The Economic Argument for Supporting the Accompanying Partner of Your Expatriate Assignee:

Moving an employee overseas for an expat assignment is a significant expense for any organization and Global Mobility and Talent Management professionals are often under pressure to minimize those costs.

For that reason alone, justifying the provision of support for an accompanying partner that extends beyond the essential and practical is a tough sell as part of the relocation budget.

Besides budget, even when organizations are predisposed to supporting accompanying partners, their diverse circumstances and needs make it difficult for HR professionals to identify effective forms of support and provide it.

But is this a reason to ignore the needs of the Accompanying Partner and simply “hope” that they will manage their own way through? We believe that there are convincing arguments in favor of support for the Accompanying Partner.

The argument for Accompanying Partner Support from the organizational perspective:

The truth is that failing to support the accompanying partners of expat assignees is a short-term cost saving with long-term negative consequences.

Here are some of the reasons why.

Assignment refusal

Cartus (2012) found that 58% of assignments turned down were due to spouse/partner employment issues. Support for partners in this area could help to reduce the number of assignment refusals and hence the time and cost involved in sourcing new international mobile employees.

Early Return from Assignments

Early Returns exist at a rate of between 6% and 30% depending on the destination location of the assignment. A contributory factor being cultural issues and family/partner dissatisfaction.

Where talent management processes have developed or sourced skilled and valuable employees, losing them due to partner or family dissatisfaction is more than a loss in terms of sunk relocation costs. It represents the loss of a valuable team member, one who often carries a wealth of knowledge and experience that is difficult to replace.

Loss of productivity

For the assigned employee the stress caused by an unhappy family member can have a big impact on their ability to focus on the job in hand. Settling into a new role with challenging responsibilities can become overwhelming when the employee is also the sole supporter of a partner who is struggling at home. The impact: A negative impact on work focus and productivity.

Breakdown in an employee’s relationship:

An international move can place higher levels of stress on a relationship and at worse this can lead to a breakdown in the employee’s relationship or marriage which in turn can lead to any one or all of the consequences above.

Employee Mobility and Refusal to embark on future assignments:

An employee whose partner has not been happy on one international assignment is unlikely to agree to an extension of the current or initiation of new assignments. The organization loses a valuable international skill-set and the employee the opportunity to further contribute in the international environment.

Negative perception of the company:

Even when an assignment has been completed, an employee whose accompanying partner has had a bad experience may harbor a lingering resentment towards the company leading to diminished loyalty and perhaps even the loss of a valuable employee to another organization.

The Case for Support:

The cost of supporting accompanying partners is insignificant when compared with the investment that is tied up in high potential and highly skilled employees. In addition a supported Accompanying Partner can be a real asset to an international global mobility program and a powerful advocate for the organization.

Rather than debating the costs of Accompanying Partner support a more pertinent question may be:

“What is the potential cost to the organization of no support?”

If you’d like to learn more about how the Thriving Abroad system “Decide to Thrive” can help you to provide cost effective support to the accompanying partners of your expatriate employees CLICK HERE.

To talk to us contact us here.