Repatriation Program to Retain Foreign Employees and Save the Investment Costs - Assignment Example

page EXECUTIVE SUMMARY World is growing like a connected network and products that are produced in one country can be easily purchased in another country. This is the power of globalization. World has become like a small village. This has also happened in many other industries where the product from one country is being used in another country. With the increased connectivity, similar things have happened in the human resource industry. Now people are travelling from one country to another for better job opportunities and career growth. Move of human resources has proved to be beneficial not only for the individual but also for the companies. There are many multinational enterprises that are hiring individual from other countries and are achieving success with many projects. Movements of human resource from one country to another also give organization the benefit of choosing from a better and bigger pool of candidates. However this process has its own complications. In order to hire people from other country, a company needs to train the new employee with the culture of the host country. Depending on the involvement and expected interaction of the new employees with others, organization needs to develop a plan for the training of the new employee. The training program and the time period of the training program is decided by the time the individual is going to stay in the host country. Organizations need to evaluate the complete process and provide complete training to the individual to ensure smooth contract or job time period. There are also many problems faced by people who have to go repatriate to their native countries. This problem is severe with people who move to host country on the basis of a project contract. As soon as the contract is over, the organization asks the individual to repatriate to native country. Due to many factors individuals are reluctant to move back and prefer switching to other organizations. Due to this, organization loses on valuable employee who moves to other organizations to avoid repatriate. Organization not only loses the talented human resource but also faces loss on the cost of training and brining the employee to the host country. This way other some other organization which has not invested a dime in training the individual reaps the fruit. In order to avoid such loss, organization needs to develop a Repatriation Programme to deal and cope up with this challenge. The organizations needs to make sure that the individual whose contract has ended with the company feels comfortable in going back and can return when there is a project available. If there is no repatriate consideration by the company then it will keep on losing the valuable work force on which it has invested time, effort and money to train. There are many factors to be considered for a Repatriation Programme. This report will outline a frame work for the Repatriation Programme and help the organization in retaining the employees from other countries and saving the investment cost. Table of Contents EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 2 INTRODUCTION 5 Repatriation 7 Preparation 7 Physical relocation 7 Transition phase 7 Readjustments 8 ISSUES AND CHALLENGES 8 Career issues 8 Organizational change issues 9 Reverse cultural shock issues 9 Practical issues 10 Family issues 10 Grief 10 Reduced income 10 The Importance of Developing a Repatriation Program 11 SOLUTIONS 11 RECOMMENDATIONS 12 CONCLUSION 13 References 13 INTRODUCTION Globalization has presented many opportunities and as well as challenges in the current growing environment. There are many companies around the world whose products are being sold in come other countries of the world. This is because of increased communication and easier transit modes. This presents a challenge for companies who are trying to grow in other markets. In order to reach complete market potential companies need to transfer resources including human resources in order to respond to market (Baruch and Altman, 2002). There are also organizations which need cross sectional workforce in order to be efficient and respond to market needs properly. Due to all the reasons mentioned, human resource has been shifting to other countries. This has given rise to expatriate and repatriate. To avail the benefits of more talented work force, companies are hiring people from other countries. This gives them two benefits. First is that they get a global pool to choose an appropriate candidate. Second benefit is that they get workforce which can take the challenges thrown by the globalization. Many companies are hiring individual from other countries (MacDonald and Arthur, 2004). Come hire for longer time period while others hire for project based jobs. There are fewer challenges faced when the hiring is for long period of time but when companies hire individuals for project based jobs there are many challenges faced due to repatriation. First and foremost challenge faced is that most people who have travelled from their native country to native country do not want to go back upon the end of contract. There are many factors involved for the unwillingness to go back. The strongest factor for the unwillingness of the repatriate to return to native country is stress. A person who has spent his or her time in some other country will adapt to the culture and later it will be difficult for them to revert back to the previous state. This causes stress in the employees. There are also uncertainties regarding their job which causes stress in them. When a person is not feeling secure about the job, it causes uncertainty in the mind which induces stress in the mind of the repatriate (STAHL et al., 2009). There are also people who feel that they will not be able to secure better jobs when they return to their native countries and this will cause a blocking factor in their careers. Considering this fact they want to stay in the same country to have a good career growth. Income plays a vital role in the unwillingness to move back to the native country. Many expatriates get better salaries either due to better income or due to the currency difference (Andersen, Bergdolt, and Margenfeld, 2002). They manage their finances based on the improved income. When the