HR Top Tips for Managing Expats

For a company to send employees overseas, there must be a real reason for this relocation—a true benefit to the company. The expense of providing essential HR help far outweighs the expense of an ineffective employee—or worse, an employee that returns home early.

Helping the expats in your company with their life in the host country means the expat can focus on getting the job done rather than expend valuable time and energy just learning how to live day to day in the new location. Below are ideas for HR to help employees get the most out of their overseas assignment, as compiled from the stories of many expats.

1. Select the right employee
It is essential that the person displays a genuine interest in other cultures. If the employee has a family, it is also essential that the partner is fully supportive of the idea.

2. Test the waters
Organising a ‘look see’ trip of about a week for the employee and partner means the employee can get a taste of what life will be like before saying yes.

3. Create a country guide

A guide designed specifically for an expat settling into the host country will help the employee navigate more easily through the different culture.  A country guide should provide an overall taste of the host culture as well as the finer details.

If you send all employees to the same area, perhaps even more useful is a guide specific to that area, with suggestions for local shops, restaurants, babysitting services, local parks and schools.

4. A Partner, or Family Guide
A happy partner is a happy employee. If the partner is getting support or feels he or she has a good sense of what to expect, then the employee will be less tied up with supporting the partner’s adjustment.

5. A Work Guide
The employee needs to be able to hit the ground running. A good overview of the working relationship with local firms, business etiquette, even a list of colleagues or local contacts will all help with employee effectiveness from day one. It is especially helpful if HR takes responsibility for important tasks such as renewing visas or providing tax information.

6. Outsource
One benefit of outsourcing to other companies who provide expat support is that this is all they do. They are experts at providing the support and most likely their information will be kept up to date and rigorously checked for accuracy. Several companies are at the top of this area, such as Passport Career.

7. Provide local HR support
If you have more than one or two employees in a geographical area then money is very well spent on providing local HR support, an HR person nearby who specializes in local knowledge of the culture and the market. If an employee is in India and their HR contact is in Chicago, the HR contact will not be very useful to the employee.

8. Provide a single point of contact in the home country
One point of contact provides good continuity for communication between company and employee.

9. The whole family is the expat, not just the employee
Employers may think they can’t afford to think like this, but a relatively small investment in the easy adjustment of the whole family means greater productivity from the employee. Understand the needs of each family because each family will be different.

10. HR people should be expats before managing expats
You can really only understand what it is like to be an expat living and working overseas if you have been one. An HR contact that has already ‘been there’ will very likely provide better support for expats.

11. Provide information in advance
All these guides and help are much more useful if the employee and partner can review it them advance and have the opportunity to ask questions or do more research (i.e. research schools for their children) before making the move.

12. Home communication
The expat must be kept up to date with what is going on at home. Home news from the company will help the employee continue to feel part of the organization as well as help with repatriation. Returning home is often more difficult than making the move to the host country.

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