Accepting an
Overseas Assignment
The Benefits and Pitfalls
by Mary Gorman of The Employment Roundtable
with David Madison, Ph.D.

My first reaction was, get the globe….how far south is Argentina?
 I had always wanted to work overseas, so when the topic was broached in a casual conversation with the Human Resources Vice Present for Latin America, I was eager to pursue the suggestion. That was in 1993, and I had been with Seagram & Sons for ten years in a variety of human resources roles. Indeed one of my projects has been research on the company’s international assignment policies. Even so, I hadn’t committed the latitude of Buenos Aires to memory!

Moving to Buenos Aires represented a unique opportunity—and presented challenges. Out of Seagram’s worldwide staff of 12,000 employees, only about 80 were expatriates, and the overwhelming majority were men: only two women had been posted overseas—one to Australia, the other to France, and both had been single. My husband had a promising finance career underway at American Express, and we had two small children (ages 2 & 5). Assigning me overseas would set another precedent as well: Seagram had never asked a human resources manager to take a post outside the United States.

The fact that I didn’t speak Spanish wasn’t an issue.

 But there was a position available. The HR Director in Buenos Aires had been trying for more than a year to fill it, and I was a respected member of the human resources team in New York. There was no formal assessment in my case, but rather a good sense of my past performance and my professional strengths and limitations —and a strong desire on my part to live in Latin America. Of course, chemistry played a major role, as in most hiring decisions. Nonetheless, my value—and the chemistry—had to be weighed against the real costs of sending an employee overseas. The expenses can amount to three to four times the employee’s base salary. They include, for example, moving, housing, utilities, company car, home leave airfare, bonuses, assisting a spouse with a local job hunt, local school tuitions—to name the most obvious.

The fact that I didn’t speak Spanish wasn’t even an issue. But in preparation, I took a three-month Spanish immersion course. 

Getting from Here to There
  U.S. corporations have learned a lot from the very experience of sending employees overseas. The body of knowledge—what to do, what not to do—has been building. Hence, some of the things we did are no longer recommended. For example, we decided to find a house after we got to Buenos Aires, and lived in an apartment-hotel for eight weeks. Imagine this: four Americans, who know minimal Spanish, and a Brazilian nanny, who speaks Portuguese, living together in a small apartment on a very noisy street in Buenos Aires. I was off to work every day and my husband was looking for work and trying to find his way around. He did get a job after four months, and, in retrospect, we can see that it was good for the transition to have one parent at home with the children.

These days, however, companies recommend that a relocating couple make a trip in advance to find housing. Not only does this minimize stress and distraction from the new job, it also reduces expenses for the company.

Getting from here to there, and remaining sane and whole in the process, can be aided now by common sense practices and a multitude of resources:

· Involve your spouse from the very beginning. Take advantage of whatever orientation services may be offered by your company (e.g., one- or two-day seminars). Make that “check-out-the-place” trip before the move—not just to house hunt, but to get a feel for the territory. And there is now (we didn’t have it in 1993!) a very helpful website, www.expatspouse.com, which describes itself as a “global online community for families transferred abroad by their employers.”  Companies usually will pay for the website membership.

· Make full use of a relocation service, which will help you set up a workable life and routine in a new country. A relocation service can make the difference between a productive employee, who is able to focus on the challenges of the new job—and I guarantee there will be plenty!—and a distracted, frustrated individual who feels deserted at the worst possible time. Especially if you don’t have 100 percent command of the language, it is vital to have a local team on your side to understand and cut red tape. The relocation service will handle the headaches of immigration and work permits, obtaining the local drivers license, negotiating leases, selecting schools and taking on dozens of other chores that will help with assimilation into a new culture.

Have a local team to understand and cut red tape.

· Talk to others who have gone through the experience. Be sure to get in touch with other people, families or couples who have already done an  international move and tour of duty. Sometimes this can be highly structured. Shell International, for example, has a program know as OUTPOST. This is a network of 40 information centers created for Shell expatriates and their families in 30 countries around the world. Staffed by the spouses of expatriate employees, the OUTPOST centers provide comprehensive personal briefings. But don’t overlook the value of finding a mentor informally—in my case it was a matter of becoming friends with Americans who had been with Seagram in Buenos Aires for a couple of years already. Yes, there are major cultural differences and local mores to be aware of—but as a mother of two small children, it was helpful to find out ahead of time that peanut butter doesn’t exist in Argentina!

