How Employers Can Support Displaced Workers Globally

Displacement is no longer a distant crisis. Global teams are more likely to be affected than ever as the number of people forced to flee their country rises into the hundreds of millions.

People’s first concern in the wake of a crisis is their safety. As they acclimatize to their new reality, however, they may find they’ve lost the ability to perform their job. No stable WiFi connection. No legal working status. No access to a bank account. No secure place to work.

Many companies never imagine something like this could happen to their own team. They don’t have systems in place to respond quickly to a refugee crisis or support displaced workers in the aftermath. While they may have the best of intentions, they may leave employees without stable income or force them to find work elsewhere.

That’s why it’s critical to think ahead. Businesses must develop a global mobility program to help workers relocate and ensure they have the support they need.

Who counts as a displaced worker?

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) defines a displaced person in its Glossary on Migration as someone who has been “forced or obliged to flee or to leave their homes or places of habitual residence, either across an international border or within a State”. This definition covers a broad range of situations, from sudden conflict to long-term instability.

IOM also gives examples of some of the root causes of displacement, including:

• Armed conflict between regions
• Widespread or ongoing violence affecting civilian populations
• Human rights violations
• Sudden onset natural disasters such as earthquakes or floods
• Human-made disasters like industrial accidents
• Long-term economic instability or collapse
• Political upheaval that disrupts civil order or governance
• Systemic inequality that restricts access to safety or resources

Understand that displacement isn’t always obvious. Crises may be gradual, or workers may feel unable to confide in your company, making their relocation appear voluntary. For example, an employee might not live in a warzone but face constant harassment or threats that make it impossible to stay in their country long-term.

The key challenges faced by displaced workers

Displacement often has a long-lasting impact that goes well beyond safety concerns or living conditions. Many people can never return home or find themselves dealing with the consequences of what’s happened for the rest of their lives.

Understanding the key challenges displaced workers face can put you in a better position to help them. You learn what they’re likely to need and how best to prepare for such an eventuality. What’s more, you know what types of assistance to offer, so no one is put in the uncomfortable position of having to ask for help or disclose more than they’re ready to share.

While every situation is unique, here’s what’s likely to affect your displaced workers:

• Financial instability: Displaced workers often have to leave all their possessions behind and lose access to their bank accounts. This leaves them with very few financial means, making it harder to settle in their new region or country
• Lack of housing: Accommodation often comes at a high cost. While displaced workers may receive support from refugee organizations at first, they may struggle to secure affordable, permanent housing
• Restrictions on employment: Employees may find they no longer have the right to work for your company under their new visa status. In fact, a recent report found that 62% of refugees live in countries that place limits on their employment
• Loss of support: Many workers lean on their extended family for support with childcare. If they get separated from these family members during the displacement, they may find they can no longer work standard hours or commute to a physical office
• Language barriers: Forced migrants may not have a choice over where they go. Their new country may have an entirely different language, making it harder for them to seek resources or settle into their new environment
• Discrimination: Some people perceive forced migrants as a threat to their country’s job and housing availability. They may become discriminatory or even threatening toward your worker, creating a hostile environment
• Mental health issues: Longitudinal studies show that displaced people are not only at higher risk of depression, anxiety, and PTSD, but also less likely to see improvement over time. They’re likely to require long-term mental health support

How global employers can make a difference

Businesses are often in a unique position to help. You can provide access to stable income, safe working conditions, and a pathway to long-term stability.

International logistics company Floship is a great case in point. When the Ukrainian conflict started in 2023, many of their team members were forced to flee the country. Floship had recently partnered with Deel to expand global hiring, so they already had the tools they needed to help their people.

As Floship is a remote-first company, another challenge was that their workforce was scattered across various regions. They were not physically present to provide support. However, Floship could equip displaced workers with the tools they needed to perform their jobs and keep making transfers quickly and compliantly.

Learn more about how Floship supported its displaced workers from afar.

How a global mobility program can support displaced workers

Getting proactive is essential. For example, Floship could only react so quickly to the crisis in Ukraine because the company already had many aspects of a global mobility program in place.

Here’s how your company can develop a similar program to facilitate sudden relocations and support displaced workers from afar:

Develop a clear response plan

Conflicts and natural disasters can uproot millions of people in the space of a few hours. Your business may not have time to figure things out once the crisis has already begun.

A clear, well-documented plan ensures you can respond quickly. Start by mapping out all the stages of your response plan, such as contacting the affected workers, relocating them safely, and securing a visa. Then identify who’s responsible for each part of the response so nothing gets missed if you need to put your plan into action.

Keep communication lines open

When someone is displaced, they may not be able to check in regularly. However, it’s important they can still reach you when they do.

Offer a single point of contact in the event of a personal emergency or crisis. It could be a dedicated Slack channel managed by a 24/7 team. This makes it easier for them to share updates, ask for assistance, and coordinate with you about visas and transport stipends.

A single point of contact also means displaced workers don’t have to keep repeating themselves. While they’re still likely to be stressed, this can reduce the pressure on them to a degree.

