Labour Mobility

International assignments can make managers more creative as well as being a great way of grooming future leaders. So it's a shame then overseas postings are becoming a luxury more and more firms can't afford.

More and more high-flying expat managers are being told to pack their bags and come home as international assignments become yet another cost to be curbed.

Western businesses will have to look to emerging economies to plug their skills gaps as their own workforces age and shrink – creating a whole new set of management challenges.

More executives are leaving the UK, France and Germany than are moving to work there, according to new figures, as talented individuals become keener to shift to foreign climes.

If the credit crunch has caught up with you and the cost of living is getting too much, Asunción in Paraguay might be the place to head to for a few years. But whatever you so, stay away from Moscow, Tokyo or London.

Soaring bills, collapsing house prices, tax rises and another grey summer. It's no wonder executives and employers are leaving the UK in droves.

Employers across the world are growing increasingly worried that talented staff are prepared to relocate far from home – and even move abroad permanently - to further their careers.

Back when the European Union put on weight a few years ago by adding a substantial number of nations to the family, many Eastern Europeans were thrilled with the news. Not any more.

If you live in the UK, chances are you're fed up with the cost of living, appalling congestion, dreadful public transport, dire education system and, of course, the weather.

What do you do when a dollar means nothing? That's the dilemma facing U.S. expats based in Europe whose pensions or incomes are paid in increasingly devalued dollars.

Managers need to think long and hard about the ramifications of posting their best and brightest talent overseas, or risk losing them at a later date.

The EU will need around 20 million workers – skilled and unskilled – to fill labor shortages over the next few decades.But will this help correct current professional inequalities among citizens of member states working across the EU?

So what is Microsoft's secret weapon in the battle to attract the brightest and best minds from across the globe? The answer is cricket.

The official line is that the German economy has turned the corner after years in the doldrums. But with the number of Germans emigrating hitting levels not seen since in the aftermath of the Second World War, the reality seems to be rather different.

Indian IT firms have been accused of misusing the U.S. H-1B visa system, the special visa category that is intended to enable the "best and brightest" foreign citizens to come to the United States as non-immigrant workers in certain specific industries.

The UK is suffering a significant brain drain as skilled professionals and managers leave the country to be replaced by low-skilled workers from Eastern Europe.

British employers believe that migrants are significantly harder working, more reliable, more skilled, better educated and more productive than their British colleagues.

Employers in London are suffering from a chronic and growing shortage of skilled staff and half say that they are now depending on migrant workers to plug the gap.

While it is commonplace for people in North America to relocate hundreds or even thousands of miles for professional reasons, European Union efforts to encourage greater labour mobility are failing.

Professional and managerial migrants are boosting the UK economy to the tune of more than £50 billion a year, a sum that represents five per cent of the country's GDP, a new report has suggested.

The rate of economic migration from eastern and central Europe into the UK has started to slow, latest government figures have suggested, fuelling fears among employers of skills shortages further down the line.

Around 15 per cent of employees sent on international assignments - often an organisation's top performers - quit within 12 months of returning home, new research has found.

Workers who complete an apprenticeship earn more money than their peers and are more likely to end up as managers, a British study has found.

More women than ever before are being sent on international assignments by their employers, but they are far less likely to be accompanied by a partner than their male colleagues.

More than half of employers in Hong Kong have been forced to offer expatriates increased compensation packages to persuade them to move to the increasingly polluted city.

Economic migrants are not the answer to the Eurozone's looming demographic crisis, a new report has claimed. Instead, Europeans could find themselves having to retire later and work longer hours to stave off economic decline.

Nearly half of U.S companies believe that sending employees on international assignments is becoming more expensive and harder to manage.

Britain's economy could be missing out on the skills of thousands of migrant workers from the eight European Union accession countries because of their lack of English language skills, a new report has suggested.

Multinational companies are significantly increasing the number of international assignments they offer their staff, but the effectiveness of their expatriate policies varies.

The influx of economic migrants from Eastern Europe is helping to keep Britain's economy "surprisingly robust", according to a survey by Ernst & Young.

A posting abroad is often seen as a stepping stone to greater things. But the question for employers is whether all it does is give valuable workers a leg up with a rival.

As growing skills shortages force many U.S. organisations to look abroad for talent, bureaucratic barriers are increasingly putting a halt to their efforts to plug vital gaps.

British employers are recruiting increasing numbers of professional and managerial level workers from Eastern Europe because they cannot find enough skilled staff in the UK.

British workers are now less likely than ever to relocate for work and increasingly view their home lives and ties to the community in which they live as taking priority over their career development.

Global professionals increasingly view working in London as an essential part of their career, with nine out of 10 foreign-born executives saying that working in the city has benefited them.

Hundreds of thousands of Germans are voting with their feet and leaving the country in the hope of finding better prospects abroad. More than 150,000 packed their bags and left in 2004, many of them skilled professionals.

U.S employers spend millions of dollars each year on contract labour, but rarely monitor whether it is money well spent or even how much it is costing them, a report has suggested.

In a twist to the normal pattern of offshoring, a UK firm has started to recruit British graduates to work in Indian call centres.

Companies spend fortunes on relocation packages to soften the blow of moving to a new country, yet too often fail to take into account the impact relocation will have on a spouse or partner's career.

British managers who are serious about making it to the top can help themselves by notching up some international experience along the way, according to new research.

Whatever political party is voted in on May 5, the decisions it makes in its first months in power could "make or break" the UK's reputation as the business location of choice, the CBI has warned.

Workers are almost four times more likely to leave a job because they feel their skills are not being used and their career not being developed than because they are unhappy with their salary, according to research.

The Australian Visa Bureau has suggested that workers from Rover's Longbridge plant consider moving Down Under if – as looks likely - the car firm collapses.

Some organisations seem to be able to cross cultural barriers with ease while others fail dismally. So what really makes the difference, asks Steve Huxham?

The European Union is considering introducing a US-style green card system to attract skilled immigrants, according to Justice and Home Affairs Commissioner Franco Frattini.

Pension black holes are putting off firms from buying or merging with one another, a report has suggested.

Lack of skills is set to be a continuing headache for employers in 2005, two separate surveys have suggested.

Employers have been warned they may have to make better use of migrant labour and those on long-term incapacity benefit if they are to resist increasing upward pressure on wages next year.

With thoughts already turning to the annual recruitment round in the New Year, an HR consultancy has uncovered its own list of top interview and application blunders.

Champagne corks are set to be popping in City, with one in five workers in the Square Mile expecting bonuses to be at least double those of last year.

The annual rush for the door in the New Year is likely to cost British workers almost £77 million in leaving presents, a poll has predicted.

British polo players fear that EU enlargement will lead to an influx of cheaper foreign players and fewer opportunities to develop domestic talent.

Skills shortages are causing increasing problems across the UK economy with the limited availability of staff pushing wages up sharply.

Far from being a threat to the UK, the immigration of workers from the ten new EU members in Eastern Europe is essential if the country is to stave off its growing labour shortage.

Men are more mobile than their female colleagues when it comes to relocating for work reasons and are almost twice as likely to move with their jobs, according to new research by The Work Foundation.

A lack of legal protection for the thousands of migrant workers who arrive in the UK each year is giving the green light to unscrupulous employers to exploit foreign workers, claims the TUC.

Mobile working has yet to fulfil its potential in Europe because senior management and HR Directors don’t trust their employees to work efficiently outside the office.

Executives looking to advance their career should consider an expatriate assignment, according to the conclusions of a new survey by Mercer HR.

You know the web’s going to play a key part in your European recruitment strategy. But says who? Where do you start sorting fact from fiction?