 After eight weeks in our cramped apartment, we moved into a house we’d chosen north of Buenos Aires, in a fairly international community. My husband commuted by train downtown to his new job at American Express, and I drove my car. Our son attended an Argentine preschool and our daughter attended the American school. The makeup of the school was about one-third American, one-third international and one-third Argentine. From the first grade up, half of the day was taught in Spanish and the other half in English. My husband and I took private Spanish lessons for about one year and became more proficient as we used the language every day. We attended a non-denominational church with a very diverse congregation. The service was in English, but we met folks from many different countries.

On to Business…in Many Ways, Business as Usual
 There are many business reasons for sending employees on an expatriate assignment. For example: to open a new market, transfer of skills, facilitating a merger or acquisition, and setting up new technologies and systems. Given this breadth of purposes, it isn’t surprising that many types of employees are sent abroad.

When you tell your friends and colleagues that you’re off to Buenos Aires, Paris, Cairo or Perth, you’ll hear best wishes on the new adventure…and compliments on landing the glamorous assignment. And, of course, you hope it will be glamorous on some levels. You are thrilled at the prospect of being off on the experience of a lifetime.

Employees can be needed abroad to open a new
market, transfer skills, facilitate a merger or acquisition, and set up new technologies and systems

 But you’re off to do a job—which means that you will be going into a workplace much like any other, whatever the cultural differences may be. In other words, you will have to deal with people, problems and politics—in addition to carrying out your assignments.

In my case, I was given three objectives:
· Establish the human resources function in Argentina.
· Bring the “Seagram culture” to this affiliate that had been closed off from the company for quite some time. Seagram culture included, for example, standardized recruitment policies, use of outplacement, and no smoking rules.
· Find my replacement when the time was right.

I was promoted to Director of Human Resources for the Latin American Southern Region.

During the three years that I was in Argentina my duties evolved and expanded, and carrying out my three objectives came to involve a multitude of projects. The company itself was in transition, and I was promoted from Director of Human Resources of Seagram Argentina, to HR Director for the Latin American Southern Region. As you learn the ropes, gain the respect of colleagues and become more fluent in the native tongue, your ability to function and get the job done increases. But unfortunately, there is no way to escape business as usual in the “glamorous” international assignment. People are people, and executives can make bad business decisions that impact everyone—no matter what country you’re in.

For example, four months after I arrived we moved to a new office location, which had been selected and decided upon before my arrival. We were merging our production and administrative staffs into one location (it was called “harmonizing”!). The General Manager had done this in his previous assignment in Costa Rica, so why not in Argentina? We moved 30 kilometers from Buenos Aires. While the countryside atmosphere was refreshing, this was not the appropriate location for our business. The “harmony” that our GM was looking for didn’t happen. And as an HR officer, I faced a host of new issues to deal with regarding the production staff. We encountered major theft, an increase in car fares for employees staying late, and general malaise among the people who had to use the bus service we offered due to the long commute (they had previously taken a subway or city bus to get to work).

Although I was part of a team with three other directors (Finance, Marketing, Sales & Manufacturing), as a foreigner, a woman, and a representative from the “non-business” HR unit, my status was not on the same level. I was “la grina de recursos humanos.” It took some time, but by earning the title of director and exuding confidence, eventually I was considered on the same playing field.

And I had the usual share of personality issues and politics to deal with. One of my first tasks was to work out the organizational structure of the new HR department. Once I had done this, it took no time for my boss to exert his influence and fill a supervisory role in my group with one of his favorites. This was a very uncomfortable situation, since I already had a supervisor and what I really needed was a good analyst and a secretary. But my boss was a controlling person. Moreover, when I really needed to spend time with the employees, I often found myself in his office, acting as “resident shrink.” And I had to deal with the very typical Latin American office environment. The general manager, direct reports and their secretaries were all on one side and the rest of the employees were across the hall in much tighter quarters. We were distanced from our staffs who were usually summoned to come to our offices. 

One year after we moved to our new location, and based upon what was happening to our business, we decided to move back to Buenos. I was part of the team selected to scope out several locations, so now had this to add to my list of responsibilities. In the meantime, the Latin American business was about to be restructured. Our GM was fired, the former GM came back to handle the southern region of Latin America (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay) and I was promoted to Director HR for the Southern Region along with my other colleagues in Marketing, Finance and Manufacturing.

Keeping up networks back home is your responsibility.

           
Going Home: Always Keep It in Mind
 In a new country, with a new focus and responsibilities—and hugely occupied as well with making sure that your family is holding up and functioning—it is easy to lose sight of what lies ahead, especially in terms of an eventual return to the U.S. Not surprisingly, many expatiates fall off the “home office radar screen.”

