Expat Engagement – It’s a Family Thing!

In preparation for our presentation at FIGT in DC at the end of this month, we’ve been reading some old diaries of expat families and particularly accompanying partners.

One thing became immediately apparent.  Almost without exception, the authors felt as if they were part of the assignments that their spouses had accepted.  As spouses, they were expected to fulfil a certain role regarding their husbands’ employers and it appeared that they felt both supported and engaged by the companies and that both they and the companies valued the role that they played.

In today’s environment, accompanying partners have different expectations of their role overseas, but companies still rely on them for doing a lot of things to support assignments.  Despite this companies often no longer acknowledge the role that accompanying partners play.  This might not seem like a big issue, in our conversations with accompanying partners, lack of acknowledgement is one of the most frequently mentioned sources of resentment for accompanying partners towards their sponsoring organisation. When we recently asked accompanying partners what support they would have liked to receive, several said that they would just like their sponsoring organisations to acknowledge their existence!

Of course the concept of engagement is a hot topic in the corporate world.  A recent survey by Dale Carnegie Training showed that companies with engaged employees outperform those without by up to 202% and shareholder return is up to 19% higher at companies where employees are engaged.

It is not too much of a stretch to think that engaged accompanying partners would make a greater contribution to assignment success and expat employee retention. Here are our 5 key strategies for engaging accompanying partners:

1. Acknowledge they exist  - it doesn’t sound like a big ask but a surprisingly large number of accompanying partners have NEVER had a conversation with the Global Mobility professional that their spouse is working with.  That doesn’t mean that the accompanying partner has to be in on each and every conversation but including them in the process will help them and it will give you more of a sense of the partner’s attitude towards the relocation.

1. Acknowledge the role they play and the compromises they may be making to allow the assignment to happen.  As a sponsoring organisation you undoubtedly have expectations of the partner and the partner knows that you do.  Acknowledging that role makes them feel valued and appreciated.

1. If you provide them with information, make sure it’s accurate – If we had a euro for every accompanying partner who has been told one thing by their sponsoring organisation only to find the reality is entirely different, we’d be sipping pina coladas on a tropical island.  Of course accompanying partners can verify information they are given by themselves but when they are relocating they likely have a task list extending over several pages.  If you give them information, they can tick that box.  Better to give them nothing than something that is wrong.

1. Understand their needs – Not every accompanying partner has the same background and therefore not every one has the same needs.  Take the time to understand what’s important to the individual

1. Make sure any support you offer meets those needs – For example don’t offer someone in a new country with pre school age children a 2 day cross cultural training course (yes this has happened to me).  Chances are, they don’t have a trusted babysitter with whom they can leave their children for two whole days.  Find a way to make it work for them and you.

In short, when you relocate a family, you disrupt everyone in that family, particularly the partner. Engaging the accompanying partner will not mean that you have your employee’s partner on the phone asking questions every 15 minutes.  It does mean that you are more likely to have an ally in the relocation process who is motivated and wants to help you.