FIGT: This is How Family Relocation Should Be

One message that came through loud and clear from the FIGT conference was the concern, understanding and compassion shared by all attendees for the families of relocation. Not surprising perhaps given the title of the conference; The Global Family - Redefined.

Speaking to other attendees and drawing on our own experience this overall paradox became clear; Families struggle and organizational support continues to fall short despite the growing wealth of evidence that points to the value of that support.

So, why does this paradox exist?

We’re pretty certain (overall) that it is not because global mobility specialists don’t care. Global mobility issues “real time” often relate to the practical challenges (moving things from A to B) and tactical issues (immigration, tax equalization, salary and benefits). These all need to be sorted BEFORE the employee, with or without family embarks on their relocation and often, due to pressing business needs, this needs to be done yesterday.

The problem with this focus is that family support is often not the priority until a child’s poor school performance highlights underlying issues, the partner declares game over and demands to come home and/or the employees work performance nose-dives because they cannot cope with family issues and work pressures.

The good news though is that families, partners and stretched global mobility professionals are not alone. What the Families in Global Transition demonstrated to us was the wealth of solution-centred support based content that is available.

The opening keynote was made by Ray Leki, Director of the Transition Centre at the US Department of State and author of Travel Wise: How to Be Safe Savvy and Secure Abroad. He demonstrated his huge insight and most impressively for me his deep understanding and compassion for those who live a mobile lifestyle. He said that as global mobility professionals it is our role to “provide a fertile ground for talents to find roots in foreign lands”

He advocated “managing expectations and aspirations” of not just the assignee but the whole family too. He also called for there to be a shift from a focus on the tactical to the long term well-being of human beings.

This theme of the human experience was one that ran through the entire conference.

The session “elephant in the room” highlighted a myriad number of challenges which

attendees believed were not being openly discussed or sufficiently handled: depression, suicide, abuse, racism, lack of longer term financial and retirement planning.

The reality is that the privilege of relocation carries with it the risk of long term career uncertainty. Quick decisions made about a role in isolation to overall career progression and development means that people rarely think beyond the end of the assignment period.

The truth is that everyone needs to think carefully about the longer term impact of that relocation before accepting a relocation; global mobility professionals, the individual employee and each family member. Think forward past the proposed assignment period and ask the following questions:

• What will be the possible future relocation/repatriation options and if these are not clear currently then how will this person’s career be managed and supported proactively NOT retrospectively.

• What is the impact of this relocation for the expat partner? What are the potential career opportunities? What are the career risks? (Better to know at outset than find out on arrival, believe me!) Where will this relocation opportunity take me and am I OK with this?

• What will the impact of dependency be on the expat partner how will they manage the absence of a traditional career progression. How do they feel about not working, or taking time to reinvent their careers to fit their new environment? What resources can be provided to help in this respect?

• What is the impact on the children? Where are they in their educational progression? What are the risks and how can they be supported to alleviate those risks?

• What is the longer term impact of relocation on retirement planning? Where is the security should things go wrong?

We believe that relocation should be a partnership decision and process between the relocating organization and the assignee and their family. Both organizations and employees have a responsibility to each other to work towards making an informed and proactive decision, one based on mutual support aimed at empowering the assignee and family to succeed in the relocation process and beyond.

The Interactive Relocation Triangle for Empowered Relocations