San Francisco Consult

Managing Job Mobility Today and Social Networking

Here are some thoughts from members of a working group on international mobility which I thought were right on target.

Speaking generally, one of the central issues we see is that there seems to be a mismatch between companies’ and employees’ needs and the model of Expatriation that is the basis for HR policies and practises. Companies are using international assignments to fulfil different needs compared to even 15 or 20 years ago. Back then, companies tended to use international assignments to export corporate knowledge and best practice around the Globe, meaning that, by and large, knowledge and personnel were flowing out from the centre. HR policies and practices were developed based on this traditional ‘Ex Pat’ model, which is much more about one way knowledge transfer from head office outwards, is much less flexible and where there is less variation in ex pat needs – and indeed, less variation in the ‘type’ of personnel and their families that move abroad. The expatriation policies seemed to be there to help people ‘get through’ the assignment by replacing some parts of what people lose when they move abroad – schooling, intercultural knowledge, housing, sometimes employment for trailing spouses, social contacts etc.

However, many companies are now using international assignments to develop an ‘international’ profile in their top talents and prepare them for future senior positions, putting personal development and change right at the centre of the process. At a company level, international assignments to develop organisational knowledge and improve their competitive ability in a diverse, changing, global market. This means that to get the most out of their employees’ experiences they need policies that help people ‘get from’ the assignment i.e. get the most from the experience, rather than ‘get through’ it by coping with the challenges.

The issue of dual career couples is a prime example of how the reality has now moved totally out of phase with old ideas and policies regarding expatriate employees and their families. There is a growing number of employees that simply will not fit this model any more, where there is a wife, specifically, who is happy to follow around her husband and perform the corporate wife functions of merrily organising the home, the children and the social life. Organisations that fail to comprehend this change and adapt to accommodate it will start to lose key people, or fail to attract them in the first place, and with that they will also lose organisational know how and ability. If you would like to see an example of this already in action, look at any of the Western world’s militaries. They have first hand experience of haemorrhaging key personnel at important career points, especially for the Officer and experienced soldier groups – not because of the demands of war fighting but because the various militaries cannot adapt flexibly to the aspirations of dual career, professional couples.

The winning organisations i.e. those that harness maximum ROI from international assignments, will be the ones who are able to proactively manage international assignments and provide more flexible options for employees and their families to enable them to proactively benefit from the opportunities. Otherwise, as we have seen, they will have increasing problems to recruit people into international assignments and they will continue to lose people shortly afterwards. If the cost of sending an employee abroad alone is over $300,000, what is the likely total cost of losing that employee completely within 2 years of their return from overseas? Far higher than $300k!

In short, there is a fundamental issue with the mindset of companies, where they need to replace their old HR policies and practices with new ones that reflect the changing aspirations of employees for professional and personal development in its various forms. It’s not only a question of meeting certain external needs or replacing that which was lost in the move abroad. The question for HR leaders to ask themselves should be more about ‘how can we help employees and their families get the most from an international assignment?’ rather than ‘how can we help them get through this international assignment?’. The former question is also much more in line with what companies want, which is to capitalise on their investment.

What San Francisco Consulting would like to contribute is to provide online networking areas where mobile individuals, especially parents, who have the most needs, can meet to manage the personal aspects of their mobility around the globe. This new technology can really help bridge a gap in information sharing, and greatly complement necesarily limited company assistance approaches such as relocation services.