Identify the Key Factors in Selecting Expatriates Assignment

As business becomes increasingly global, many organizations will be faced with the need to send employees abroad, who are called expatriates (Veltkamp, 2015). An expatriate is a highly skilled worker with unique expertise who leaves the home country and is sent to work in a foreign country or host country (Ghafoor et al., 2011).

According to Dowling and Welch, the key factors to be considered and studied by the HR manager in expatriation selection assignment shall include, Cross Cultural Suitability, Family Requirements, Technical Ability, MNC Requirements, Language and Country/Cultural Requirements (Dowling & Welch, 2005).

Cross Cultural Suitability

Cross Cultural Suitability is a vital ability that enables the expatriates to not only perform well in the work but also live smoothly in the new environment. This ability shall include cultural empathy, adaptability, diplomacy, language ability, positive attitude, emotional stability and maturity. The HR manager shall conduct assessment of the expatriate on his personality, attitude to foreigners, ability to relate to people from another cultural group, work and live with foreigners during the selection process (Dowling & Welch, 2005).

Family Requirement

The HR manager shall not ignore the Family Requirement during the expatriate selection process. Earlier study conducted by Foreign Trade Council found out that 80% of employees that refused international assignments were due to family issues (Laine, 2013).  The ideal expatriate shall has the full support of the whole family. The instable relation with spouse due to foreign assignment of the expatriate is the most common cause resulting in the career failure of the expatriate ( Ronny, Rickard, & Tuyet-Tu, 2007). If the spouse follows the expatriate to the new country, the responsibility for settling down the family into the new environment will be on the spouse’s shoulder, and she may need to sacrifice a lot from her previous life, such as career, social networks with friends and free time. Open communication with the employees on the family issue is essential during the selection process. Any difficulty facing by the employee shall be highlighted in the beginning stage so that the company could know the need from the assignee’s family clearly and can provide certain assistance or solutions in advance before they leave the home country (FIDI, 2016).

Technical Ability

Technical Ability of the person to perform at work shall be considered carefully during the process, since the technical ability is the main reason that people are selected for relocation most of the time (Black & Gregersen, 1999). Managerial skills are also an essential criterion. The technical and managerial skills can be assessed by the company easily, since expatriates are mostly existing internal employee, personnel evaluation records can be checked with the candidate’s past and present superiors and appraisal record for the past years. However, the HR manager shall take note that the past performance may have little or no bearing on the assignee’s ability to achieve a task in a foreign cultural environment (Dowling & Welch, 2005).

MNC Requirements

The MNC requirements play an important role on the decisions making and selection criteria. Sometimes the MNC needs to consider the proportion of expatriates to local staff when making such decisions, which is due to its staffing philosophy and local government policy. The mode of operation of the company in the foreign country will also affect the process, such as selecting assignee to work in an international joint venture may involve major input from the local partner. Also the MNC may have specific requirement on the skill sets of the potential assignee. If the role of the expatriate in the foreign operation is to train the local staff, the MNC may include training skills as a selection criterion, as well as the knowledge and previous experiences of the expatriate on the similar work scope (Dowling & Welch, 2005).

Language and Country/Cultural Requirements

If the expatriate is able to speak the local language, it will be advantage for him during the selection process. Such skills will enable the expatriate to communicate well with the staff, clients, and vendors in the foreign country and also benefits the expatriate in the everyday life.

The extent of the requirement on the language skills depends on the job nature in the host country. It can be considered as of critical importance for some positions, but lesser in others (Dowling & Welch, 2005). It could be important if the new role is to facing the markets, such as marketing managers, sales, and could be considered less important if the assignee is to conduct internal technical support or to work within an international team, of which English is the common language for communication.

In some host countries, the MNC has to prove that local talent is not available before the host government is willing to issue the work permit to the assigned expatriates. Sometimes the MNC may wish to use an expatriate for the international assignment, however such assignment could be rejected by the host government due to such polices. Most of the time the work permit is issued to the expatriate only, but not the accompanying spouse. It is found that the inability of the spouse to work in the host country could result in the expatriate to reject the foreign  assignment. Even if the international transfer is accepted, the lack of a work permit for the accompanying spouse may cause difficulties in adjustment and even failure of the assignment. Some MNCs provide assistance to the assignees and their partners to overcome such difficulties. Some countries may be considered ‘hardship postings’, such as remote areas away from major cities in the Middle East, or war-torn regions with high physical risk in the Africa. Accompanying family members could be an additional responsibility that the multinational does not want to take. And in some countries a work permit is only able to be issued to male expatriates (Dowling & Welch, 2005). All these issue related to the country and cultural requirement shall be considered and discussed during the selection process with the employer and employee.

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