New research reveals that expatriate performance goes up during the assignment, stabilises during repatriation then rises again.

23 November 2006

AMSTERDAM - New research reveals that expatriate performance goes up during the assignment, stabilises during repatriation then rises again.

This was amongst the detailed findings of a new study carried out jointly by Cranfield School of Management and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Many organisations remain unclear about the benefits of sending expatriates on costly assignments – the average cost of an expatriate is USD 311,000 per annum - and how effective their expatriate programmes are as part of the overall talent management strategy. 

Therefore the researchers aimed to develop a tool, both for internal strategic management and external benchmarking, to give organisations a better grasp of expatriate return on investment.

The researchers employed a metric-based framework to enable them to look at ROI in greater detail than has been attempted in previous studies.

The research analysed four key areas in depth; assignee selection and purpose of assignments, performance during the assignment, investment, and repatriation - retention and career development.

The results shows that organisations need to look at the purpose of assignment. "For example, if you have a developmental assignment, the benefits will accrue after assignment, but if you need to fill a skills gap then the benefits accrue during assignment," said Michael Dickmann of Cranfield University.

Dickmann explained that it was necessary to look at several indicators of success such as performance – during and after the assignment, whether the expatriate is promoted and finally, if the expatriate leaves the organisation either during the assignment or on repatriation – keeping in mind that

"Once repatriates get through a phase we define as 'career wobble' [which takes place in the first 12 months of repatriation], then their retention stays extremely high," said Dickmann, who explains that the study compares expatriate retention with all employees averaged across Europe and the US. 

"The turnover of 15 percent of repatriated assignees in the first year is generally higher than the turnover of all employees." he said.

The research shows that the performance of expatriates goes up during the assignment, stabilises during repatriation, and then goes up again.

The second key area to be studied, investment, shows that investment does not seem to be linked to performance..

Basically, says Dickmann, the question is 'do company's which pay more get better performance?'

We found no significant link between the two and therefore concluded that cost makes no difference to performance, says Dickmann.

"Plus, if you promote people more, the expectations get higher and therefore the evaluation may be affected. However, we found no link there either," said Dickmann. "Nor did we find a link to retention. Cost doesn't affect repatriate rates," he added.

What is certain, according to the researchers, is that many organisations have a largely hands-off approach to career management during the assignment, and a lack of focus on the repatriation process and the use of acquired skills. The report ends with 10 recommendations of how to approach international mobility.

[Copyright Expatica news 2006]