Employee global footprint - Options for emergencies

International workforce – Dealing with emergencies

Ukraine reminds us that managing an international workforce is a huge responsibility and a difficult task to manage.

Employee well-being or employee experience has had a dramatic shift. The pandemic has already prompted many companies to develop comprehensive programs to protect the physical, mental, social and financial well-being of their employees.?

Tailored support and risk mitigation measures are unfortunately required again as companies are forced to act decisively to support their employees affected by the conflict in Ukraine. Companies are also reassessing their position in countries affected by sanctions, like Russia or Belarus, as well as monitoring the situation in neighbouring countries impacted by the war.

Important things to bear in mind in emergencies

Who and When to Evacuate?

Government sites provide recommendations for evacuations, but their guidance is insufficient. Different countries may provide different recommendations for their citizens at different points in time. Companies with diverse expatriate workforces need a more structured approach and a clearer message. Whether to evacuate requires consideration regarding who should make the decision to evacuate, who should be evacuated and when — especially in situations like the conflict in Ukraine. But it is not necessarily safe to assume that the company will evacuate everybody in case of problems

Duty of care

Duty of care is not limited to a legal obligation to protect employees — it extends into reputation and moral issues. In the strict sense, duty of care is about taking all possible steps to ensure the safety, health and well-being of employees. This is a legal requirement that companies cannot ignore. The scope of duty of care is wider than many think, and it applies to the family of an employee if the family is relocated to the host location with the employee and sometimes when the family does not live abroad and just visits for a short period of time.

Getting out is only the 1st Step

Evacuation will trigger a host of consequences to deal with, such as:

• Temporary accommodation in the home country or in a third country
• Employees’ physical and mental well-being after a traumatic experience
• Schooling for the expatriate children
• Continuity of work for relocated employee (remote working or re-assignment to new tasks)
• Revising pay and benefits arrangements

Repatriating a couple of employees is not a problem, but when dealing with a large number of employees, these tasks take a completely different dimension