In China’s ever-diversifying workplace, it is likely that you will be dealing with expatriate workers and the specific needs that accompany them on an increasingly regular basis. This will certainly be a challenge for you. However, it will also be a challenge for the expats involved. How can HR help to make the whole expat experience a smooth process for everyone involved, particularly when it comes to the tricky subject of the expat returning home?
Expats
In the September edition of Network HR, Audraie Lecocq listed five HR competencies, which she believes are vital to expats succeeding in an overseas role:
The ability to deal with uncertainty in a changing workplace
A high level of maturity to juggle and prioritise tasks in a challenging environment
Openness to new ideas and practices
The ability to acclimatise to new environments
Contextual thinking – the capacity to see the bigger picture
If an expat does not boast these attributes, it is likely they will struggle with life in China. However, if they do succeed in China and make a difference within your organisation, it is vital you take care of them from the day they arrive to the day they leave … and beyond.
Returning Home
Taking up a new job challenge overseas is exciting! Often however, many expats do not think going back to their own country. All too easily, they overlook such issues as the cost and time involved as well as the tearing up of the roots they have put down in their new country, which can be a brutal and heart-wrenching experience. Perhaps some expats do think of these things, but find the idea of going back too difficult. I once heard a friend of mine comment:“You know I am scared of going back and everything stopping.”“Why?” I asked.“It is just too hard. It is too difficult to go back home,” replied my friend.Many expats will quickly learn to love their new role and the new country in which they live. They may come to feel ‘at home’ there. In fact, for many, their new foreign home may even begin to feel more like ‘home’ than their birthplace. If and when they go back to their home country, they may actually experience reverse culture shock. After growing attached to people and places in their new country, some expats find it difficult to readjust. They often find that when they return to their native country, it is not the same place they left behind – their job may be different and their friends may have moved on.
What about Resettlement?
HR professionals usually pay plenty of attention to inducting expat employees into new environments. There are plenty of programs for expats living in foreign countries, which include job skills often combined with cultural awareness. This is particularly true here in China where more and more companies are investing in cultural training for their overseas employees. In the November edition of Network HR Naomi Saunders discussed that very subject in great detail. However, there is far less attention paid to the other end of the expat equation. What about resettlement? What happens when your expat’s China adventure comes to a close and he or she returns home? How much discussion occurs around the issues this creates? The short answer - not enough.
The issues an expat faces going home are enormous. On a practical level, there is the expense of relocating not just the expat, but also his or her belongings and perhaps even a family as well. When they arrive, there will then be problems such as finding accommodation, buying a car and fitting in again with professional networks. However, perhaps of more significance are the emotional aspects, which can be far greater.Returning expats can often feel alienated and displaced. A friend of mine once mused, that, “Coming back must be like being displaced or being an immigrant in your own country.” She was right. Over time, an expat may purchase property overseas and develop a lifestyle in their overseas posting that does not easily transplant back into their home environment. This is particularly true for Asia in general and China in particular. For expats relocating between European or American locations, the cultural barriers and language barriers are not as great as when they relocate to China. This means that although it may be difficult to adjust to China at first, once the expat makes that adjustment, his or her lifestyle may change dramatically from what they are accustomed to at home.Many expats may also return with new partners and spouses from the country in which they worked, who will require specialised support in their new, foreign home. All this means that when many expats do finally make it back home, they often feel a profound longing for the ‘foreign’ country they just left.
Resettlement: A Priority on the HR Agenda:
Resettlement is a relatively new function for HR professionals. However, with the increased speed of globalisation, it will become an increasingly high priority on HR agendas across China and the world. It has always been an issue for major organisations, but in the past its’ scope was far more limited than it is today and that it will be in the near future. With more and more expats arriving in China (there are almost 140,000 expats living and working in Beijing and Shanghai) and many Chinese beginning to make similar journeys in the opposite direction, resettlement will soon become a far larger issue for you as an HR professional than ever before.I am sure many of you deal with expat workers on a regular basis. I am equally sure that many of these expatriates will have had a major positive impact on your organisation on both a professional and personal level. Therefore, it would be a crying shame if their experience in China were to be ruined by a chaotic resettlement process. A lack of planning by the expat and a lack of support from your organisation can lead to such a crisis.
How can HR help?
HR practitioners can provide support in the following ways:
Ensure you define career goals with the expat upon his or her arrival at your site, particularly those associated with resettlement. This means that the expat will be clear at every step of his or her China experience as to the details of when and how they will return home and all the practicalities involved. This will limit the scope for nasty surprises during the resettlement process.
Encourage the expat to maintain contact with professional organisations in their home country. This will help them to keep in contact with compatriots and to remain ‘in the loop’ with organisations from their own country, which will make returning to a different business world less of a culture shock.
Help them to network with professional expat organisations in the foreign country. This will help to make the expat feel at home when they first arrive, but it will also allow them to meet others in a similar situation and, perhaps, to see first hand how resettlement works.
Provide benefits within their contract, which include financial support for airfares home, temporary housing assistance when they arrive home, and relocation of personal belongings. By taking care of such practicalities, you remove many of the biggest headaches for your expat.
Provide counseling throughout employment, which includes a discussion of the issues an expat needs to address on resettlement.
