Repatriation woes can be overcome
COMPANIES invest heavily in sending employees on international assignments and consider them ungrateful when repatriated employees quit within months of return. To be honest, though, the organisations have a share in the blame. It is estimated that almost a third of employees who have been repatriated after a long stay abroad fail to come to terms with what is termed as the `reverse culture shock', and end up quitting within two years.
Poor integration and neglect of expectations of repatriated employees are prime reasons for the employees feeling disillusioned with their parent companies and jobs. There are often no proper career paths in place for them. Rarely are they given positions that merit the experience and skills they have gained overseas.
They would've grown accustomed to a certain independence abroad and their current jobs fail to provide any challenge. Yet others cite personal difficulties in adjusting to a culture, which they have lost touch with.
Repatriation poses serious challenges for companies grappling with the growing pressures of international business on the one hand and high attrition rates of redeployed employees on the other. Experts suggest full circle repatriation programmes to avoid embarrassing situations and help returning employees seamlessly integrate into the mainstream.
A comprehensive repatriation programme kicks in well before an employee moves to a foreign post, and continues to offer assistance through his stay abroad and upon his return. Such a programme can tackle a range of concerns relating to redeployment of employees like expectations management, goal setting, career mapping and logistical support apart from counseling them on issues of international deployment and cross-cultural adjustment.
Before an international placement:
Counseling employees and their families before placing an employee on a long-term international posting can pay off Employees may then find it easier to cope with alienation, homesickness and the vagaries of cross-cultural differences with a little training and advice.
Providing language training and acquainting employees with the cultural ethos of the country also helps iron out early difficulties in adapting to alien surroundings and culture.
During the deployment:
Repatriation support does not end with the employee settling at the new place of assignment, but continues through the period of deployment.
In many cases, companies assign employees to mentors who keep them in the loop about organisational changes and openings back home.
The company should also encourage interaction between expats and visiting home-country personnel. Other ways to ensure that employees are in touch with the home turf include sponsored trips back home periodically, establishing communication links via e-mail, newsletters and inter office memos.
Repatriation assistance for re-entry should ideally begin six to eight months before completion of assignment. Programme co-ordinators, along with line managers and human resources personnel must chart out a career path that leverages the new competencies and international experience returning expats would have acquired.
Upon return:
People returning home after a long stint on an international assignment often find it difficult to adjust to the changes back home. Reentry can bring on a certain amount alienation, restlessness, and dissatisfaction akin to an employee's experience when working in a foreign land. The organisation should step in at this juncture to fill the void, and give a positive push to the adjustment process. Prudently planned repatriation woes can be easily overcome.
BINDU SRIDHAR
faqs@cnkonline.com
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