Overseas and Over Your Head?

[Cartoon courtesy of Grantland Cartoons]

As an ardent traveler, nothing could be more exciting to me than the news I'm headed on an African safari to chronicle the movements of the elephant so my company can sell more widgets (in my fantasy, elephants produce the timeless "widgets," and therefore the company needs to spend thousands of dollars to send me on a luxury safari "sourcing" trip).

Most overseas assignments don't have anything to do with sourcing widgets from elephants while boarding in luxury accommodations and shopping for local crafts as another official part of the "sourcing" assignment, but, nevertheless, they're great developmental opportunities. The sad part is many of your employees don’t see it that way.

Some of us assume everyone feels as we do on the topic of travel and temporary living arrangements oceans away from their home, but that’s not so. While living in Africa or Australia for a couple of years sounds like heaven to me, I’m in the minority. Never mind relocating to another hemisphere; many of your employees aren’t even open to relocating across the country or to Europe.

Luckily, advances in technology make it a little easier to convince the weary and anxious that a developmental relocation will work in their favor. Internal corporate social networks in which those on assignment overseas can keep up with their colleagues back home, and vice versa, give nervous potential overseas workers a glimpse of the possibilities. “Oh,” they’ll say to themselves, as they prepare to hyperventilate for the fifth time since you first brought up the topic of overseas assignments, “it’s possible to have fun living in another country. Imagine that!” 

It’s funny, but the truth is those who haven’t traveled much—some of whom have lived in the same metropolitan area their whole lives—need evidence their temporarily relocated work friends are thriving.  International assignment social networks also give the newly assigned access to colleagues who already mastered the overseas work routine and can pass along their wisdom.

Along with interactive connections to peers who are in the field overseas, companies can convince workers to give it try by promising and delivering on-demand technology to help them along in their new location. Since these workers will need help both in the office and at home, it’s worth making the investment of loaning them company laptops for the duration of the assignment. Armed with 24-hour access to technology, on-demand tools such as wikis and online, searchable libraries for work can be complemented with on-demand language and cultural aids for the worker’s home and social life. Be sure to load onto the computer, or make available via the Web, a language tool that includes a semantic decoder, so the employee can familiarize herself with the local vernacular. Also include a searchable repository of information about the foreign city’s culture, such as popular night spots, restaurants, and grocery stores, and parts of the city to avoid.

In these economically-stressed times it also is wise to show the employee how the company will help him manage his finances overseas, maybe by providing a cost-of-living adjustment that suits the place you’ve moved him to. After all, the salary that pays for all the worker’s top indulgences in Missouri probably won’t go as far in Paris. It also goes without saying that you need to help, or even provide, a place to live in the person’s new (albeit temporary) home, and direct him to the services he, as an individual, has a need for. If he has a medical condition (a minor one that wouldn’t interfere with his work abroad) that requires periodic check-ups, provide him with a list of doctors in his new home who can help. On a less minor, though very critical note for animal lovers, find out what the country’s policy is on relocating pets from overseas. As much as I adore travel, I can tell you without hesitation I wouldn’t move anywhere I couldn’t take my Miss Minnie, and a lot of your high-potentials probably feel the same way about their Simba or Tinkerbell.

In addition to technology and information, the most important tool to provide newly-arrived-overseas employees with is a buddy. Most likely your employee is headed to one of your global offices. Be sure to recruit a mentor who’s of local origin—someone born to the culture and language (and yet proficient in the employee’s native tongue)—who can show him the way before he cries into his computer keyboard.

Overseas assignments are enticing and make for a well-rounded, globally-savvy workforce. But if the first word your workers think of when you say “overseas” is drowning, you’ll need a company-built life raft to convince them to give it a try.

How do you prepare your workers for overseas assignments?  Any wisdom—or horrible mistakes you hope no other company suffers—that you could pass along?

Comments

[Connie Kocher]

Does anyone have samples of global org charts (without names, of course) that show how your company organizes global teams, such as product development or sales? That would be a great help to me as we structure our global approach.

[Passion Play in Oberammergau]

Personally, I would love to be sent overseas by my company. Especially if it was to the Bahamas or some place with great weather and fairly low crime rate. Singapore would be a great place too.