International Employee Benefits 7 Step Process

For any global employer with more than just a handful of expatriates and global business travelers, international employee benefits has to be a 6 step process in order for the organization to complete it's goals and remove risk and unfuned liability.

1. Know your exact international exposures exposures.  For example, many university HR managers tell us "we have no idea when professors from the college of business are travelling overseas."  This is completely unacceptable.  Do you really know where your people are and where they go?
2. Understand what home country benefits cover and what they do not.  There are 100 examples here.  If you are leaving people that spend time abroad under a U.S. medical plan, is it a PPO or an HMO.  Will treatment received overseas need to be an emergency before it's covered.  What about out of network issues?  What about non US. FDA approved drugs prescribe abroad?
3. What international insurance is required to fill gaps and liabillities?  Is an international medical insurance plan needed.  Will the U.S. LTD plan honor disability that occurrs abroad?  Again, there are 100 questions to ask.
4. What international insurance would be nice to offer for maximum employee retention, but not absolutely required.  A wish list for better times.  What is the rest of the industry offering?
5. What international service programs are needed, or would be nice to offer.  Two buckets.  For example, for expats working in Almaty Kazakhstan, an international medical evacuation plan is essential.
6. Work closely with the risk manager to avoid gaps and overlap.  In one organization we met a benefits manager that did NOT KNOW the risk manager!  I can assure you there was both overlap in coverage and gaps in coverage at this company. 
7. Document everything to both the employees and internally.  Do you have a good international expatriate handbook and when was the last time it was updated?