Figuring out how to pay a workforce spread across multiplecountries isn’t easy.

Learning how much to pay and what benefits to provide toemployees in different markets is complicated by dramaticdifferences in health care and retirement systems betweencountries.

Employer-sponsored healthinsurance, for instance, is not nearly as important inmost other industrialized countries, since the government alreadyguarantees health coverage to citizens. Similarly, many countriesmandate that employers provide several weeks of paid vacation — theminimum in France is five — which provides a very differentbaseline expectation for paid time off among employees.

A recent survey of international employers and employeesdisplays the challenges that multinational companies face inshaping their benefits to match the needs of their workforces indifferent corners of the globe.

The survey of 500 HR professionals and 1,300employees was conducted by Thomsons Online Benefits, a global benefitssoftware provider.

Overall, more than 60 percent of employees express some level ofdissatisfaction with their pay and benefits scheme. Twenty-sevenpercent say they are unhappy with total compensation, 18 percent saythey are frustrated by the way in which they have to interact withtheir benefits, and similarly, 17 percent say they are dissatisfiedwith how their benefits are “communicated” to them.

Employees also voiced interest in benefits that remainexceedingly rare. Thirty-eight percent say they would opt forunlimited time off over a pay increase, but only 15 percent ofworkers have access to that benefit currently.

The top concern voiced by HR personnel was “difficulty inscaling a local benefits solution for multiple markets,” cited by47 percent of management respondents. The next greatest issue,voiced by 43 percent of managers, is communicating the value of“total rewards” compensation to employees. Finally, 37 percent saythey face difficulty reporting on the global cost of wages andbenefits.

The challenge organizations face in assessing the cost ofpayroll and benefits across the globe is highlighted by the factthat only 14 percent report using a global benefits administration softwareprogram. Fifty-five percent report they use differentsystems in different countries

As Thomsons is eager to point out, however, 58 percent of HRmanagers say they would prefer to adopt a benefits administrationsystem that would account for the company’s entire multi-nationalworkforce.

Communicating the value of the company’s benefits to employeesis much more likely with top-notch technology, the studyreports.

But also significant is regularly updating workers on the totalrewards package, including how they can affect major life events,such as marriage or the birth of a child. Seventy percent ofemployees say they want to hear more information about therelationship between their benefits in those situations, but only46 percent of employers report reaching out to workers tocommunicate such details.

The top goal among the employers surveyed was attracting andretaining talent, cited by 65 percent. Next is to “maintain acompetitive employer proposition,” voiced by 47 percent. Finally,38 percent say a top goal is to increase employee engagement.