Global Mobility: a Shift Towards Employees’ Wellbeing
While the demand for skilled employees is rising in developing countries, international assignees tend to be more demanding regarding the quality of the employee mobility program companies provide.
Simultaneously, companies need to implement effective mobility management programs. The focus is on assigning the right people and providing them the right incentives and assurances to make the project the most fruitful for both parties.
Expatriation is defined by a lot of uncertainties
Having met and helped many expats in their moving and thus relocation process, ASI Movers is aware of the problematics one faces when undertaking the “expatriate adventure”, and has thus put together a summary of nowadays trends in Global Mobility.*
Which Profile Is More Inclined to Move Abroad?
On the one hand, married people or people in the middle of their career are the least likely to accept a job that would change their life and career plans.
On the other hand, young actives, senior executives/decision makers, and unmarried business owners are the ones keener to undertake the international experience.
The latter see the expat life as an opportunity for starting a new business, give their career a new impetus, develop their entrepreneurship spirits. For young actives, working abroad is often seen as a set-up / pay-off mechanism. They might give up a higher salary (the golden package which are becoming rarer and rarer) and the comfort of a stable life in their home country for a more thrilling job, with great of opportunities of evolution.
A person's country of origin also influences one's propensity to accept an expat status. Employees from Latin America, Middle East and Africa are more likely to temporarily relocate to another country for up to two years with a minimum of 10% increase in pay.
Which Incentives Should Expats' Employers Provide?
As stated by the 2017 IPSOS report, employers need to be more flexible regarding the incentives they provide.
Employees demand more than just an increase in pay. Income only ranks 5th in terms of how impactful a criteria is when making the decision of going abroad.
Effectively managing employees' expatriation means - eventually - retaining international, culturally flexible ad knowledgeable talents. It appears essential to focus primarily on the repatriation process: going abroad is often only a step in one’s career.
Nevertheless, as the Harvard Business Review found out, many repatriates end up filling temporary assignments once back. The latter compared to the one abroad is a demotion. They lack opportunities to put their foreign experience to work.
How to Manage Expats Effectively?
- Focus on knowledge creation and global leadership development rather than on filling immediate business needs, and rewarding or punishing an employee by making him/her move to a specific place. Expatriation should be part of a defined and global strategy.
- The employees' technical skills should match or exceed their cross-cultural ability. Even though performing very well in their job at home, they will need to adapt to the new country’s culture, communication, management practices etc.
- The following qualities should characterize them: a drive to communicate, broad-based sociability, cultural flexibility, cosmopolitan orientation; collaborative negotiation style.
- End expatriate assignments with a deliberate repatriation process.
Managing expatriation has become more complex for corporations as the challenges for employees sent abroad pile up. It requires a thoughtful employee mobility program and an effective management to make it work. The common issue is often resides in who should oversee the relocation process: The Global Mobility Team? The Generalist HR? An external Party?
The answer is all of them, in cooperation.
Because of all these challenges coming along with relocation, moving should go smoothly for expatriates. That is the reason why ASI Movers has been providing expats stress-free and tailor-made moving services for more 10 years, never failing to comply with our clients’ needs.
- “Perceptions of Employee Mobility in a Climate of Change”, Mobility Report, BDO, IPSOS, Sept. 2017
- “The Right Way to Manage Expats”, Harvard Business Review, J. Stewart Black & Hal Gregersen, March-April 1999.