Expatriates Accompanied by Their Families

By Sophie Josuttis, moderator

According to various statistics, says Andreas Frank, Swiss CEO of the Swiss employer’s association (Präsident Arbeitgeber-Verband des Rheintals, CH), 50% of all relocations of executives fail because their families do not succeed in integrating into the new environment.

Statistics do not always represent the truth, but even 25% failing rate of executive’s relocation would be much too many.

This statistic sends a clear message: We should always consider the family in the expatriate’s relocation.

That consideration should obviously apply to the expatriate him- or herself planning the job change. Also that consideration of course should apply for all companies looking for a new employee worldwide.

Many companies, at least here in Germany, have started to avoid the issue altogether by not hiring employees coming abroad with dependents anyway, expressing the motto: Once bitten, twice shy.

This is a pity. Because, yes, if I do not consider the family’s situation during relocation, I might fail, but also yes, if I do consider the family’s situation and take care about that as well, a successful integration of expatriate, spouse and children is very possible and very likely.

Now, what is the problem anyway?

While the expatriate has a new task, new colleagues, and therefore a new social network, the spouse is often left at home feeling isolated in a foreign country. Family members may miss friends, their old neighbourhood, the familiar school and, most of all, communication in their native language.

This is not at all an unsolvable problem. In fact, it is quite easy to solve. What is needed is an integration program that includes an orientation in the new environment and the new foreign culture, finding new social contacts, learning the foreign language and, through all of that, conveying the feeling of being welcomed in the new country and region - to all of the family members. Experience has shown that leaving that to the expat family is not always the most appropriate thing to do. If the employer did not have enough human resources to help out, the company could easily hire a professional relocation service that offers a family service. Those companies have the skills and the know-how to relocate and also integrate the family into the new environment and culture.

Some companies with high social standards even start to give a job not only to the expatriate but also to the spouse moving with the expat. Those companies know that this service in the short term costs a lot of money, but provides a higher return on investment in the long term.

I wish there were more companies that think more carefully in deciding about expatriate investment with a long-term view. The separation between job and private life is in many ways a delusion. Relocating an expatriate with family is one area in which that becomes obvious for everybody who is willing to look at it clearly.