Introduction
In today’s contemporary business society, various organizations tend to hire employees from different regions and locations to increase the effectiveness of the business. The reason is that having an expatriate manager of employees helps the business to understand the cross-cultural gaps and increase the effectiveness of the business (Chew & Debowski, 2008). In addition, employees these days are often required to travel to other places and work with multiple corporations in either collaboration or directing the organization’s business operations. Moreover, employees are often required to attend international conferences and work groups that help to increase the skills as well as offer them a higher exposure. This increases the capabilities and the skills of the employees that would prove to be beneficial for the business.
However, it is noted that the employee turnover ratio for expatriate managers and employees is increasing (Chew & Debowski, 2008). This means that people that return from foreign trips and group assignments leave their jobs that increases the turnover for the organization as well as increases the costs of hiring new talent. This paper tends to relate the reasons behind the high employee turnover and offer a rationale behind the key reasons.
Discussions
The reason that organizations these days hire expatriate employee is that businesses these days have a diverse and multicultural workforce due to advancements in globalization. This increases the cross-cultural gaps and the challenges faced by business. By hiring expatriate managers, the business tends to increase its understanding as well as strengthen its strategic implications to establish an effective cross-cultural communication and understanding. Another task of expatriate managers is to attend foreign delegations as well as attend to international business affairs. However, employees returning from international locations often leave their jobs after returning from foreign trips.
An article published by BBC news would enlighten the key reasons behind the high employee turnover in returning-expat employees (Alsop, 2014). The article narrates the life-events of Sameer Shamsuddin, an international chief technology officer working for a multinational organization (Alsop, 2014). According to the article Shamsuddin, enjoyed working with multi-cultured assignments and environment, as it was exciting as well as thrilling. However, upon Shamsuddin’s return to homeland, the employee felt being undervalued and not getting the opportunity to utilize the skills completely (Alsop, 2014).
The employee requested to continue working from abroad, however, the request was declined due to which, the employee resigned (Alsop, 2014). This article tells us that employee that receive exposure in foreign lands, working with multi-cultural and diverse people not only enhance their communication skills but also have higher expectations from their organization (Alsop, 2014). The employees that work on foreign assignments feel their talents are being under-utilized and need challenging opportunities to support their careers (Alsop, 2014). Moreover, the employees that work with foreign companies and on international locations have increased knowledge about the varying cultural disparities as well as the various techniques used by different cultures and communities.
Thus, the employee feels their value in the business increases and need to work on bigger projects. The problem is that most foreign assignments are temporary in nature and the employee is expected to return to their previous job roles upon their return. However, the heightened expectation and the enhanced knowledge as well as the increased capabilities of the employees are the reasons behind the high employee turnover (Chew & Debowski, 2008). This means that employees that work on foreign assignments expect to work of varying roles and avoid monotonous tasks to keep them interested in their jobs.
In my opinion, it is justified that the employees would lack the motivation to perform in their previous job roles due to the exposure on a challenging opportunity. Moreover, it increases the capabilities of the employees that tend to increase their expectations towards compensation and benefits. Therefore, the employers need to increase the effectiveness of the job roles in order to retain the employees (Truman, n.d).
Employee turnover is a cost implication for a business, as the organization needs to incur the costs of training and development as well as the costs of hiring a replacement employee. Moreover, the organization suffers from the lost productivity during the time needed to hire and train a new employee (Chew & Debowski, 2008). Therefore, it is better to offer the returning expats with challenging opportunities and motivational benefits to retain them.
Conclusion
Conclusively, employee turnover is a cost implication for a business and retaining the employees is a cheaper solution than hiring new employees. A business needs to retain the returning expats by offering them challenging opportunities and adequate compensation to retain their services. The key reason behind the increase in turnover of returning expatriates is that they have to resume working in similar capacities while their skills and knowledge have advanced. This reduces the motivation and commitment of the employees and thus, results in higher employee turnover in returning expatriates. The organization can use various motivational strategies such as succession planning and offering various monetary benefits to increase the employee retention.
References
Alsop, R. (2014). When expats return home, what’s next?, BBC News. Retrieved from: http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20140115-returning-expat-discontent on 28 December 2014.
Chew, J., & Debowski, S. (2008). Developing an Effective Repatriation Strategy for MNC: A Model and Tools for International Human Resource Management, Journal of Comparative International Management Volume: 11 Issue: 2, pp. 3-21. Retrieved from: http://journals.hil.unb.ca/index.php/JCIM/article/viewFile/12444/13350 on 28 December 2014.
Truman, S. (n.d). Expatriates At Risk; Stress and Mental Health, Global Business News. Retrieved from: http://www.globalbusinessnews.net/story.asp?sid=1574 on 28 December 2014.
