Expat Assignment Effectiveness

Increase the success of your workers abroad by providing spouses employment networking assistance

By Nina D. Cole

Global HR managers know that when an employee is sent abroad on an expatriate assignment, spouses are critical to success. Problems with expatriate assignments are most often related to difficulties with the adjustment of the spouses and families involved. Current estimates indicate that an average of $1 million is lost every time an expatriate employee returns home before completing his or her assignment. With this in mind, it becomes clear how crucial the HR function is to the bottom line – even one failed expatriate assignment can have a painful effect.

The Problem: Failed Assignments Due to Spousal Adjustment Issues

It is clearly in the best interests of the company to avoid early returns home from international assignment (often called ‘failed’ assignments). But how can the problem of spousal adjustment effectively be addressed?  Surprisingly, the voices of spouses have rarely been heard in this regard. A recent research study specifically asked spouses, both male and female, who were on assignment in the Asia-Pacific region, for their insights regarding their most important needs for employer-provided assistance. The study was funded by the SHRM Foundation (affiliated with the Society for Human Resource Management). All 238 participating spouses completed an online questionnaire. Of those, 100 spouses volunteered to meet with the researcher for a more detailed discussion, and provided specific information on the assistance they had received, and what additional assistance would have been helpful.

For several years, surveys have confirmed that the majority of spouses are working before they accompany their spouse on an international assignment and that very few of them are able to find work while abroad. For example, a 2009 survey of 3,300 spouses by the Permits Foundation found that almost 90 per cent of spouses had been employed before moving abroad but only 35 per cent found employment in the host country. Typical of such spouses was Camille, who had worked as a marketing representative for a pharmaceutical company in the U.S. before moving to China with her husband, and was still unemployed 18 months later.

Responses to the questionnaire indicated that spouses who had experienced an interruption or cessation of their employment had significantly lower adjustment to interacting with local people (a key component of cross-cultural adjustment) than the spouses whose employment situation remained substantially the same. For spouses with a career orientation to work (as opposed to those whose work focus is to supplement family income), females had higher cultural adjustment than males with respect to both interacting with locals and to general adjustment to differences in food, climate and cultural norms. Thus career disruption does decrease adjustment for spouses, particularly males. Their lower adjustment is going to have a detrimental effect on the expatriate employee and success of the assignment.

A disturbing statistic was that less than 20 per cent of spouses received employer-provided employment assistance. Strikingly, there was no difference in the proportion of spouses who found work between those who received employment assistance and those who did not. Therefore, it can be concluded that on average, current spousal employment assistance is not effective, and money spent in this area may have been wasted. Employers need to carefully select providers of career assistance based on their track record in providing services to spouses abroad.

Practical Solution: Employment Assistance

Not surprisingly, spousal career issues have become the leading cause of refusals to accept international assignments and of derailed assignments. What is surprising is that global employers have been slow to offer spousal employment assistance. In fact, only 41 of the 238 spouses in the study (less than 20 per cent) had received employment-related assistance from their partner’s employer. Job search assistance was the most common, closely followed by providing jobs to spouses and providing annual spousal allowances in lieu of lost spousal income. Participants gave lukewarm reviews of the employment assistance they received; it was rated by 40 per cent as effective, and another 40 per cent as somewhat effective; 20 per cent found it completely ineffective.

These results strongly suggest that HR needs to be better informed in order to make cost-effective decisions on what kind of assistance to provide. Interviews with spouses revealed that the most desired employment assistance is with networking.

Networking Assistance
The overwhelming message from spouses was that they need some basic assistance to help them get started on the jobs search process in the expatriate location. In particular, they want information to assist them with networking, which is how most jobs are found. Specific suggestions included a list of employment agencies; a list of other Western companies using English-speaking staff; information on job fairs; and books on managing portability in both careers and identity. They suggested that companies could help them meet other spouses looking for work by establishing a spouse association that could maintain a list of potential jobs for spouses. A listing of websites for organizations providing services to the expatriate community is available from the researcher.

