Eamonn Ryan
Guest Author
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/ 16 May 2008

Turning tide for the rand

Offshore financial markets look a sorry sight at the moment with stock markets across Europe down 15% on average compared to their value eight years ago. Some properties in the US are more than 60% cheaper than a few years ago. But what this means for the investor with an appetite for risk is opportunity.

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/ 12 May 2008

Easing the transition

International assignment is booming as business globalises: not only are South African companies importing and exporting skills, but they’re also transferring them between foreign countries. Multinationals have operated like this for decades, but it’s a relatively new phenomenon in South Africa. The local market is rather small by international standards.

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/ 12 May 2008

What to expect from a relocations company

Corallie Pringle, managing director of Corporate Relocations, lists the services that clients should expect from their relocations firm. Among them is the arrival services for inbound expatriates: pre-assignment­/look-see orientations; home-finding programmes; school search and educational consultancy; settling-in services; domestic help; obtaining­ goods and services; coordinating of specialist services and, in many instances, paying the service providers on behalf of the client company; linking spouse/partner to international and local support groups.

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/ 12 May 2008

The importance of a global reputation

The single major prerequisite needed to be a player in the relocations industry is a global reputation. It’s easier for someone who has a global reputation to get into the industry, than it is for someone who doesn’t. For instance, estate agents previously tried to expand into relocations, but failed because of a lack of skills in tax and immigration.

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/ 12 May 2008

Skills exodus is becoming a problem

The Department of Home Affairs issues about 18 000 work permits each year, of which roughly half are for expatriates, with the other half being issued to small firms for the importation of scarce skills and to Zimbabweans. Because of the massive increase in infrastructure development in South Africa, the number of expatriates entering the county has sharply increased.

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/ 12 May 2008

Remuneration policy a minefield

Setting an expatriate’s remuneration is far more complex than a local salary because it has to be benchmarked against different currencies, salary levels and costs of living — and also has to incentivise the expatriate to leave the comforts of their home to take up the international assignment.

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/ 7 May 2008

New micro payroll

A growing trend is for small business to outsource their human resources function, including payroll — down to domestic staff. Thus Paxsal Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), a member of the Kelly Group, has introduced a micro-payroll product tailored to small businesses with up to 50 employees.