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Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Quality of Living - Global City Rankings for Expats

Hi Everyone,

Mercer has released at the end of April their latest survey - quality of living global city rankings.

Many multinational companies are using Mercer report to help them review their international assignment policies.

What does this mean?

Multinational companies are providing expatriates an appropriate allowance to compensate on the hardship that expatriates and their families experience when they accept an overseas assignment, and especially when the assignment is located in a difficult location.

There are 2 types of compensation:

1. Quality of living or hardship allowances - They are designed to compensate expatriates for differences in the quality of living between their home and host locations.

2. Mobility compensation - Designed to compensate for the inconvenience of being uprooted and having to work in another country. This type of compensation is not related to the host country.

Some international companies combine the two type of premium compensations, but most provide them separately.

What does Mercer evaluate? Almost every aspect of life
  • Political and social environment
  • Economic environment
  • Socio-cultural environment
  • Health and sanitation
  • Schools and education
  • Public services and transportation
  • Recreation
  • Consumer goods
  • Housing
  • Natural environment

Each factor receives a score which enable to make a city to city quality of living comparisons. Mercer also created a grid that allows companies to link the resulting index to a quality of living allowance amount.

So what are the results?

The top five cities worldwide with the best quality of living are:

  • Vienna, Austria (1st)
  • Zurich, Switzerland (2nd)
  • Geneva, Switzerland (3rd )
  • Vancouver, Canada (tied 4th)
  • Auckland, New Zealand (tied 4th

As an expat I know how much it is important to compensate the expatriate family for hardship and overseas assignment.

But let's put that aside for a moment.

We were posted in Venezuela. I am sure many of you would agree that this is not the easiest country to live in. But, I just loved living in Caracas/Venezuela - Yes - the crime on the streets was everywhere and one expat from our community was robbed on a very busy street and in front of his 5 years old son. But, the weather was excellent, the country is beautiful, we had a live in help (which was a huge help with 3 little kids under 5), and we had so much time to spend together as a family and to travel.

So, I guess that for me the quality of life in Venezuela was a bit different than what Mercer would have reported.

Mercer report is very important, and employees hardship compensation allowances are essential, But quality of life can be very personal, and each one of us as his own way to judge and evaluate life conditions.

How do you feel about your host country, How is your quality of life and does it match what Mercer survey says?

Sharon





Posted by at 10:08 PM
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3 comments:

  1. Canada is very safe, quite steady and affordable by Western standards, so nothing to complain about.

    Yet, I understand your point. I just came back from a 5 months backpacking trip in South America. Everybody warned us, we were going to be robbed, killed etc. -- the usual. It wasn't our first time there, so we knew what to expect. Yes, some aspects of life in South America are appealing for Westerners, but you have to adapt.

    I felt safer in Buenos Aires at night than in most American cities at night, or even Paris.

    Food is different and maybe not up to Western hygiene standards, yet, we ate healthy stuffs because it's fresh (fast food is probably hygienic, but on the other hand, is it healthy??).

    So I really depend what you want, how willing you are to adapt and what your expectations are.

    I lived in China and loved it. But that's mostly because I speak Mandarin, know the culture and appreciate it. I have no problem with China: I can take the bureaucracy, the politics, the crowd etc. But I can understand people who hate it!

    Yet, for example, I would be reluctant to go live in Saudi Arabia because I personally don't agree with local politics and I wouldn't be ready to put up with local customs. It's a personal choice!
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  2. This is such an interesting post. I mean how do you measure hardship? I see the metrics that Mercer used, but if you strictly used Mercer as a tool then you would never have wanted to go to Venezuela. To me the single most important factor for determining happiness in a country are your living conditions. If you feel comfortable inside of your own home, then you can tolerate just about anything that your host country can throw at you.
    ReplyDelete
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