Responses should be a minimum of 150 words and include direct questions.
Latasha Smith
Many companies hire expatriates to work overseas within the organizations. These employees travel to foreign countries and play a vital role in the growth and development of the company within the global markets. Often times, expatriates are carefully selected to fill the roles overseas as subject matter experts and more than likely become head of these organizations as managers and leaders. Selection of members for expat assignments are critical to an organization''s success and financial structure because many organizations spend a lot of money to develop, train, and retain their expatriate employees. Developing expatriates starts with proper preparation and training to help employees ease their way into a new environment and even provide financial means to ensure members are taken care of overseas. Often times employer spend a hefty amount to cover additional expenses for expatriates and their families to ensure the members is under as less stress as possible and can focus on the organizational needs.
Although, organizations spend large amount on expatriates and business ventures, it is often found difficult to retain these employees. Many expatriates find it difficult to re-adjust upon their return to their host country. Many experience what is known as reverse culture shock and research has shown that companies do little to minimize the potential effect of reverse culture shock (Deresky, 2014). Other reasons that organizations find it difficult to retain expatriates is due to things like unclear expectations and underutilization of experience. For example: when employees take the new overseas assignment they hope to bring back the experience they have learned from foreign countries and possibly gain promotions; however upon their return all the experience they have gained goes to waste because management in not entirely clear on their experience (Vilet, 2012). Because of this impact many expats leave the current organization for another position in other organizations that can adequately utilize their new management skills and gained knowledge and are greatly compensated.
Organizations should try to retain their expatriates in order to provide adequate return on investments. They have taken the time out to train them and move them to another country, they should assist these employees upon their return and places them in jobs where they can utilize their newfound skills, if any, and compensate them for the gained experience accordingly.
References
Deresky, H. (2014). International management: Managing across borders and cultures (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.
Vilet, J. (2012). Why can't organizations retain their expatriate employee? Talent Management and HR. Retireved from: https://www.eremedia.com/tlnt/why-cant-organizations-retain-their-expatriate-employees/