There’s nothing like an unhappy spouse to kill an international assignment. Researchers estimate that 4-6% fail each year (Brookfield 2012, Harzing 2002, Tung 1988), an expensive talent failure that could be reduced.
#1 The job isn’t done with delivery receipt
Unlike, say an 18” x 13” x 3” express shipping box, one can’t consider the job done and the employee delivered when s/he arrives for their first day in the office at their new location. That’s why most organizations have in place some kind of induction and orientation process for staff. Remarkably fewer organizations have programmes that extend to their spouse/partners and families if they have one. Cost and time are key considerations, but that’s a short-sighted approach considering the reduced return on talent investment given the high cost of expatriate placements and repatriation costs.
#2 Packages might feel at home in goods receiving, but people not so much
The uprooted employee has lost their face-to-face social networks both in the office and outside it. Doubtless these will be built from scratch, but organizations can shortcut the time and process by facilitating meet ups, buddy systems and maintaining a collaborative knowledge base with insider tips about the location to which everyone — expats and national staff — can contribute and maintain. This avoids at least one fatiguing activity: existing staff having to answer the same questions repeatedly. Opening up some of these approaches to partners bring added advantages.
#3 Not supporting spouses is like shipping something fragile without packaging peanuts
Without spouse and family support, the transition impacts on the employee become amplified. Organizations should consider how much time every day in the first months they’ve planned to have their expat talent spend on trying to get a grip on new neighborhoods and traffic patterns, finding a home and school, and supporting their spouses in issues from the fundamental to the mundane. The less support provided, the more stressful, extended and potentially unsuccessful these processes will be. Investing in spousal support is a smart way to improve ROI in immediate productivity and longer term success.
#4 Insure the package
Focusing on the benefits of working abroad is fine, but it may be even more valuable to prepare families for some of the difficulties they are likely to experience. These include culture shock, going from two to one income and realistic opportunities to find employment, needing to adapt to different foods and products, making friends and breaking into new social groups.
#5 Returning to sender comes standard
It is both a positive and a negative that international assignments are typically of limited duration, or at least, in that specific country. Nothing — both the fabulous and the frustrating — will last forever. It is that very transient fact that ensures friendship fatigue. The other expats you connect with will leave on their own schedule and new faces will arrive, and local communities understandably limit their commitments to people whose future is guaranteed to hold a farewell party. Friendships can feel fast forwarded or superficial. But the most destabilizing experience for expat first timers is the reverse culture shock on returning to their home country and discovering that they don’t fit in the way they once did.
Having spent 18 years as an expat worker in organizations that run the gamut from doing nothing to those that do a lot exposes you to various experiences. The “fend for yourself” approach leaves adrift both new comers and old timers who have come to a new location. I’ve wasted a lot of time ‘discovering’ what was already common knowledge for the lack of an opportunity, platform or process for others to share this insider knowledge.
I’ve also been lucky enough to benefit from comprehensive relocation packages, supercharged staff associations and spouse group initiatives that successfully lobbied for opportunity and resources to stack the deck as much for the success of their total employee — both the person and their family.
- One model experience was the six-week orientation and acculturation programme I experienced as a Fulbright Scholar. That investment continues to pay dividends, having created a tight professional and personal network of fellow Fulbright Scholars around the world that would not have formed without spending that time together.
- Another was where I benefitted from a thorough orientation process for a partial year assignment in another country. I soon realized that this made even more sense when you have limited time to deliver results. Any time wasted on general settling represents a huge proportion of the available time to add value.
- A former employer adopted a staff idea, especially for those of us who travelled so much that we spent more time abroad than at home, even though we were technically not expatriates and thus had none of those benefits. Forfeit your business class seat, bring a family member with you in economy class and use the existing hotel room. It lessened the sting of traveling or being away over weekends and made a massive difference for spouses to experience the context within which we were working. Oh yes, and the company was also able to trim its travel budget.
Then there are the platinum-standard offerings like corporate housing, white glove moving services, multi-year assignment planning synchronized with calendars such as school years to reduce stress on the family, and differentiated advanced and post-move support and cultural training for all family members. I’ve read about but never experienced that, it sounds good though!
My key learning from all this? Treat your people packages with care.
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