For expatriates it may seem like putting the cart before the horse, but it’s important to have a repatriation plan before you leave your home country to start your assignment in Dubai, Abu Dhabi or any other international business hub. In many cases, expats on assignment are high performers or future leaders, and it’s important that both a professional and personal plan are in place for when they are moving from the UAE back to their home country.
Our experts in Crown Relocations UAE hear most often about the issue of high attrition rates in returning assignees – often as high as three times the company average. The employee comes back to his home country and is either shoe-horned into a role that happened to be open or returns to the same role they were in before their assignment. This often leads to demotivation at work and a feeling that all of their new international skills that have been earned during the assignment in the United Arab Emirates are being wasted – which at the end in that case they are. Capitalizing on the employer’s investment means retaining a productive employee for the duration of the assignment and well beyond. Otherwise the employer becomes the global training ground for your competitors. It’s not just the employee, though.
To sum up, it’s important for everyone to think about moving back home by considering the following:
- Ask your employer to allow a home and host country professional mentor to help identify possible roles in the UAE based facility
- Providing repatriation training for the entire family before they move out of the host country
- Make sure to keep in touch with colleagues, friends and family back in your home town
- Providing assignment-related return on investment education for the company’s HR and management teams who are leading repatriating employees on how to utilize the new skill set they bring to the role
- Creating a corporate imperative for global competencies