Question

Respond to the following in a minimum of 175 words:

Organizational best practices in preparing expatriate candidates and their families for international work assignments, including cultural, social and business aspects should be assessed. Discuss best practices in preparing for an expatriate assignment. What considerations should be made when adapting to an expatriate assignment?

Answer 1

Here are the considerations that must be made to adapt to an expatriate assignment and the best practices that must be adopted to prepare the candidates:

• It is important while preparing for the expatriate assignment to have the drive to communicate. It is important to be both enthusiastic & extrovert in conversation and not holding back to share the conversations & feelings.
• Another consideration is to ensure that candidates understand the value of broad sociability and not stay limited with the circle of the fellow ex-pat community. The market insights and understanding becomes better if candidates adjust to the unfamiliar environment.
• The expatriate assignment candidates who add the maximum value are the ones who are open to local market trends and various cultural factors. The candidate must be willing to experiment with various customers and respect the beliefs of others.
• The ex-pat candidates who have a cosmopolitan mindset understand that various norms, cultural factors have immense value and meaning to native people. The acceptability and adaptiveness to such cultural norms should be high.
• The style of work and negotiation should be collaborative in nature. The possible chances of conflicts reduce and difference of opinions and expectations can be well negotiated if a collaborative mindset is put into practice.

Here are other considerations and best practices to prepare the candidates:

• The organisation need and reason should be compelling to send someone on such an assignment. Selecting the right people with the right reasons plays a very important role.
• It should involve selecting the right person, right skills, adaptation to local culture and how those skills will help the organisation.
• To make sure that overall experience is good, well connect and not feeling adrift it is important to provide the right home base and destination. The firm must be empathetic and considerate to understand the experience.
• It is an important consideration to stay in frequent touch with the candidate throughout the assignment and provide all necessary support, resources and mentorship.
• The good case practice is to have a plan for reintegration and provide the necessary transition to relearn the culture and process their personal and professional experience.
• The firm should find channels and ways to share the knowledge and learnings from the candidate's experiences.

========================================================================================