The definitive guide to building a global mobility policy.

Modern policies are 20–35 pages of substance, not 80. Anything longer usually duplicates what tax, immigration or relocation vendors already document. Keep the policy to what the employer commits to; reference operational detail (vendor scope of work, country immigration guides) separately so they can be updated without re-issuing the policy.

Under tax equalisation, the assignee pays a hypothetical home-country tax and the employer covers any actual host- and home-country tax above that — the assignee is neither better nor worse off. Under tax protection, the assignee pays actual taxes but is reimbursed if total tax exceeds what they would have paid at home — they keep any windfall if host taxes are lower. Equalisation is the norm for long-term assignments; protection or laissez-faire is more common for short-term, developmental or self-initiated moves.

Three or four. A typical structure is: Tier 1 strategic / executive (full long-term assignment package), Tier 2 business-critical (long- or short-term assignment, full immigration and tax support, capped allowances), Tier 3 developmental (lean package, often net-to-net or laissez-faire tax, capped relocation), Tier 4 self-initiated / employee-requested (minimal employer support, employee bears most costs). More than four tiers becomes unmanageable; two collapses too many distinct situations into one.

Yes. Work-from-anywhere creates permanent establishment, payroll, social security, immigration and data-protection risk that traditional assignment policy does not address. A remote-work-abroad policy should define eligible countries, maximum days, who approves, tax and social security responsibility, and the employer's right to refuse or recall. Most employers cap at 30–90 days per year and exclude high-risk jurisdictions.

Joint ownership by Reward (for compensation, allowances and tax model) and Global Mobility (for immigration, relocation and operational delivery), with Tax and Legal as standing reviewers. The business sponsors moves but does not own policy. A single named policy owner — usually the head of global mobility — should be accountable for the annual review.

A full review every 12 months, plus a trigger review whenever there is a major change in host- or home-country tax law, immigration rules (e.g. new salary thresholds, new visa routes), pay-equity legislation, or a material change in assignee volume or destinations. A policy left unreviewed for two years is almost always out of date on tax thresholds and immigration salary floors.

A lump sum policy pays the assignee a single cash amount (sometimes grossed up for tax) to cover relocation costs they then manage themselves. It works well for junior, single, short-distance or self-initiated moves where the company wants to limit administration. It works badly for senior moves, family moves and complex destinations, where service quality and compliance matter more than administrative simplicity.

Three controls: (1) require every exception in writing with a business case and cost, (2) set approval thresholds — mobility lead up to a cash limit, CHRO above, CFO for anything affecting tax model — and (3) report exceptions quarterly to HR and Finance leadership. If more than 15–20% of moves require an exception, the policy itself is wrong and needs a redesign, not more approvals.

The framework — what mobility programmes exist, eligibility criteria, how to request a move — should be on the intranet for all employees. The detailed clauses, allowances and tax mechanics are typically shared only when a move is approved, to avoid employees benchmarking entitlements before there is a business case. Pay transparency legislation in some jurisdictions is starting to change this; check your legal position before defaulting to restricted.

The platform should encode the policy as data: assignment types, tiers, eligibility rules, allowance caps, tax model per tier, approval routing, and country-specific immigration routes. When a move is initiated, the platform applies the policy automatically — generates the cost estimate, the assignee letter, the immigration case and the vendor instructions — and flags any exception for the right approver. This is what turns a 30-page PDF into something that actually runs.