See also: How to Manage Remote IT Support for Global Teams with Deel IT

Prepare managers to respond appropriately

Managers are often your team’s first point of contact. Train them how to recognize the signs of instability among their staff that often lead to displacement, such as a sudden drop in availability or a loss of contact. They can alert you, giving you a chance to respond more immediately.

Also, show managers how to handle conversations with sensitivity. Provide clear guidance on what they can and cannot say and how much they’re permitted to share without the worker’s clear consent.

Provide visa and immigration support

If a team member has relocated across a border, they may no longer have the legal right to work. Sponsoring them for a visa is often the most direct way to keep them employed.

Deel Immigration can help you verify eligibility, compile paperwork, and submit applications. Once the process is underway, our team can keep you updated. If you don’t have an entity in the country, Deel can even sponsor your employees via our Employer of Record (EOR) service.

Because immigration rules vary widely and can change quickly, Deel Immigration also updates you about ongoing requirements. This helps you avoid potential issues when it comes time to renew.

See also: EOR-Sponsored Visas: A Guide for Enterprise Businesses

Offer relocation assistance

Help employees with the process of relocating and settling in the new region to ensure it’s as seamless as possible, given the circumstances. Your business could handle:

• Arranging transport, such as flights and airport transfers
• Providing temporary accommodation
• Finding local resources and support
• Enrolling workers in local healthcare programs
• Helping source furniture
• Procuring and delivering IT equipment

Every situation is unique, so it’s worth having a conversation with workers about their needs where time permits. For example, employees may prefer to stay with family or friends in the new area. Their real priority may be finding a reliable healthcare provider so they can continue to get prescribed essential medicine for a chronic condition.

See also: A Guide to Relocating Employees

Ensure continuous access to finances

Displaced workers often need immediate access to money to cover essentials like transport and housing. However, they might not have sufficient funds. Offering them an emergency stipend can help them bridge the gap in the first few days and focus on getting through the relocation process.

Once immediate needs are addressed, ensure you can keep paying employees their regular wages. Check whether they still have access to their usual bank accounts. If not, explore alternative payment methods like digital wallets, prepaid cards, or vouchers, which they can use anywhere.

Generally, ensure your payroll system can continue running if a worker relocates across borders. A service like Deel Global Payroll can help maintain continuity by eliminating the need to source a new local provider. Instead of delaying payments while you set up a new arrangement, you can simply update the worker’s details in our system and keep everything moving.

Include mental health support in benefits offerings

Displacement is stressful and traumatic, even if workers manage to return to normality shortly afterward. Offering them mental health services can help them process the situation and cope better with the demands of their daily life.

For these benefits to be effective, ensure they’re accessible across multiple regions and available in different languages. Global employers could consider a remote service like Talkspace. It gives workers access to a diverse range of mental health professionals 24/7, and the sessions are completely secure and confidential.

See also: Give Your Global Team a Space for Their Mental Health

Build flexibility into internal processes

Check that your systems can handle sudden employee relocations. Every department should be able to make fast, practical decisions without delays to give displaced workers time off while maintaining continuity. For example, leave requests shouldn’t depend on a long approval chain across time zones.

The same applies to your tools. Ensure your entire team understands how to adjust settings on software to change time zones, deadlines, and responsibilities at a moment’s notice. If your solutions are location-locked or only accessible from a single device, displacement could mean employees lose projects they’re working on.

Popular global cloud solutions like Microsoft Teams, QuickBooks, and Deel usually let administrators change user settings easily via the dashboard. While the employee is away, you can make all the necessary adjustments.

Common pitfalls when responding to worker displacement

Support for displaced workers can easily fall apart when businesses overlook key issues. Here’s what to be aware of when developing your global mobility program:

• Treating all relocations as a growth-enabler: Mobility teams often focus on facilitating executive transfers and market entry. However, relocations may also be used to support individual workers, and mobility processes should reflect this
• Assuming Human Resources can handle it all: Sudden relocations involve a lot of time and resources. One department is unlikely to be able to handle the entire situation and may need help from legal, finance, and IT at a minimum
• Failing to consider long-term needs: Displaced workers are likely to need support for years to come. If you only help employees in the immediate aftermath of a crisis, you may be leaving them alone to struggle with issues like mental health and family reunification later down the line
• Focusing only on direct employees: Although contractors may be essential to your global team, you may overlook them during a crisis. There may be many ways your organization can help them, for example, sending advances and offering legal support

See also: Dependent Visa Support: A Guide for Global Businesses

Support your team no matter what with Deel

Displacement is a global issue, and employers have the opportunity to help. By supporting your displaced workers, you can support them through one of the most challenging times in their lives and keep your team united.

That support must begin now. Global employers can only help displaced workers if they already have the right systems and infrastructure in place before a crisis starts. Otherwise, you might not be able to respond fast enough once a situation is already underway.

Your business can’t always predict what’s going to happen next. With the right strategy in place, however, you can support and keep your team together no matter what challenges they’re facing.

Book a demo with Deel to learn more about how to support your global workforce.