Many companies are still tailoring their assignment policies to "How much?" when today's expatriates are asking "Why?". We find out what companies need to do to keep their international employees happy.

After an eight year steady decline, international job assignments are on the rise. According to the 11th Annual Global Relocation Trends Survey, conducted by GMAC Global Relocation Services, 47 percent of companies questioned for this year's survey reported an increase in the size of their current expatriate population, compared to 31 percent in 2004. Fifty-four percent of companies anticipate additional growth in the coming year.

Thanks to the increased ease of communication, business divisions and product manufacture now easily span several countries, said John Pfeiffer, managing director of AIRINC Europe. "People are naturally going to have to move around in different countries and the need for people to be [globally] exposed is high," Pfeiffer said.

Dual career issues are still a major consideration.

But, in the case of expatriate management, is more always better?
"Generally people say it costs companies 3 times as much as a normal employee to have someone working in expatriate capacity," said Chris Brewster, professor at Henley Management College.

The mounting number of mobile workers translates to skyrocketing business costs of expatriation. Companies are looking for more value for their investment, and savvy mobile workers expect an international position worth their personal sacrifices.
 
HR management will have to revise and continuously tailor their international employment policies in order to keep up with both the needs of their business and their employees in the face of these competing demands.

Consider all the options

But much of the time, Brewster says, management takes on the responsibility of expatriate workers without first considering other recruitment options and alternative assignments.

"Perhaps half the people working outside their own countries haven't been sent by companies," Brewster said. "'Self-initiated expatriates' (SEs) are really a hidden use, as long as companies use them knowingly and carefully."

SEs are equipped with many of the same skills and qualifications as traditional expatriates, without traditional terms and conditions. This makes their employ more affordable, he said.

But though these workers may not have the same benefits as traditional expatriates, Brewster said, "Many of these self-initiated people would gain a lot to be able to join expatriate support networks, even if they're not formally employed as expatriates."

SEs are only one alternative to traditional expatriation. Brewster recommends short-term assignments, commuter assignments, frequent flying and even virtual teams as valuable ways to help workers gain global experience and develop international resources without having to pay all the costs of establishing workers abroad.

The recent proliferation of alternative assignments is also a "response to dual career issues, where partners are unwilling to give up a career they could potentially put on hold," Pfeiffer said.

Programmes like these are more flexible than traditional expatriation and support costs drop as benefits are customised to meet the needs of specific employees and objectives.

He warns, however, "from client experience, commuter assignments are not viable for the long term, because it's so difficult on family relationships. We've had a number of clients who are requiring approval of very senior line management as well as senior HR management in order to initiate commuter assignments, because there's such a high rate of family disintegration or divorce. People are finding that they don't want to be held responsible."
 
Hold on to your international talent

The crux of all this good-intentioned global exposure is that 21 percent of expatriate employees surveyed in 2005 left their companies in the midst of international assignments, double the attrition rate of non-expatriate employees. The Global Relocation Trends Survey found another 23 percent of expatriates left their companies within a year of repatriation.

Key factors for assignment failure, the survey said, were partner dissatisfaction, family concerns, inability to adapt, and poor job performance.

"If you spend hundreds of thousands of dollars training this person and they leave as soon as they come home, you're actually training up your competitors," Brewster said. Any value for money that companies have achieved by cutting corners in expatriate benefits and toned-down international policies can backfire in employee dissatisfaction.

The truth of international worker policy development is the bottom line is not always the bottom line.  

Introduce work-life balance policies

In addition to the challenges of expatriating a dual-career household, "changing demographics in the workforce coupled with an increasing desire amongst younger employees to have more work life balance has meant that employees are now more likely to challenge situations they are not comfortable with," said Siobhan Cummins, managing director in Europe for ORC Worldwide.
 
"Employers will need to look not only at the assignment package they offer, but also to take into account the needs of the family and the work-life balance policies that they provide," Cummins said.
 
While policies for the early stages of expatriation, such as selection, transfer and adjustment of expatriates have matured, most companies need to further develop policies that address the later stages of expatriation and repatriation. Many companies are still tailoring their policies to "How much?" when today's expatriates are asking "Why?"

Manage career expectations

The best way to please both employer and international employee, Pfeiffer said, is to "integrate career expectations into the idea of mobility as a whole,"
 
Requiring international experience for higher promotions is cost-effective and employees are more willing to expatriate if they know the payoff is career progression, he said.
 
But companies who pose these advantages for international workers must be willing to back them up. Once established in their host countries, unmonitored employees can feel forgotten, or feel as if the skills they learned abroad aren't being taken advantage of once they repatriate. 
 
Pfeiffer said especially during transition periods of leaving and returning from an expatriate post, "more information is better. You really want to be accessible, and anticipate questions before [employees] have to ask so that their confidence level is high."

That accessibility should extend through the entire length of a post abroad, he said. He recommends establishing and regularly updating internet sites specific for each expatriate so they can have pertinent information and contact numbers at hand.
 
These sites make the adjustment easier for expatriates and can greatly facilitate contact between international workers and their headquarters. Company management can stay updated on the developing skills of their workers and their possible applications once the international assignment is over.

Create mentoring programmes

Mentor programmes between expatriates and executives at headquarters can also be extremely beneficial to both workers and their companies, Pfeiffer said. Maintaining regular contact with people at the home organisation helps expatriates remain connected to their companies and often reduces the chances of attrition when they return.

"One of the big questions about repatriation from a professional standpoint is always the job you're going to go back to," Pfeiffer said. Not having a good answer for returning expatriates can mean big losses in international worker investment.

"Very often what happens is that people go home and there's no real thought given to what job they can do and what benefit can be taken from their international service," Brewster said.
 
Plan for the homecoming

"In our research, people start thinking about their return about 6 months before the end of the assignment and the employer tends to start thinking about the employee returning a month before," he said.

"They're rarely asked for a debriefing session and people generally don't want to know what their experience was. All of that really gets people to feel a little unwanted and unnecessary," Brewster said.

"Towards the end of a career you need to get some serious one to one discussions between an HR person who understands the scope of the international assignment and the expatriate," said Margot Scheltema, finance director for Shell. Even early discussions should include the spouses of international workers, Scheltema said.

Finally, companies should be especially sensitive to international workers upon their return to headquarters.

"People don't know how to take advantage of the experiences employees have gained abroad until they have the chance to experience their new personalities and skill sets," Pfeiffer said.

"The challenge is the first few months." 

May 2006

Victoria Fine is a freelance writer based in Paris.

Subject: International assignment policy, developing international assignment policies