WHO WILL WIN THE GLOBAL WAR FOR TALENTS ?
EXPATRIATE MANAGEMENT IN THE 21ST CENTURY
Anne Egros October 5, 2010
•“If things seem under control, you’re just not going fast enough.”Mario Andretti- world champion racing driver
! GDP Growth in emerging markets
! Technologies and free flow of information
! Global labor productivity
! Global flow of people, goods, information, and capital
McKinsey Quarterly-May 2010
The core drivers of globalization
Within BRICs countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China),
China has become the world's second- biggest economy before Japan with a
growth rate of 10%. New York Times August 2010
Companies are required to manage an increasingly diverse workforce
expatriation is just a subset of global talent management challenge
“Emerging markets will take talent from developed
economies.”-Stephenie Overman in SHRM publication August 2010
WHY EXPATRIATE
FAIL ?
What are the major reasons for expatriate failure ?
1- Wrong candidate selection process
2-Poor job satisfaction: relationships with coworkers and disconnection from the company's head office.
3- Ethnocentric Global HR Management: The organization thinks that the way of doing things in the home country is the best way, no matter where business is done.
4-Family issues including health care, children education and work-life balance, failure to recognize specific support to enhance local job and family satisfaction
5-Spouse isolation, career loss
Preparing the employees and their families for a foreign assignment is mutually
beneficial to the organization and the employee
SPOUSES/PARTNERSWHAT IS EXPATRIATESUCCESS ?
What are the top traits shared by successful expatriates
1-Happy, supportive trailing spouse and family
2-Flexibility and adaptability
3-Creativity, open mind and complex problem solving skills
4-Great interpersonal and intercultural communication skills
5-Constantly developing a strong professional and social network
Financial incentives are not considered as a key success factor by most executives but generally "happiness" and a rewarding personal and fruitful professional experiences with other cultures are intrinsically rewarding.
METRICS ?
How do you measure Expatriate failure and
success ?
What types of training and support are the most useful ?
1-Cross-Cultural Trainings
2-Expatriate Career Management
3-Networking skills and social media training
Cross-Cultural Trainings• " culture shock", host country' history, main cultural traits,
customs, etiquette, local languages
• Spouse job search support if this is an issue, including help to get a working visa.
• It is important that the executives and their families focus on discovering the positive aspects of their host country and learn to avoid comparing things that are better in their home country.
• The executive and family need to assimilate the local culture as much as possible to be happy and successful but the family should also be connected with other expatriates.
CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE
HEALTH CARE
CHILDREN EDUCATION
FAMILY AT “HOME”
WORK-LIFE ISSUES IN MULTICULTURAL CONTEXTS
Do not assume “one-size fits all” in global HR policies
In western cultures, family concerns are the dominant cause of premature return and Spouse/partner dissatisfaction is the number one reason for assignment failure.
Expatriate Career Management
► Before accepting a foreign assignment, an executive should ask questions regarding future career plans with the company.
►Going abroad requires that people strategically manage their career by making sure to be visible from the head office. Assigning a mentor in the head office might be a good idea as well as executive coaching to help manage multicultural teams.
►Repatriation: Career and personal coaching can also be offered to the following spouses to support them in the repatriation process that can sometimes be harder than the expatriation phase
The Grief Cycle (Dr Kubler-Ross )
1-Initial paralysis at hearing the bad news
2-Denial stage: Trying to avoid the inevitable.
3-Anger stage: Frustrated outpouring of bottled-up emotion.
4-Bargaining stage: Seeking in vain for a way out.
5-Depression stage: Final realization of the inevitable.
6-Testing stage: Seeking realistic solutions.
7-Acceptance stage: Finally finding the way forward.
The #1 reason why people move abroad is
HAPPINESSHAPPINESS
CONCLUSION