Tips to Negotiate on Your Employment Contract Abroad

Well, it’s a real big opportunity for you to grasp. After all those incessant mails, job search alerts, resume edits and chasing of employers, you have finally received a job offer from a corporation abroad. For this might be the moment when you bid adieu to all those homely comforts, things will surely take a steep turn in your professional life, and a positive one.

Think about all those global leaders you can work with, the international work experience added to your portfolio and the expertise that tags along left aside. However, it’s also imperative to know all the whereabouts of your employment contract and especially the package details before accepting the offer letter. This is a wee bit significant keeping in mind the relocation that’s to happen during the forthcoming days. Hence, mentioned below are 3 such tips that will help you to be an efficient communicator and know the right constraints to negotiate over in the employment contract for a job abroad. Drop sufficient glances and absorb all that you can.

Conditions Mentioned in the Employment Contract and the Case of Renewal

In addition to proliferating over the contract duration and conditions of termination, it’s quite imperative to know whether or not the details include any break of employment from the recruiter’s end. If your job entails working with a number of corporations on a regular basis, make sure that any such trip abroad isn’t included as a break in employment contract.  This would clearly indicate that in any case you would be entitled to the perks and incentives offered by the company.

In a number of nations, the job contract for expats covers an employment period of up to five years, post which, they are liable to the tax regulations of the country (if any). Ensure that you are clear regarding the same and the status of your employment once the contract has expired.

Your Social Security

While you might have boggled your head as well as the recruiter’s over the pay package and incentives the company is going to grant, your social security is another constraint to be pondered over. There are corporations that often go for a ‘totalization agreement’ with your homeland to determine the bearer of your social security. This ensures that you aren’t paying monthly/yearly to two separate countries while you retire under one system. In countries like the US, if your host country doesn’t enter into an agreement, chances are high that you’ll end up paying your social security dues to the American government and your host country as well. However, it saves you the effort if the same has been clearly mentioned in the contract.

Compensation and Benefits

Well, this might have been going on in your head from the get go.  While negotiating over different terms in the job contract, make sure that it clearly mentions the currency in which you will be compensated and other factors associated with the same.

• Accommodation in the new Country: Once you score a job in Gulf countries like the UAE, your employer is the sole sponsor bringing you into the emirates and he is the one who will take care of all accommodation related concerns. If not, you need to ensure that cost of living allowances have been included under a separate clause and the monetary compensation associated is laid out clearly.

• Employee Benefits: Different employee benefits like the end of service gratuity, leave entitlements, education allowance for your kids, travel allowance and healthcare insurance for your family need to be discussed as well. Make sure the conditions relating to these are specifically sectioned and made clear by the recruiter.

• Perks and Incentives: This includes the management bonuses and other monetary as well as non-monetary incentives offered to the employee. While discussing these, you need to prioritize the ones important for you and deal with them first. You may also need to conceded some benefits to secure the ones that are significant.

Things are a zillion to think over, once you have the employment contract. But as mentioned above, putting a priority to those that stand important would keep things simple and clear.