How to Ensure the Failure of Your Expats

Most companies that send employees overseas for an extended period of time understand the need for preparation and cross-cultural education. But many expatriates still return home prematurely or remain overseas for the duration of the assignment but work well below their full potential. Here are a few ways companies can unwittingly contribute to their expatriates' downfall.

Fail to give an employee sufficient time to decide

Too often, companies ask someone to make a quick decision about an expatriate assignment. If this is a new proposition for the employee, it is critical that she have enough time to realistically weigh both the professional and personal pros and cons - after the initial excitement about the opportunity has had a chance to settle down. Allowing time for expat candidates to grasp the assignment's upcoming challenges will increase their opportunity to fully consider whether or not this is the right decision. Preventing the deployment of someone who realizes an assignment is not for them before they begin training saves a company far more that the average $2 million they invest in each expatriate's salary and expenses.

Tell an employee to "Google it"

It should go without saying, but leaving an employee to independently learn about a new culture leads only to failure. Nor should corporations give just enough information to further confuse them. It's crucial to provide expatriate candidates with detailed information on how to navigate the complexities of living and working in their assignment country.

Rely on an online cultural profile tool

A number of online tools exist that, unfortunately, have the potential to provide irrelevant and counterproductive information. These tools create a profile of the user's supposed cultural adaptability, and then provide Wikipedia-like information about a particular country. The assessment tool can be flawed or invalid, however. What an expat learns about a culture must be in the context of their specific circumstances.

For example, an expatriate employee was sent to Belgium to run his company's newly acquired company. He filled out an online profile that clearly showed that his home culture (the United States) was far more risk-taking than the Belgian culture. Fair enough, but in fact the organization he was going to lead in Belgium was extremely entrepreneurial and risk-taking, so much so that he felt the newly acquired company was taking greater risks than the parent company would allow.

Discount the business significance of a family's happiness

One of the largest reasons for failed expat assignments is dissatisfaction among the employee's family. It is important that the entire family, not just the expat, receive sufficient support and have an opportunity to consider whether they want to embark upon this adventure. In many cases, taking an international assignment requires the accompanying partner to leave a job and possibly change careers. The loss of income and satisfaction from a job can potentially undermine the self-esteem of the accompanying partner.

Neglect to continue the dialogue throughout the duration of the assignment

Throughout an expat's assignment, it is critical that he receive professional coaching to focus on the local and corporate organizational needs.

Fail to capture and leverage the knowledge gained from your expats' experiences

Too often the knowledge each expat gains from an assignment leaves the company when the employee does. The savviest global companies understand the power of utilizing a robust knowledge management system to learn from past mistakes and successes and make the training for each expat specific to their company.

Provide mediocre cross-cultural training

Even companies investing in cross-cultural training may unwittingly contribute to potential failure of the assignee, simply because some training programs aren't much better than doing one's own online research. Mediocre training gives the expat generic information and creates a false sense of security, leaving them unprepared for what they face when they touch down in a new country. Here are examples of some of the worst cross-cultural training offenses:

• Providing a cookie-cutter program that isn't tailored to each individual.
• Not doing significant personal interviews and needs assessments of the expat and his family prior to the training session.
• Utilizing a cultural generalist who has little or no in-depth experience with the actual country.
• Failing to make the training interactive and experiential. The best trainers are flexible and act as a mix between a trainer and a coach.
• Hiring a trainer who has an understanding of the culture but little or no relevant business experience. The ability to make cultural information applicable to a specific company or business field is key.

If you have additional best practices to share of how (or how not) to prepare international assignees, please get in touch with me at ngoodman@global-dynamics.com.