Companies around the world send employees on international assignments typically for three to five years. According to Worldwide ERC, the cost of doing so can be over $1 million per person. Despite the cost, companies report a 42 percent failure rate in these assignments. What’s wrong? Many companies are not adequately preparing employees or their families for life and work overseas.
Expatriates, those living outside of their native country, may receive support through their company upon departure, but many do not receive sufficient support once they arrive in their new location. The lack of familiarity and sudden increase of uncertainty can cause a high level of emotional distress on a family, which in turn can have a detrimental effect on an employee’s performance. Here’s how companies can do a better job managing overseas assignments.
[See: 25 Best Jobs That Don’t Require a College Degree.]
Select Employees Carefully. If a person has been successful in their home country role, that does not necessarily translate into high performance overseas. It’s important to take into account soft skills that point to likelihood of success in a totally new environment. These are flexibility, self-reliance, tolerance and the ability to handle change and ambiguity. In other words, you need to make sure your employee is independent and can get along well in unusual circumstances and with diverse groups of people.
Prepare for Departure. Where companies often fall short is in the preparation of employees and their families for an overseas assignment. According to Naomi Hattaway, founder of the I Am a Triangle online support community for those who have lived in other cultures and countries, employees who move overseas are often provided with housing search assistance, cultural training and language classes. However, as companies pare down budgets, many of these programs are the first to be cut. These services are often offered only for a short time before or at the start of an assignment. At that point, Hattaway says, everything is so up in the air because you aren’t yet settled in a house nor do you have your belongings. As a result, the value provided by these services is short term.
Intercultural and language training are two important ways companies can help both employees and their families start off on the right foot. However, preparation support is frequently provided through print or video cultural seminars and resources and offer little to no in-person interaction. Therefore, Hattaway says that individuals needing additional help are unlikely to receive it.
[See: Tips for Surviving a Career Transition.]
When employees move abroad with their families, the adaptation process is more complex because of added pressures such as a spouse’s or partner’s career, children’s schooling and relatives back at home. Many assignments fail not because of an employee’s poor performance, but because of family issues. Setting expectations of the new country and culture from the beginning can help decrease some of the anxiety that comes with moving overseas.
Offer Ongoing Support. Hattaway states that employee assistance programs do not usually cover pre-assignment needs nor do they assess whether families are prepared for a future assignment. These programs are often billed as providing psychological assistance to the employee and family members, and often are only provided on an emergency basis. Proactive, ongoing support versus reactive actions by employers would increase the success rate of expatriate assignments.
While talks about mental health have grown since companies are more aware of the risks of overwork and burnout, there is still a stigma attached to depression worldwide. When you add the stresses of living outside your native country, it creates an endless cycle. Who do you confide in? According to Hattaway, because those who tend to move abroad have thick skins, employees and family members may hide mental illness, which can come to light when it’s too late. It is also very difficult to impossible in many countries to find psychologists and psychiatrists, not to mention those who can speak English or your native language. Therefore, companies need to invest more resources into mental health support for those moving overseas as well as into activities that increase well-being for employees and their families. This may mean designing team-building activities for an employee’s new team to help them build credibility. For a family, this could be hosting gatherings where local and expatriate families get together to socialize or work on a community project.
[See: The 25 Best Social Services Jobs of 2017.]
Prepare for Repatriation. Unfortunately, Hattaway says there is little to no support when an employee is preparing to return and returns to their home country. This is especially true if someone is returning from a failed assignment. Expatriates need advance notice of up to a year when their international assignment is slated to end. This gives an employee and their family sufficient time to prepare for a new position at home. The human resources department can work with the employee to identify suitable positions and discuss their overall career goals. Companies can also offer support for families as they prepare children for new schools, find a new home and for partners and spouses who plan to continue their career back home.
While supporting an expatriate and his or her family on an overseas assignment is costly, the price of a high rate of failed international assignments drives those costs even higher. It’s imperative for companies to offer employees and their families assistance to help them succeed in their new environment.
More from U.S. News
25 Best Business Jobs for 2017
The 25 Highest-Paying Jobs That Don’t Require a College Degree
How Companies Can Manage Overseas Assignments originally appeared on usnews.com
