We live in a global world and many of us work for multi-cultural, global companies. The benefits of expanded opportunities, broadened mindsets, stretched creativity, and improved problem-solving are endless. With 70% of the emerging workforce desiring to work abroad at some point, companies have the added benefit of workers eager to travel (UrbanBound).

So, what’s the catch?

Statistics just aren’t good for retention.

• 21% of employees leave during international assignments (GMAC)

• 23% of employees leave within one year of returning from international assignments (GMAC)

• 43% of employees leave within three years of returning from international assignments (GMAC)

Why is this happening?

Professionals have expressed many reasons for this, including the company failing to help them navigate to a new assignment in their home country, their old position being obsolete, lack of appreciation for their skills and expertise, and no positions being available that could utilize their newly developed skills. Nurses tend to express dissatisfaction with contracts and fulfillment of promises by the hospital for pay and positions. Yet, the majority of international assignments that fail are as a result of another reason that organizations could easily avoid.

67% of the failed international assignments failed because of poor family adaptation (GMAC). The employee’s family has trouble adjusting to the new language and culture and want to (and in some cases do) go home before the employee’s assignment is up (with or without the employee).

Stop the pattern of failed assignments

Failed assignments are costing organizations millions of dollars per year (GMAC). IAP estimates that for 100 24-30 month international assignments, a company will lose approximately $6,212,640 due to impaired or failed assignments related to family adjustment. I’m not kidding, the expense is as aggravating as it is extensive.

The sad thing is, many organizations aren’t even aware of how much this small gap in training offerings is costing them. 1/3 of organizations don’t know how many employees leave their organization within 1 year of repatriation.

These organizations could easily preempt many of these failed assignments by providing language and cultural training for both the employees and their families.

Sadly, less than half of corporations regularly relocating their employees are doing this. Many of them consistently have unspent dollars in their training budget each year. Perhaps that is why their losses are so big and so expensive. If you’ve been an employee that has relocated, you know just how important it is for both you and your family to settle in well to be able to overcome the hurdles of a cross cultural assignment. Providing cultural training and individualized language programs at the start and repatriation at the end of an international assignment can make a big difference in retention.

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If you would like to avoid failed international assignments: