{"id":1104,"date":"2012-10-11T22:22:53","date_gmt":"2012-10-11T21:22:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/expatriatus\/?p=1104"},"modified":"2012-10-11T22:22:53","modified_gmt":"2012-10-11T21:22:53","slug":"spotlight-engagement-the-case-of-expatriates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/expatriatus\/2012\/10\/11\/spotlight-engagement-the-case-of-expatriates\/","title":{"rendered":"Spotlight Engagement: The Case of Expatriates"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>My last blog entry covered the topic of employee engagement \u2013 a corporate buzzword that should currently be \u2018buzzing\u2019 in organizations\u2019 lists of priorities even more to keep employees going as \u2018the going gets tough\u2019. As previously mentioned, the recent Global Workforce Study<\/em><\/a> by Towers Watson (TW) emphasizes that traditional engagement models do not seem to work anymore, and that organizations should focus on sustainable engagement by providing a work environment that would enable employees\u2019 development, productivity and well-being.<\/p>\n

Even though the TW study concerned the general workforce, I believe that the same factors are also relevant for expatriate engagement in particular. As several expatriate surveys indicate (e.g. Cartus 2012<\/a>, Brookfield, 2012<\/a>), financial difficulties have also influenced expatriation strategies, making organizations adopt more flexible and lower-cost options of international assignments (e.g. international commuting or extended business travel), while also reducing assignee benefits. In times of limited organizational resources, engagement is therefore meant to keep these limitations from translating into dispiriting work experiences also for the expat population.<\/p>\n

The findings of previous engagement research conducted by the Kenexa Research Institute found that expatriates are generally more engaged than local nationals, and although expats share similar engagement drivers to non-expats, there are also some unique elements.<\/p>\n

Specifically, expatriates seem to pay more attention to all factors related to a company\u2019s future and actions of senior leadership. The Kenexa employee insight report<\/a> (2010) notes that confidence in the company\u2019s future, namely confidence in senior leadership and their ability to manage challenges and respond to market changes, are more important engagement factors for expats than non-expats. That is not surprising, given that expatriates are often more connected to an organization\u2019s business strategy than local employees: International assignments tend to target critical objectives for an organization, let alone the fact that companies are investing substantial monetary resources in their employees\u2019 relocation, which would require a clear business case for relocation (at least you would hope so). Accordingly, being quite tightly linked to business strategy requires expats\u2019 confidence in this strategy. For example, accepting an assignment to establish a new subsidiary abroad most probably requires an employee\u2019s high commitment to and trust in this project and its strategic value for the company\u2019s future. In terms of the practical actions to be taken for this engagement driver, the TW survey (2012) results suggest the importance of shared views of goals and expectations. The TW professionals found that engaged employees score much higher on all aspects related to contributing to and understanding business goals than disengaged employees. Remembering the aforementioned nature of international assignments, this should be especially true for expatriates. Ensuring that expatriates agree with the goals and have realistic expectations towards an assignment, and clearly linking these to an organization\u2019s business strategy could be the right steps to increase expat engagement.<\/p>\n

In addition, Kenexa found that expatriate engagement is also more driven by one\u2019s individual outlook and future prospects compared to non-expats. Indeed, being temporarily absent from the home unit, possibly having an open-ended assignment contract abroad, and returning with a new set of skills and expectations to a home environment that has also changed makes the career path of expatriates somewhat more unpredictable than that of local employees. This creates more feelings of uncertainty and hence requires confidence in the future.<\/p>\n

Finally, the Kenexa employee insight report (2010) emphasizes that expatriate engagement issues are strongly linked to matters of retention, as repatriates are often more likely to quit than the average local employees. In a sense, having finished a project or an assignment abroad may serve as a natural break, creating a situation where the employee has to decide whether to re-engage or look for other employment possibilities outside the organization. Therefore, employers should pay specific attention to expats\u2019 re-engagement process upon repatriation to avoid the risks of expats becoming so-called international itinerants (see my blog entry here<\/a>). A solid repatriation strategy, career path planning, continuous support, and regular contact with expatriates during the assignment are some of the factors that facilitate this process.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Generally speaking, expatriates share similar engagement drivers to non-expatriates. However, there are also some unique elements of expatriate engagement, which stem from the nature of their employment type. Specifically, expatriates seem to pay more attention to all factors related to a company\u2019s future and actions of senior leadership, as well as their engagement tends to be more driven by one\u2019s individual outlook and future prospects compared to non-expats.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":345,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18330],"tags":[44819,44813,18341,44803,44821,44820],"class_list":["post-1104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-views-and-news-about-expatriates","tag-career-path","tag-employee-engagement","tag-expatriate","tag-repatriation","tag-shared-expectations","tag-shared-goals"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/expatriatus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/expatriatus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/expatriatus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/expatriatus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/345"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/expatriatus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1104"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/expatriatus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1114,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/expatriatus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1104\/revisions\/1114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/expatriatus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/expatriatus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/expatriatus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}