contract ends and they are being sent back, the repatriates are not willing to switch back to the lower income offered by their native place. All these factors play a vital role and when a company tries to send them back, the individual move to other organizations in order to stay in the same country. They have many uncertainties which they handle by staying in the same country. There are five stages of the international assignments and project (Andresen and Gustschin, n.d). The first stage is the selection of the candidate the second step is the cross cultural training and programs. Third step is the global career management. Fourth step is the achievement of objective or project end. Last and important step is the repatriation. This step is though equally important but is neglected by many organizations. This gives rise to the problems and individual are not guided well causing anxiety and stress in them. Same is the case with the Kakapo Enterprises. They do not focus on the repatriate process. Rather they focus on the first four steps of the cycle only. When they do not guide and repatriate, the person feels stressed and uncertain and wants to stay in the same country even if they have to join a new organization. This damages the efforts made by the HR department in the recruitment, selection and training process. Kakapo Enterprises also loses valuable work force to other companies. Other organizations which have not made any investment get the benefit out of the international employees. The problem of increased turnover in the work force can be handled by addressing this stage separately. LITERATURE REVIEW Repatriation The concept of repatriation is very simple. Repatriate refer to the person who is being sent back to the native place. It is the last step in the expatriate process and is of significant importance. There are four steps for the successful repatriate of a person. Preparation First step is to inform the repatriate. He or she must be informed about the things that he or she needs to do before going to the home country. Physical relocation This step involves the break of social ties with the colleagues and people around. After which the repatriate will be relocated physically. In case the repatriate has moved with family then there are a lot of stress factors which will involve. In order to remove those stress factors company must assist the repatriate in the relocation phase. Transition phase This phase involves the readjustment of the repatriate and his or her family in the homeland. This phase includes arranging schooling, temporary accommodation and performing of administrative things like applying for licences, medical insurance, bank account etc. Readjustments This phase involves handling the reverse culture shocks. It also involves the career aspect of the repatriate. ISSUES AND CHALLENGES There are many problems faced by the repatriates. These problems are discussed in details below to shed light on the issues that repatriate face when they return to homeland and what problem they are expected to face when re-entering due to absence of the proper repatriate programme. Career issues There are many career issues faced by the repatriate. One is in the form when prior project comes to end and second is when he returns to the home country. Third problem is seen when he re-enters the host country again. The first problem faced by the individual is the end of the career in the host country when he or she is being sent back to the home country. The individual feels uncertainty regarding many aspects of the career. Second issue is faced when he returns to the home country and is not able to find appropriate job. The individual expects that a good firm will hire to take advantages of the experience he has gained in the foreign market but all hopes are shattered when no organization in the native country hires the individual and is not willing to use the experience. This is mostly because the experience gained from the international market is much wider in range and most of the time it is not useful for the local market. Individual faces disappointment and loses confidence (Andersson Jennie, 2006). Third problem in career is faced when the individual tries to re-enter the host country again for different project. The previous work is not identified. Previous contributions are forgotten and previous position in the organization is lost. Most of the individuals are repositioned and their previous work and achievements are not considered. In worst scenarios the individuals upon returning do not get their job back and have to look for new job from the scratch and has to go through the tiring process of reselection and as if they are on their own (Suutari and Brewster, 2001). These factors are cause uncertainty regarding the career and individuals do not mostly want to go back. They want to stay in the same country and leveraged the experience they have gained from the international market (Suutari and Brewster, 2003). Females face more troubles when it comes to career and other factors. (Linehan and Scullion, 2002) Organizational change issues When the repatriate went back to his native country and his job, he or she faced different organizational changes. The company has gone through major changes and the individual find it hard to regain their former position in the native country job. Instead of better growth due to international experience they even don’t get their previous position back. It takes them a lot of time to settle again and gain the position they had left. This causes frustration and stress to the repatriate. In case when the same individual tries to re-enters the host job. He faces the same challenges. The process of shifting to and fro from the host country to native country bring the growth of the individual to zero and each time he or she has to restart is work from scratch. Reverse cultural shock issues After staying away from the native country an individual adjust to the culture of the host country. Mostly he or she becomes used to that culture. Upon repatriation, the individual experiences reverse cultural shock. He finds it hard to settle in the same culture again. He or she might used to like things prior to going but after returning he or she may not like those things and finds those things inappropriate. Individual will also find it hard to readjust