Expatriate Management
- Helping staff and their families prepare
- Supporting adjustment and accelerating performance
- Supporting repatriation and capturing knowledge
Although patterns of expatriation are changing to become shorter-term and more flexible, the role of those working predominantly outside their home country remains important but sometimes problematic to global organisations. Expatriate staff typically cost substantially more than home country-based colleagues, it takes 2-3 times longer for staff to adapt to an international assignment than a domestic appointment, up to 20% of expatriates under-perform and some 40% of these return to their home country early. In addition, expatriate staff can do far greater damage to organisational reputation and operation than their domestic counterparts and some 50% leave their employers within 18 months of return from an assignment.
With effective management at each stage of the expatriate cycle, these risks can be mitigated. We provide services that support effective expatriate management with assessment and selection, risk assessment, identification of development needs with pre-assignment and in-assignment coaching and development support, performance management, repatriation and post-assignment knowledge transfer.
We recognise the major impact expatriation and repatriation has on staff and their families. We also recognise that the inability of the employee or their family to adjust to the new cultural environment is the major reason for assignment failure. For this reason we work with expatriates and their families wherever possible addressing both professional and personal issues to achieve a productive and successful assignment for the individual and the organisation.
