Prevent expats from leaving the organization
By Eleonore Breukel
Publised: Expatica.com
Too many expats leave their jobs soon after repatriation, often taking with them valuable information and skills acquired abroad.
Dissatisfied repatriates can leave their organizations as early as two months after their return from an assignment abroad. This is mainly due to disappointment with their new jobs, frustration because the organization does not make use of their skills acquired abroad and difficulty affiliating back into the home office.
Repatriates suffer from professional and social re-entry culture shock that tends to be neglected by most organizations. This can be prevented by 'pre-reentry guidance', which can start months before the expat leaves for his/her assignment abroad. In this way, HR managers can develop strategies to ensure a smoother transition and repatriation of the assignee into various work environments.
Before the expat leaves the home country
The HR manager can facilitate a smooth repatriation before the expat even begins his/her assignment, in the following ways:
Spending time with the soon-to-be-expat discussing the implications of the assignment on career decisions.
1. Finding out the employee's expectations regarding career development upon
return and communicating the employer's expectations with regard to reintegration.
2. Making an inventory of the skills and competencies of the employee.
In addition, during the phase immediately prior to departure there should be professional and social cross-cultural training and practical support for the family's housing, social and financial adjustments. This should be continued throughout the assignment.
Preparation for re-entry
Approximately five to three months before the expat's return to the home country he should be taken through a re-entry phase, followed by actual repatriation.
The three steps above should be repeated during this phase, enabling the HR manager to reintegrate the employee into a suitable part of the organisation.
It is likely that the employee has gained new competencies, and may not wish to follow initial career plans made before leaving the home country.
And from the HR manager's perspective, the expat may have developed qualities which do not fit his/her original job, or the organisation may need the newly-acquired skills of the expat in a different area than was originally planned.
The mentoring system
Many companies are introducing a system where a mentor, possibly a successful repatriate based at the home country organisation, is assigned to the expat prior to departure abroad. This mentor assists the expat professionally while abroad, and keeps him/her up-to-date with changes at the home base.
During the pre-reentry phase the mentor can play an advisory role, in finding the expat a suitable position within the organisation.
Pre-reentry - the second phase
About three months before repatriation, a preliminary evaluation of the success of the assignment itself should take place. This has consequences for the professional reentry of the expat not only with regard to a new position but also psychologically. In the case of a successful assignment the expat will return self-assured. If unsuccessful, this information will be used to help the HR department find a suitable position upon repatriation.
Re-entry training for the expat and his family should also take place, covering several subjects: social-cultural contrast orientation; an update on political and social issues and changes in the home country; job opportunities for the partner; an evaluation of the experiences in the host culture and the psychological aspects of repatriation.
Professional reentry training should cover company matters, business-cultural contrast orientation and general psychological aspects of professional repatriation.
The HR department should also continue to provide support for practical issues like relocation.
Reintegration
Re-adjusting to the home country's work culture may affect repatriates negatively - for example, they may have problems working in a team if they worked solo on assignment. The HR department can help here by frequently updating the repatriate on company matters and generally lending a listening ear.
As companies have not only a corporate culture but also a layer of national culture, it may well be that the repatriate coming from a country with a large 'power distance' culture like Spain or Thailand may experience stress returning to small 'power distance' cultures like The Netherlands or Denmark. This could affect the repatriate's work with respect to obtaining specific information and decision-making processes.
If the host country of the repatriate has a culture where relations are more important than work in general, where agreements are made but not always lived up to, the repatriate may have a problem in trusting colleagues to take individual responsibility in meeting deadlines. This can cause strain with colleagues who may not understand this attitude.
In many cases the repatriate may feel that the skills he learned abroad are not appreciated in his new work environment.
Repatriates can be very valuable in a posting where they are in a position to be a point of contact with the former host country, as cutting them off from their recent past may cause stress.
A general rule is that usually the more the host country culture differs from the home country culture, the more difficult the reintegration process will be. Likewise, the more successful the expat was in the host culture, the more difficult adjustment to the work environment at the home base will be.
The best starting role that the HR department can play in reducing the stress of "re-entry shock" is to define where the specific problem areas of the professional cultural transition for each individual repatriate will be, and then reduce problems by intensive pre-reentry and reentry preparation and guidance.
A repatriate who functions well in his new job is not likely to leave, and the organisation will profit from his knowledge, experience abroad and newly-acquired skills.
© Eleonore Breukel www.intercultural.nl ebreukel@intercultural.nl
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