When it comes to international assignments, not every company in the world acknowledges that the concept of preparation is the key to success, even though it seems to be obvious. A recent research shows that nearly 42 percent of international assignments fail or don’t last for the full length of their scheduled time.
Why is this percentage so high and what can you do as an HR professional to reduce the failure rate? First, we need to look at the reasons for this tendency and try to find explanations for regular oversights.
Common causes of failed assignments
There are dozens of factors that can become a reason for assignment failure. Not all of them are the assignee’s fault, as some HR professionals might think. It may seem like the assignee has personal preferences or circumstances which lead them to choose to quit the assignment early. However, often there are wider issues at play that HR professionals can take care of beforehand.
Family/partner problems
Specialists who work in Global Mobility would confirm that family issues cause the majority of failed assignments. Interestingly, both long-term and short-term assignments are at risk of this.
Relocating long-term with the whole family is a big life change with lots of responsibilities. While the assignee might have a chance of a lifetime, being relocated to the dream destination with amazing career opportunities, their spouses might not be happy leaving their homes, and their children might not like their new school and classmates who do not even speak their language. Moreover, family and friends being left behind in the home country, together with the culture shock on arrival, make it even more obvious why relocating doesn’t always work out for everyone.
Family members of those who are on short-term assignments usually prefer to stay at home and not join the assignee. In this case, however, assignees can struggle to be far from their loved ones and tend to come back home ahead of schedule.
Culture shock
This is a big factor that includes everything from weather and food and social etiquette and health insurance options. Let’s imagine a hypothetical man, David, who moves from NY to Thailand. David was expecting a relaxed life in this exotic country, a villa between green palms, eating seafood every day, and working with his laptop on the beach. However, usually, ex-pats are sent to major cities such as Bangkok, a large and congested capital. Instead of beaches and seafood, he is in urban sprawl and a humid climate. He misses the conveniences of home, due to a lack of goods and services that previously he had to get him through the day in NY. Here he also doesn’t feel the perks of being abroad, when commuting in traffic and spending his days at home or work, rather than the beach.
Lots of small annoying things can distract the assignee and make them potentially unable to carry out their job role. Usually, it happens when the initial excitement of the move has worn off (aka “rose-tinted glasses”) and reality sets in. It becomes even more overwhelming if the assignee is lacking a local support network. A severe reaction to culture shock is typical for assignees that have never worked abroad before and those who haven’t received special training on what to expect emotionally when relocating.
A lack of preparation
This is a complete fault of the employer if they do not support their assignees with the appropriate preparation process. A company has a big responsibility to ensure that they have adequately arranged basic cultural training, advice for getting settled and psychological support if needed. Let alone they must provide help with the relocation itself, such as house search, visa support, household goods shipping, etc.
If the company doesn’t perform due diligence or doesn’t consider its staff, it may send candidates poorly suited to the job or the location. While there may be a temptation to send who is most experienced, or best qualified, it doesn’t take into account adaptability to the new situation. Someone may be an excellent developer in London, but they are not suited to Jakarta, for example. Likewise, a company should not choose just who is available to go on assignment, it would be no good sending a Junior level employee who is willing for reassignment to do a Senior level employee’s job. So both skills and suitability are vital.
A lack of ongoing support
The level of support that the company gives to employees before, during, and following their relocation will ensure a better success rate. To avoid assignees being overwhelmed with lots of issues, companies should be providing them with an ongoing support network for both professional and personal issues. Only this way the assignee will be happy, healthy, and productive in their new assignment, and only this way your cooperation will be beneficial for both of you.
Too much responsibility
Moving abroad poses a big amount of complex challenges to overcome, and we have already discussed this earlier here. Add tons of paperwork and bureaucracy issues that occur even before the physical move, and this will result in having heightened responsibility for the assignee to cope with. No wonder companies that don’t have a strong mobility process with full transparency are potentially setting assignees up to fail. Surely, you need to develop mobility strategies well ahead of time if your company wants to succeed in adequately supporting international relocations.
How to ensure an international assignment’s success
Let’s take a look closely at what exactly can HR departments do to increase the chance of international assignments to happen in the first place, to be successful, and to last for the planned period.
- Identify the right candidate for the assignment. As mentioned before, the smart choice of the candidate is a half success already. Some companies take it very seriously and run medical and psychological screenings on chosen staff members. Those screenings can be handy in highlighting the potential impact of relocation on the person.
- Training before relocation. The more information you can give to your assignees, the less likely they are to experience significant difficulties or to reject their new home. This training can include not only information on the food, climate, basic language lessons if needed, but also in-depth cultural or environmental training, differences in working culture and business etiquette. Don’t forget about psychological support that can include information about the emotional challenges of moving overseas.
- Support your workers throughout their assignment. Make sure they are happy and healthy, establish a clear line of support for work-related questions and mental wellbeing.
- Prepare assignees for repatriation. Statistics show that less than 30 percent of companies provide repatriation support to their employees. The main problem assignees are facing is the Reverse Culture Shock. Training on how they can ease the transition back and on-the-spot support with an expert couch will be a wonderful aid you can provide to your employees that have just accomplished a big task for the benefit of your company.
- Consider purchasing HR tech for relocation. As the most important thing in international assignments is to support your staff with all needed paperwork, house search, tax compliance, and so on, there is such a big chance for human error when dealing with all the documentation. Moreover, Global Mobility HR tech can significantly save your time and cut the cost of creating policies, getting quotes, approving flights, and other issues you need to deal with every day if you got into international relocations. As sending your staff abroad is getting more expensive due to recent events in the world, there has never been a better time for companies to properly invest in HR tech for international assignments.
Following the above advice will not guarantee that your assignments will definitely be effective. But implementing positive changes to enhance your processes will give your corporation a stronger chance of success.
How Clearmove can help: A perfect solution
Our unique software ecosystem allows HR departments to streamline the process of relocation and keep all the data under one roof. Our platforms offer solutions for home search, visa and immigration, tax compliance, school search for children, pet relocation services, and even psychological support to name a few, it can be tailored to accommodate any HR/Mobility policies in place and works for both HR & assignee. With this kind of transparency and personal touch, you can be sure that everything is taken care of.
Conclusion
It is important to acknowledge that every employee sent abroad is a human being, first and foremost. Dealing with relocation issues, whether it’s culture shock or a compliance problem, is not only the employee’s obligation. As a responsible employer, you should recognize the importance of our software in relocation and support related needs. Press the button below if you are willing to find out more.