We look at how one multinational company is helping their expats to hit the ground running.

The spouse and children should be involved from the start.

When Philips' Transfer Services Department conducted their annual expatriate and customer survey in December 2005, they discovered that although a lot of information concerning the expatriation process was available, employees found that it was often difficult to take in.

"We had a terms and conditions booklet of over 150 A4 pages in which you could find all the reward conditions. However, it was not easy to read due to a lot of technical detail. All other practical information was not standardly available," says Marin Cocu, Vice President of Transfer Services . 

Philips manages expatriation via their Transfer Services Department which is divided into four major hubs, Latin America, Europe, North America, and Asia and supported by 45 HR country coordinators. 

For instance, Cocu explains, "If your home country is Germany and you are expatriated to Hong Kong, your assignment is managed from the European hub for the outbound activities, such as your employment conditions, you'll have while on assignment.  When you move to Hong Kong the settling in, things such as finding a house and organising the school, is done in by the HR country coordinator in Hong Kong."
 
However, with much of the information being passed on by word of mouth via the Transfer Services Officers in the regional hubs and by the HR country coordinators you run the risk that much of it was passed on twice and sometimes lacked consistency, says Cocu.

Plus, first-time international assignees often had little idea of what moving to another country entails in practice and the initial conversation with Transfer Services would generally only prime people to start thinking about the issues they would need to discuss later in more detail.

For example, you may never have given the new school systems a thought, so it is much easier if you have information at your fingertips about the school system in the country you are moving to. That way, you and your children are better prepared," says Cocu.

"At the end of the day we realised we needed to find a simple and effective way of informing expatriates about the expatriation process in a manner that would support them throughout the cycle and also involve spouses and children from the start," ," says Cocu, " which is an approach fits into Philips' overall 'sense and simplicity' brand promise to its customers and employees."

Keeping in touch with the expat starters kit

Philips' Keep In Touch Expatriate Starters Kit

The answer was the Keep In Touch Expatriate Starters Kit, a portable 'tool kit' also available in e-format, with links to other information both online and in print.

"The kit allows expatriates, their spouses and children to prepare themselves at home as much as possible before having their first interview in the home country," says Cocu. "It also gives them something concrete to rely on other than information circulating on the expatriate circuit in and outside Philips, which sometimes does not give them the full picture," he says.

Like other multinationals, Philips is aware that the success of an assignment depends on how the spouse and children can adapt to the new location as much as the expatriate, and involving them in the process from the outset is essential. "Now with this toolkit, we've put this into practice," says Cocu.

To help develop the kit, Philips called in Nannette Ripmeester, founder and director of Expertise in Labour Mobility, a knowledge-based consultancy, specialised in customising solutions for international labour mobility.

"In principal we try to be a paperless company," says Cocu, "but Nannette suggested a two-way approach: a website supported by a tangible hard copy tool kit.  People may be more likely to read this material at home on the couch. Plus spouses don't have access to the Philips intranet yet."

"Everything from Philips is nicely designed," says Ripmeester. "Therefore we agreed that the starters kit should follow this pattern. After all," she says, "the kit was going to inform people of an important decision in their lives – going abroad, with or without family, and it needed to make the right impression."

In the form of an elegant, simple briefcase, the starter kit contains two main reference folders, Living abroad and Expatriate conditions, a guide on what to expect from Transfer Services. It also contains a checklist of what employees need to do during the three months prior to leaving the home country, and a magazine for expats.

 

Living abroad

The Living abroad folder contains several booklets about living abroad, from career management, relocation and housing through to moving with children. Employees can easily put aside any of the booklets which aren't relevant to their personal circumstances. Living abroad also contains a CD ROM, which explains clearly, through an interactive tutorial, how the home balance sheet method works. 

"Every expatriation begins with how the compensation components in the balance sheet work," says Cocu. "But people often don't fully understand the concept as well as the consequences for their compensation package in their home and host country, which is why we felt this was such a necessary addition to the kit."

 

Terms and conditions

The other principal folder covers all the basic terms and conditions of an expatriate assignment, from the beginning of the assignment right through to repatriation.

As part of Philips' global mobility strategy to boost the creation of international opportunities for young talent and ensure they're even more directly linked into the actual business needs,  Transfer Services is currently working on policies for Philips' 'early career expat' and short term expat assignments. The reward conditions will be tailored to the different assignment types. The conditions per assignment type will be laid down in a separate folder , says Cocu.

 

Broadening horizons

A final addition to the starter kit is 'Expats', an expatriate magazine which contains interviews with expats from within the company, their spouses and children, and officers from Philips' Transfer Services Department.

Ripmeester recommended interviewing people already on assignment to give potential assignees insight into issues around cultural awareness, the feelings about being exposed to other cultures, and the challenges of meeting new people as well as the challenges faced by spouses seeking work in the new location.

The last interview on the back page is with a little girl of eleven, of Dutch-German parentage, who was born in Argentina.  She has already moved country five times and seems to have taken each move in her stride.

"However, parents shouldn't underestimate the impact an assignment has on their children," says Ripmeester. "They need to be prepared for the assignment as much as the expatriate and spouse. It can enrich their lives but if you don't do it carefully it can be a tremendously difficult experience for them."

 

What the users say

"Although the Starter's Kit was launched in April 2006, it has already added value in practice, with expatriates and HR Managers reporting that it's a real success," says Cocu. "Expatriates say they find the content easy to read and understand, plus the tool ensures they are making informed decisions about their decision to go abroad.," he says,  "And  HR Managers report that this first-of-a-kind product helps them structure their way of working and communicating with expatriates."
 

September 2006

Natasha Gunn is the editor of Expatica HR.

 

[Copyright Expatica]