The Challenge of Transition for Expatriate Dual Career Couples: Career Choice and the Accompanying Partner

International expansion is seen by many organisations as the answer for future business growth and development. Driven by business strategy, global mobility has also become a talent management priority in many organisations as they compete to attract, develop and retain the very best international talent in the most cost effective ways.

The challenge is intensified by the fact that between fifty and sixty per cent of all international assignees have partners (Brookfield, Cartus 2012) who are often unwilling to give up or compromise their own careers in exchange for the “experience” of international living.

And so the “difficult issue” of trying to reconcile international relocation with a partner’s career aspirations becomes at best a challenge and at worst a frustrating obstacle to many global mobility specialists international resourcing dilemmas.

Recognising this as an increasing challenge for organisations and wanting to understand the issue from the perspective of the accompanying partners, we conducted a survey of 312 accompanying partners on expat assignments in 59 countries around the world.

The study explored the decisions that accompanying partners make in relation to their own careers when they relocate with their partners on expat assignments.

From the Horse’s Mouth:

Here is a brief overview of the key findings. A fuller summary report can be accessed by inserting your name and email address into the box to the right of this article.

Working Status:

The majority of accompanying partners do want to work in some form whilst living abroad. 78% of participants said that they wanted to work or were already doing so. 56% were not working but wished to be doing so.

Obstacles to Working Whilst Abroad:

Partners identified a range of factors as inhibiting their search for work whilst abroad. These factors fell into three broad categories:

• Practical issues that made the search for work more difficult included the ability to work legally but partners also identified a number of additional issues, such as lack of access to/knowledge of local networks, language challenges and childcare.
• Choice issues such as wanting to be available for their children due to the absence of any other support network. This meant that partners needed to find more flexible ways of working whilst abroad, some choosing part-time or self-employment solutions.
• Employer support was identified by both working and non-working accompanying partners as an obstacle to finding work. Partners felt that that their sponsoring organisations could do more both in terms of helping them to obtain a work permit and more generally.

Assignment Fulfillment and Life Satisfaction:

Assignment Fufillment:

The majority of accompanying partners (53%) were either fulfilled or very fulfilled by their assignment experience, which at first glance seems encouraging.

However 47% were either ambivalent (neutral) unfulfilled or very unfulfilled by the assignment experience. This is a finding worth consideration. Partners who have no strong affiliation with the assignment are less likely to be a positive supporter of the assignment experience.

Interestingly whilst 68% of the participants who were working rated themselves as fulfilled or very fulfilled, only 42% of non-working participants rated themselves the same.

Assignment fulfillment was derived from three sources (i) the overall assignment experience which involved meeting new people, learning about the host culture/language and travel (ii) the personal development opportunities (iii) the lifestyle.

Life Satisfaction:

57% of accompanying partners had above average life satisfaction levels (measured by Diener’s Satisfaction With Life Score – SWLS). Like assignment fulfillment, there is a distinction between working and non-working accompanying partners.

• 68% of working accompanying partners have an above average SWLS score
• Only 48% of non-working accompanying partners have an above average SWLS score.

A Roadmap for Supporting Accompanying Partners

The survey draws several important conclusions:

The majority of accompanying partners do want to work in some form whilst on assignment and this makes the challenge of recruitment and retention of employees who are a part of a dual career couple very real and relevant to organisations.

There are some very real obstacles for accompanying partners to working whilst abroad in addition to the well documented and recognised challenge of work permits. Understanding these obstacles will help employers to target the resources that they use to support accompanying partners in a more effective and therefore cost efficient way.

Assuming that partners are happy in their supporting role is not always valid. Whether accompanying partners do not work due to circumstance or choice it may have a negative impact on their level of assignment fulfillment.

Accompanying partners require support in helping them to identify purpose and meaning in their assignment experience regardless of their ability or desire to work.

Instead of seeing accompanying partners as an additional cost and a difficult issue, we suggest that partners be seen as an asset in the relocation process. Many accompanying partners in this survey talked about the valuable role that they play in facilitating the relocation and supporting the assignment experience. In the search for assignment cost efficiency and investment return, targeted support towards ensuring the success of the accompanying partner is an investment in the success of the assignee and the assignment.

If you would like to read more about this research then you can access the Summary Report by completing the form at the top of this page. You can also purchase a copy of the Full Report by going to the Research Page.