despite the risks the appetite to work abroad has not diminished, with the research also showing nearly two-thirds (64%) of businesses surveyed regularly send employees on long and short-term work placements, with five out of the top seven global locations seeing an increase in overseas workers.
A worrying statistic is more than one in 10 (12%) global mobility and HR teams surveyed claim their business does not monitor or manage risk and host country environmental factors at all.
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