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| 1 minute read

Benchmarking opportunity - expatriate support into Saudi Arabia

We are offering multinational companies that are moving talent into Saudi Arabia a great opportunity to benchmark their policy and program against others in the mining, energy and gas/oil/petroleum industries.

We're compiling expatriate long-term assignment (LTA) policies from mining, energy and/or petroleum companies in order to benchmark their Saudi Arabian inbound assignment benefit offerings. The goal of the benchmark is to allow each company to anonymously compare their policies to similar companies in order to ensure competitiveness in attracting and supporting talent in this location. It will assume that the benefits are provided to a western style expatriate and their family, and that the employee is living unaccompanied in a remote location. The benchmark will be exclusive of compensation or other benefits.  

Participating companies will be kept anonymous and will receive free copies of the benchmarks in pdf format. Additionally, we will provide participants with a summary of benchmark insights. Any participating companies may use the benchmark in order to update their existing policies or create new LTA policies. 

If you are a company that is interested in participating, please contact Gina Grover (ggrover@plusrelocation.com or +1.952.512.5576).

The demand for skilled talent in Saudi Arabia continues to far exceed the supply of its national talent pool. As major local businesses grow more complex and sophisticated, the demand for premium-grade, internationally experienced executive talent remains strong. However, the Saudi government is under tremendous pressure to employ significantly more Saudis. Expatriates account for a large proportion of the workforce (10 million compared to a total Saudi population of 31 million). Seventy percent of these expatriates are low-skilled laborers. In order to encourage promotional opportunities and growth in Saudization—the official national policy of replacement of foreign workers with Saudi nationals in the private sector—the Saudi labor law sets the expected retirement age at 60. Employment beyond 59 is a mutually agreed upon decision between employers and employees. Regionally, employers overtly discriminate against candidates older than 55 since no legal protections exist and government retirement programs for nationals are relatively robust. In addition, employers legitimately cite difficulty acquiring a work visa or the specter of possible health problems with older talent.

Tags

benchmarking, expatriate programs, global mobility, hardship locations, oil and gas sector, mining industry, petroleum companies, assignee benefits