This document discusses strategies for expatriate retention and success. It covers topics such as choosing the right person, providing cultural training, designing competitive compensation packages, and planning for repatriation.
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Expatriate Retention & Success INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT – 986721 1
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Expatriate Retention & Success Table of Contents Introduction.......................................................................................................................3 Strategies for Expatriate Retention and Success.................................................................3 Conclusion.........................................................................................................................5 References.........................................................................................................................6 2
Expatriate Retention & Success Introduction Expatriates are those employees who are sent from one country to another country for the fulfilment of a specific task or assignment. In terms of international business, the term expatriates is used for home country employees that are working in a host country(Adekola & Sergi, 2016).Expatriate programs can require a lot of heavy investment of time and resources and their success is also imperative for business organizations(Ang & Van Dyne, 2015).Therefore, it is important for business organizations to ensure high retention rates of their expatriates and implement strategies that would ensure success of expatriate programs. In this report, we will discuss certain strategies that can be helpful in expatriate retention and can also increase their chances of success. Strategies for Expatriate Retention and Success The strategies that can increase expatriate retention and their chances of fulfilling the task assigned to them are discussed below: First of all, choosing the right person for the expatriate program is the step that decides the success of an expatriate program. If an organisation choses a wrong person i.e. a person who lacks the desired skills and competencies to complete a task in question, it will be impossible for that person to achieve success in an expatriation program. Further, due to high expectation of the company, such as person would become more likely to experience stress and negative job attributes while working in a foreign country, which would lead to the failure of the program and the employee becoming more likely to quit(Pinto, et al., 2017).Therefore, choosing the right person in the first place is the most important step to ensure expatriate success and retention. Secondly, cultural training is an important step towards expatriate retention and success. When expatriates are transferred to a host country for fulfilling a specific task, they are required to deal with people from different cultural backgrounds. While working in the host countrysubsidiary,theyhavetoadapttothenationalcultureandalsolearnthe communication styles preferred in that very country(Okpara & Kabongo, 2017).The failure of an expatriate to adjust to the new culture can make them go through a culture shock, which would result in the failure of the program and they might even show a tendency to quit their 3
Expatriate Retention & Success company(Ramaswami, et al., 2016).As a result, increasing cultural awareness amongst expatriates is an important strategy that makes them more open to a new culture and increases their knowledge about the cultural preferences of the host country. Having a greater cultural awareness allows them to perform better in their job while working in the host country, which ultimately leads to the success of the expatriate program and also ensures higher retention rates. Another factor that increases expatriate effectiveness and retention rate is the level of local support that an expatriate receives in the host country. An expatriate can be assigned a mentor or a coach that can help him or her in tricky situations.The training and development of expatriates is a process that should be allocated sufficient time. It can take months for expatriates to gain knowledge about a culture, which makes it imperative for the management to provide them with time and other required resources as well(Reiche, et al., 2016). Thirdly, to ensure high expatriate retention rates and higher chances of success of expatriate programs, business organizations need to design competitive compensation and benefit packages that would appeal to the expatriates and fulfil their needs. An expatriate being sent for a foreign task might be the only earning member of the family and in such cases, his company would have to look after his family once he is away and provide additional incentives to them, such as housing allowance, health insurances, etc. If an expatriate feels that his family is suffering in the home country because of his or absence, they become more likely to fail in the task assigned to them and might even quit the company. Further, expatriates also require a compensation and benefit package that would help them in achieving the same standard of living that they had in their home country(ECA, 2015). Therefore, business organizations have to design their compensation and benefit packages entirely different from the home country employees. Having competitive packages can make the expatriates feel that their company is placing a value in them and expects them to provide a return on their investment by completing their program(Nicks, 2016).Even though such strategies might increase the overall cost related to the expatriate program, the increase in the cost will increase the chances of success of the program and expatriate retention. Thus, competitivecompensationandbenefitscanhelpbusinessorganizationsinretaining expatriates and ensuring that they achieve success in the work assigned to them. Fourthly, one of the prime reasons for high expatriate retention is their failure to adjust in the homes country once they are transferred back after completion of their work, which is a process called repatriation. At times, expatriates can experience a higher standard of living in 4
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Expatriate Retention & Success the host country as compared to the home country. Their power and authority in the host country can also vary as compared to their power and authority in the home country. Once they are repatriated, it can become difficult for their organizations to provide them with the same working conditions as were present in the host country, which leads to the expatriates becoming stressed and dissatisfied with their jobs(Cave, 2014).This can lead to high turnover rates and can also have an impact on the success levels of other expatriate programs. Therefore, it is important that business organizations carefully plan out the repatriation of their expatriates and are able to provide them with good working conditions in the home country as well. Conclusion Expatriate programs have become an inevitable part of international business and their success has become even more imperative for the market success of a company. Business organizations invest a lot of time and resources in choosing, training and development, transfer and repatriation of expatriates and their failure is not just a loss of resources but can also have a negative impact on the overall employee morale and workplace environment. Therefore, it is important for business organizations to implement competent strategies that can be helpful in making expatriates more effective in their jobs and ensure higher expatriate retention rates. 5
Expatriate Retention & Success References Adekola, A. & Sergi, B., 2016.Global business management: A cross-cultural perspective. s.l.:Routledge. Ang, S. & Van Dyne, L., 2015.Handbook of cultural intelligence.s.l.:Routledge. Cave, A. H., 2014.Analyzing Engagement Effects for Repatriate Retention.[Online] Available at: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/54052/1/IJKIB-01-1003.pdf [Accessed 20 May 2019]. ECA, 2015.Expatriate pay and benefits packages in India are third highest in the region. [Online] Available at: https://www.eca-international.com/news/may-2015/expatriate-pay- and-benefits-packages-in-india-are[Accessed 20 May 2019]. Nicks, L. E., 2016.Expatriate Retention: A Challenging Goal for Global Corporations. [Online] Available at: https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi? article=3081&context=dissertations [Accessed 20 May 2019]. Okpara, J.O. and Kabongo, J.D., 2017. The effect of cross-cultural training on expatriates’ adjustment:EvidencefromanemergingAfricaneconomy.JournalofManagement Development,36(9), pp.1114-1124. Pinto, L., Cabral Cardoso, C. & Werther Jr, W., 2017. Expatriates’ withdrawal intentions: The influence of organizational culture and satisfaction with the assignment.Personnel Review,46(8), pp. 1852-1869. Ramaswami, A., Carter, N. & Dreher, G., 2016. Expatriation and career success: A human capital perspective.Human Relations,69(10), pp. 1959-1987. 6
Expatriate Retention & Success Reiche, B.S., Stahl, G.K., Mendenhall, M.E. and Oddou, G.R. eds., 2016.Readings and cases in international human resource management. Taylor & Francis. 7