again when he or she re-enters the host country. After the repatriation, the individual might feel weird for long time and had to learn the way of living in the native country especially when the he or she has been in the host country for longer time. Practical issues Many practical issues are also experienced by the repatriate. He or she may have to go through long procedures for opening bank account, get licence, order a broad brand connection or apply for loan because he or she has been away from the native country. Same happens when the individual goes to host country again. Same problems are experienced again. Family issues Family problems are experienced when the whole family shifts to and fro native to host country. It is difficult for the spouse too get job and difficult for children to adjust in new schools and environment. It is also difficult for them to learn new language when entering host country and equally difficult to revert back to previous native country and culture. Grief Grief is experienced by people who are travelling and settling in two different cultures again and again. They experience the same grief which is faced when a close relative is lost due to death (Chamove and Soeterik, 2006). Settling again and again in two contrasting culture affect the emotional well being of the individual and affects the personality badly. Reduced income This is one of the major factors experienced by the repatriate. Person who has been living in the host country experiences growth in the career and his financial conditions improves. This may be sometimes due to the career growth and improved position and sometimes due to the currency difference. When the individual is being sent back to the native country he/she does not want to return to the same life style. He or she wants to retain the lifestyle and financial status in the same host country. The Importance of Developing a Repatriation Program International HRM evolves gradually and due to the slow growth, there may be problems sue to non availability of a frame work and system. When there is a successful repatriate, there will be many advantages. The organization will have its valuable, talented and skilled individual back whenever there is a need or any project pops up. It will also provide many other benefits. The individual will grow technically and culturally to benefit the organization in the long run. If the organization gives the sense of career continuity to the employee then the benefits can be outstanding (Jassawalla, Connelly, & Slojkowski, 2004). The sense of continuity can be given to the individual by giving the results and benefits of accumulated work done. It can also be given by nurturing the employees who have extra ordinary background of work in the host country or the home country. When an individual is assisted throughout the process of repatriation, he or she feels good about the company and wants to stay loyal to the company. Increasing the loyalty factors can decrease the turnover rate of employees significantly. The multinational enterprise saves cost and achieves higher level of work force commitment from bright and talented employees (Chew, 2008). SOLUTIONS Organization should formulate a Repatriation Programme which not only helps the individual while they are returning back to their native country but also helps him or her when the person plan to re-enter the host country. Repatriation Programme must cover the following policies and strategies (Paik, Segaud, & Malinowski, 2002). Assistance by the company should be provided to the repatriate in physical relocation, preparation, and transition. Company must help in calculating the allowances and taxes and provide information with which the money of the repatriate can be saved. Company must provide assistance in the career path. Repatriation Programme must contain provisions to help the expatriate and the family to overcome cultural shocks. Organization must help individual in finding accommodation for him or her and family. Company can also assist with the school and education of the children. Organization must help in creating new contacts by arranging gatherings. Organization must help with the networking and socializing. Organization must also help individual in stress management by providing stress free environment. RECOMMENDATIONS To address the career problems Kakapo Enterprises must guide the individuals about the changes they might experience in native country and the changes expected upon re-entering. This will help in reducing the career uncertainty in the mind of the individuals and make them stress free regarding the career matters. Kakapo Enterprises must organize sessions for multiple careers. Enterprise must have a written agreement to provide the available project upon return of employees. This will help the individuals in gaining confidence and removing the job insecurity problem. This way they will not try to switch to other organizations instead of returning to the native country. Company must be organizing programs for mentoring after they return. Reorientation programs must be organized in order to make the individual aware of the changes the organization has gone through in his or her absence. This way the organization will provide them latest information on the way things are done and what changes have been made in the organizational structure and day to day tasks. After return the individual must be provided with the adjustment period in order to help hi adjust in the host country culture again. Identifying the individual previous achievements and positive work for the organization and give them sense of continuity. Company can also reward them for previous contribution to the organization. CONCLUSION Kakapo Enterprises must follow these recommendations in order to reduce the employee turnover and retain the valuable workforce for it. It is very important to consider Repatriation Programme an important part of the cycle of expatriate. Kakapo Enterprises must start this project to avoid loss of investment on employees training, travelling and expatriate cost. If the individuals feel satisfied about their jobs and have less job insecurity then they will definitely continue work with Kakapo Enterprises. References Andersen, M., Bergdolt, F., and Margenfeld, J. (2002). 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