An overseas assignment can be a great journey in a person's life, but it can also be rather intimidating to move to another country and leave behind their old life.
As an employer, it is critical to invest in your employees by providing opportunities for them to grow and succeed. According to research, an increasing percentage of experts are changing firms due to their current employer's limited assignment prospects.
Professionals seeking excitement are flocking to corporates that can offer them a job halfway around the world.
Because sending an employee on a foreign assignment consumes a significant amount of time, resources, and money, it is critical for employers to examine how to improve the assignee experience in order to raise the odds of a successful assignment.
Here are a few things you can do to help your employee with their abroad assignment.
It's a good idea to offer a pre-assignment trip once an assignment possibility has been presented to the employee. Depending on the company's policy, this travel can occur before or after assignment acceptance.
The trip allows the assignee to get a feel for the region, possibly find a home or neighbourhood to settle in, and even find appropriate schools if their children are joining them. These travels are sometimes used to assess if the assignee will accept the assignment.
Almost everyone deployed on an overseas assignment will experience culture shock at some point, even if they do not anticipate it. Culture shock can manifest itself in a variety of ways, even something as seemingly inconsequential as not understanding how to order your favourite drink.
To avoid culture shock, your HR department, Global Mobility department, or Relocation Management Company (RMC) will be able to moderate assignee expectations and provide extensive information on the host nation throughout the process.
Furthermore, you might provide cultural training to your staff with a local trainer before their departure so that they are familiar with the country's culture.
In today's environment, most of us can get by in another county with relative ease. We can now translate anything we want or just "Ask Siri" at the touch of a button thanks to technological improvements. However, language instruction may be required for some assignees, and there are a number of companies that offer this service. In any event, you may wish to provide language training to your employees so that they are familiar with the essentials; this can also help with culture shock.
At least one return trip home (home leave) is normally included for the assignee and their family to visit extended family and friends in their native country. Many global mobility policies include this as a regular benefit.
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