What are the major concerns for corporations in developing and retaining expatriate employees, especially managers?
Week 6 Discussion
In this business era, having a fluent workforce globally is not a luxury. Instead, a competitive necessity to be pursued by every business. Around 80% of the mid-size and big companies send their employees abroad. Whereas 45% of the companies are planning to expand the assignment numbers. However, going and settling down abroad even with the company’s facilities might not be cheap for various professionals. A report found that expatriates spend about 2 to 3 times much more than they receive to back to their home position. The highest package which organizations offer to expatriates is around $3,00,000 to $1 million which includes various benefits and cost of living. The companies tend to invest much more than that in their expatriate because they yield the highest returns from these investments. Various tests were done with the expatriate management from about 750 US, European, and Japanese companies where the expatriates and business executives were required to share their experience of sending the expatriate abroad (Black & Gregersen, 1999). All of the results were very alarming because it found that between 10% to 20% of US expatriates or managers who were sent abroad had come back earliest with job dissatisfaction and difficulty in adjustment in the foreign country. On the other hand, those who stayed 1/3rd of those had underperformed in their designed job roles and 1/4th of managers had left the companies after finishing their assignments.
If the organization offers poor expatriate management, then the company’s performance and capabilities might be threatened in the international sector. It can also lead to poorly done or failed international assignments. Various researchers suggest following various selection steps to select an adequate expatriate for the international assignment. It comprises managerial skill, adaptability, technical ability, cultural empathy, positive attitude, emotional stability, etc. Another concern that organizations need to focus on while sending expatriates for international assignments is their HR strategy because, in terms of the global business industry, the HR problems are more complex than those of nationals. The problems that both organization management and expatriate faces when on international assignment are unclear expectations, underutilization of overseas experience, and adapting to a new way of learning.
Reference
Black, J.S. & Gregersen, H. (1999). The Right Way to Manage Expats. Retrieved on 6th September 2022, from: https://hbr.org/1999/03/the-right-way-to-manage-expats
