We look at how you can help your expats avoid 'career derailment' 'upon repatriation, which often results in their leaving the company along with their international skills and expertise within the first year of arrival.

Dissatisfied repatriates can leave their organisations as early as two months after their return from an assignment abroad. This is mainly due to disappointment with their new jobs, frustration because the organisation does not make use of their skills acquired abroad, and difficulty linking back into the home-office culture.

This professional and social re-entry culture shock can be prevented by 'pre-re-entry guidance', which can start months before the expat leaves for their assignment abroad. In this way, HR managers can develop strategies to ensure a smoother transition and repatriation of the assignee into various work environments.

Find out the employee's career expectations before they leave on assignment.

The HR manager can facilitate a smooth repatriation before the expat even begins their assignment through spending time with them and discussing the implications of the assignment on career decisions.

First, find out what the employee's expectations regarding career development upon return are and then communicate the employer's expectations with regard to reintegration. Then make an inventory of the employee's skills and competencies.

In addition, during the phase immediately prior to departure there should be professional and social cross-cultural training and practical support for the family's housing, social and financial adjustments. This should be continued throughout the assignment.

Preparation for repatriation

Approximately five to three months before the expats return to the home country they should be taken through a re-entry phase, followed by actual repatriation.

The steps above should be repeated during this phase, enabling the HR manager to reintegrate the employee into a suitable part of the organisation.

It is likely that the employee has gained new competencies, and may not wish to follow initial career plans made before leaving the home country.

And, from the HR manager's perspective, the expat may have developed qualities which do not fit their original job, or the organisation may need the expat's newly-acquired skills in an area different to the one originally planned.

The mentoring system

Many companies have introduced a system where a mentor, possibly a successful repatriate based at the home country organisation, is assigned to the expat prior to departure abroad. This mentor assists the expat professionally while abroad, and keeps them up-to-date with changes at the home base.

During the pre-re-entry phase the mentor can play an advisory role in finding the expat a suitable position within the organisation.

Pre-repatriation — the second phase
 
About three months before repatriation, a preliminary evaluation of the success of the assignment itself should take place.

This has consequences for the professional re-entry of the expat not only with regard to a new position but also psychologically.

If the assignment is successful, the expat will return self-assured. If unsuccessful, this information will be used to help the HR department find a suitable position upon repatriation.

The expat and their family should also be given 're-entry' training, covering several subjects such as social-cultural contrast orientation, an update on political and social issues and changes in the home country, job opportunities for the partner, an evaluation of the experiences in the host culture and the psychological aspects of repatriation.

Professional re-entry training should cover company matters, business-cultural contrast orientation and general psychological aspects of professional repatriation.

The HR department should also continue to provide support for practical issues like relocation.

Reintegration
 
Re-adjusting to the home country's work culture may affect repatriates negatively - for example, they may have problems working in a team if they worked solo on assignment.

The HR department can help here by frequently updating the repatriate on company matters and generally lending a listening ear.

Companies don't only have a corporate culture but also a layer of national culture. For instance,  the repatriate coming from a country where the 'power distance' is large, such as in Spain or Thailand may experience stress returning to small 'power distance' cultures like The Netherlands or Denmark.

This could affect the repatriates work. For instance, they may have difficulty obtaining specific information or moving a decision through.

If the host country of the repatriate has a culture where relations are more important than work in general, where agreements are made but not always lived up to, the repatriate may have a problem in trusting colleagues to take individual responsibility in meeting deadlines. This can cause strain with colleagues who may not understand this attitude.

In many cases the repatriate may feel that the skills they learned abroad are not appreciated in his new work environment. Repatriates can be very valuable in a posting where they are in a position to be a point of contact with the former host country, and in this way also avoid the stress of being cut off from their recent past.

Generally, the more the host country culture differs from the home country culture, the more difficult the reintegration process will be. Likewise, the more successful the expat was in the host culture, the more difficult adjustment to the work environment at the home base will be.

The HR department can help reduce the stress of re-entry shock by defining where the specific problem areas of the professional cultural transition for each individual repatriate will be, and then reduce problems by intensive pre-re-entry and re-entry preparation and guidance.
 
A repatriate who functions well in their new job is less likely to leave, and the organisation will profit from their knowledge, experience abroad and newly-acquired skills.

May 2006

Eleonore Breukel is the founder of Intercultural Communication BV (www.intercultural.nl) in the Netherlands.

Subject: Managing repatriation, HR and repatriation