New Delhi, April 19: Employees with international experience are promoted more quickly, say 39 per cent participants in Mercer's Worldwide International Assignments Policies and Practices report.
It also found that China, United States, Brazil, UK and Australia are the priority destinations in their respective regions for expatriates.
The study also showed that more than half of employers reported an increase of long-term (52 per cent) and short-term assignments (53 per cent) in 2011 and 2012.
The top five reasons the report cited were: to provide specific technical skills not available locally (47 per cent), to provide career management/leadership development (43 per cent), to ensure knowledge transfer (41 per cent), to fulfil specific project needs (39 per cent) and to provide specific managerial skills not available locally (38 per cent).
The report also looked into gender differences of employees on assignments and found the likelihood of expatriates being female has increased by 13 per cent, just three per cent higher than two years ago.
It also found that major hurdles to employee mobility includes family-related issues, such as concerns over children's education and spouses not wanting to compromise their own lives.
It said over 70 per cent of companies expect to increase short-term assignments in 2013.
The report is based on responses from over 700 companies worldwide across sectors such as financial services, mining, energy, telecommunications, retail trade, engineering, goods manufacturing.
