Why Your Returning Expats Need Re-Entry Training
You’ve done everything to ensure that your people living abroad are successful. And they’ve been extremely successful. Kudos!Now they’re coming back home. Your job is done. Right? So wrong. Not even close. In fact, the biggest hurdle is waiting in the “home” country.
What fails to make it onto many people’s radar—including those abroad—is that, during their years abroad, people have changed; people at “home” have changed; and the entire “home” culture has changed. It’s true that you can’t really “go home again” because home has moved on without you, and you have moved on without it.
Re-entry culture shock is often more difficult to deal with than that of relocation because it’s unexpected and invisible. The idea that coming back “home” means taking up where you left off creates unrealistic expectations that are a major cause of re-entry difficulties:
Unrealistic Expectation 1: I am going back to colleagues and a culture I know and that is familiar to me. I am going “home.” No problem.
Unrealistic Expectation 2: I am the same person I was when I left and can easily return to my old behaviors.
Unrealistic Expectation 3: People will be interested in my “adventures” or life abroad.
Summary
- Expats consistently report that it is much more difficult to readjust to the home culture following relocation than to adjust to the new culture abroad.
- The ways of living and doing business in the home country have continued to evolve. The culture you left no longer exists. And although you have also changed while immersed in the culture abroad, these changes are often not apparent to those back home.
- A report on key findings regarding what helps people to feel “settled in” recommends to professionals: “Don’t ignore repatriates because you think they’re ‘just coming home’.” And another states that, “Although focus on repatriation and its importance remains high, widespread adoption of formal strategies by companies remains elusive.”
- Most companies now recognize the importance of relocation training. However, there is more than one way to lose investment in a valued employee one sends abroad. Though the need may be less obvious, indications are that re-entry training for those returning “home” is even more important than relocation training.
NOTE: Re-entry Training provides information and skills to help employees prepare for and re-enter their own home culture. The need for, and benefits of, re-entry training have not been as widely publicized as those for relocation training. Companies acknowledge the importance of the repatriation process.4 However, they often remain unaware of how much training and support is required for re-entry, since repatriation difficulties tend to be less visible and more varied. Many companies still provide only a “discussion” or other informal approach for employees returning “home.”
See our Pre-departure and Re-entry Programs
Moving Matters: A Study of How to Help International Transferees Relocate: Final Report Fall 2005, Research conducted by The Interchange Institute, Brookline MA; Commissioned by GRAEBEL, Aurora, CO.
Global Relocation Trends 2012 Survey Report, Brookfield Global Relocation Services, Woodridge, IL, p. 14.