Other Employment Assistance
A number of other types of employment assistance were also mentioned. Spouses suggested that large employers try to provide jobs for spouses internally or with associated organizations. A good example of this approach came from Cristiana, a spouse who relocated to Cambodia with her husband who was working for the United Nations. Previously an HR professional in Italy, Cristiana was able to find employment as a coordinator for extracurricular activities at an international school attended by most children of UN employees.

Many spouses expressed a desire for career counselling. Individualized assistance, before moving, regarding transfer of skill set and identity issues would be particularly helpful. Numerous consulting firms such as Brookfield Relocation Services and Net Expat offer such services.

Many spouses indicated a desire for greater respect from employers. Spouses wanted organizations to follow through on vague offers of assistance and to face the reality that dual-career couples are the norm in Western societies. Rather than cash payments, spouses want practical assistance in return for acknowledgement of all the work of moving a family as well as undertaking their own difficult job search. A spousal allowance of $5,000 per year in lieu of lost income for a professional spouse who has been making over $100,000 per year is not likely to be perceived as indicating respect for their situation.

A number of spouses suggested more assistance with specific services such as obtaining work visas; paying fees associated with maintaining professional registration or re-qualification exams for the host location; and providing more language training.

Finally, some spouses wanted to establish their own business. They suggested that employers could provide related information including how to adapt to local business practices and regulations, and could provide a spousal allowance to use for courses on how to set up a small business in the local setting. Elisabeth, a Belgian spouse with a diplomat husband, was able to secure funding for a course in millinery (hat-making) in London before moving to Beijing. She established a thriving online millinery business there, using a room in their apartment to make the hats.

Practical Solution: Initial Relocation Liaison

Another critical area of spousal assistance involves the initial relocation. Spouses made the point that if the relocation process went smoothly, it enabled them to start their job search more quickly and with a more positive, confident attitude. Thus relocation assistance can indirectly enhance the job search process. This assistance typically included housing allowances, school fees, moving expenses, orientation, international medical insurance coverage and language training.

Spouses were grateful for the generous financial support provided, but the administration of the assistance was often criticized, with a common complaint being that HR departments in the home country did not understand the difficulties facing expatriate employees in other, often lesser-developed, parts of the world, and local host-country HR staff did not understand the cross-cultural challenges facing expatriate families. In these cases, spouses believed that mobility management should be outsourced to external relocation companies with solid expertise in this area.

The most frequent recommendation for more valuable relocation assistance was the need for practical support immediately upon arrival and over the first few weeks of settling-in. The spouses overwhelmingly found this experience to be very difficult and many expressed a strong belief that the best source of support and assistance would be another expatriate spouse who had already settled into the location. Most wanted long-term access to a “point” person for all their questions and quandaries based on their individual family circumstances. This person could easily be provided by hiring existing expatriate spouses on a contract basis to provide assistance to newly arriving spouses before and during the actual moving and settling-in period. The cost of this assistance would be minimal.

Another common suggestion was that more information be provided directly to spouses by the HR department before the assignment and throughout the relocation process. Typically, the spouse is the one who arranges the move and manages all the details involved. They reported experiencing frustration when they found out information they needed was provided to their spouse who had forgotten about it. Providing relevant information directly to the spouse by adding their email address to the communications would be a simple way to enhance the perception that the spouse’s key role in the expatriate assignment is acknowledged and respected.   

Many spouses also found that the cross-cultural language training they received to be particularly helpful and they would have liked more of it both before and after moving. Some employers find that spouses are so busy preparing for the move that they are not able to attend training sessions before leaving. In this case, providing the training after the move may work more effectively as the benefits of the training will be very obvious to the spouses.

The research findings and input obtained directly from spouses on assignment clearly demonstrates the need for employer-provided employment networking assistance to enhance spousal adjustment. This assistance will be particularly valuable for career-oriented males. Ultimately such assistance will help spouses to find employment, will reduce expatriate failure rates, and will enhance assignment success. The need for additional practical support during the settling-in period was also clearly articulated. Neither of these needs is expensive to fulfil. For some organizations, refocusing their spousal assistance on these two areas may even represent an opportunity for cost reduction compared to current spousal assistance programs.

Nina Cole, PhD, is and associate professor and field researcher specializing in organizational justice theories in the context of global human resource management at Ryerson University.