Mobility has never been in the mainstream of HR. Originally few employees transferred among international locations, and those that did were a nomadic and independent bunch. They completed one assignment and then moved on to the next one or returned home; as long as their occasional updates to HQ showed progress they were left alone.

Brazil’s Social Security sector has undergone several transformations since it was implemented in the distant year of 1821, when the country still was a Portuguese colony. The existing models date back to 1923, when the country’s railway companies created a Retirement and Pensions Fund to cover their employees. Today, Brazil has three main pension schemes: the General Pension Scheme, managed by the National Social Security Institute and run by the government, to which all formally employed workers are entitled; the Special Public Servants’ Regimes; and Supplemental Pension Plans.

As global markets turn more positive and the financial markets recover, employees are turning their attention to better managing their talent and headcount. While cost and efficiencies remain the key priorities in global mobility and business travel programs, we also see a new focus emerging: a duty of care to employees.

In a low-interest rate world, alternative investments may provide some relief – and unexpected benefits too. In today’s financial markets characterized by very low interest rates, higher-than-expected risks, and high volatility in equity prices, investing for the long term is a challenging proposition. Decent returns, even at the unexciting level of one two percentage points above inflation, may be difficult to achieve without bearing substantial risk.

Most multinational companies have a single property and casualty insurance policy that covers their factories and offices around the world in case of flood or fire or theft. But when it comes to global employee benefits, many have a different contract—or even many more than one—for each country, through several brokers, and a pooling or captive arrangement to boot.