With different time zones and an out of sight, out of mind mentality in place, it is easy to get out of the loop with headquarters. Hence most expatriates would agree that keeping up networks back home is their responsibility. That means making the extra effort to maintain contact with “corporate,” and staying up-to-date with colleagues back home. In fact most companies bring expatriates home once a year. However, home leave itself is not enough. I would occasionally pick up the phone and call my functional HR boss in Florida and his boss in New York. 

While I was in Argentina, my position had been cut.

  
Going Home: Not as Easy As It Seems
 My repatriation to the U.S. was a result of another restructuring of Latin America that resulted in the elimination of regional positions, including mine. I received the news in June and left Buenos Aires in September. 

I was not prepared emotionally or professionally for the news that my position was being eliminated and that I would soon be returning to the U.S. Obviously when a company offers an overseas assignment, it can be difficult to predict how long it will last—and even more difficult to predict what opportunities will be waiting or available when the assignment is over.

It was much harder to come home to the U.S. than it was to leave.

 On the emotional level, the transfer home can be difficult. In fact I can say that it was much harder to come home than to leave. Upon my return I felt isolated and somewhat lost. Most of our friends were interested in hearing about our adventures, but their lives hadn’t changed much and we were the ones who had to fit back in. The children had a shorter period of adjustment, and before long were back in the swing of things with new friends and activities. And the children helped bring home the fact that the V.I.P. expatriate experience can be somewhat unreal. On the flights back and forth to Argentina, with the company footing the bill, our seats were always in business class. On our first flight on a family vacation after our return, of course we were in coach. Our kids asked, “Why are we in the back of the plane?”

I did not have a position awaiting my return to New York, but I did have an opportunity to interview for a HR Manager position that I knew wasn’t the right position for me. In fact, I ended up accepting a position that was inferior to what I had been doing, less exciting and challenging. 

It is not surprising that employees returning home from overseas assignments can have a rough time keeping their careers on course. There is true irony in the fact that people who have enjoyed a very steep learning curve while working overseas, who come back with new skills and a wealth of knowledge, aren’t utilized at optimum level. One study of expatriates concluded: “About 75 percent of repatriated employees don’t come back to a promotion where they can use what they’ve learned.” A survey commissioned by Workforce magazine found that, while almost 75 percent of returnees are given help finding a home, only 30 percent receive “reorientation counseling,” and only 21 percent are provided with career counseling. It is not uncommon, in fact, for repatriated employees to leave their companies within 12 to 15 months after returning home. For a variety of reasons, I remained with Seagram almost three years after my return, although in a role that was not ideal.

About 75 percent of
repatriated employees do not come back to a
promotion where they can use what they learned.

To Go Overseas or Not to Go
 A study by Catalyst, a New York-based research firm that studies women in business, found that, while 40 percent of mid-management positions in the U.S. are held by women, only 13 percent of U.S. corporate expatriates are women. The assumption may be that women are not as internationally mobile as men, perhaps because they have children or because the ‘trailing spouse’ would be a man who “can’t be expected to quit his job.” Yet 80 percent of female expatriates have never turned down a relocation assignment, compared with 71 percent of men.

The cost of exporting
talent is about three to four times the employee’s base salary.

 It should not be forgotten, however, that, whenever a married employee is asked to take an overseas assignment, there will probably be children involved, as well as a trailing spouse with career issues. And now there are enough support systems in place to reduce the stress and complications of moving a family—whether the trailing spouse is a man or woman. Many companies have instituted a formal policy of reimbursing spouses for expenses incurred seeking employment or continuing their educations while overseas. Companies must bear in mind, however, that, as noted earlier, the cost of exporting talent will probably be three to four times the employee’s base salary. The issue should not be male or female, married or single, but simply finding the best talent for the job and calculating return on investment. With only 13 percent of women being assigned overseas, we can suspect that a large portion of the corporate talent pool is being ignored. Women need to proactively seek out overseas assignments, because executives may assume they’re not interested. Senior managers can encourage women to go global by offering mentors and support for dual-career couples. 

Sending me was a good business decision.

 Yes, there are long-term career implications to be considered, including career disruption for the trailing spouse. Yes, moving a family with small children would be considered an ordeal by many. But our experience in Argentina was an excellent one—we can see the many ways in which it was a life-changing episode. We benefited immeasurably from exposure to a wide variety of people and seeing a different culture up close and personal. And professionally, despite setbacks upon my return, my goals in Argentina were accomplished—it was a good business decision.

I would enthusiastically encourage anyone who is considering an international assignment to seize the opportunity. Obviously, do the research and the homework to avoid the pitfalls as much as possible. But go.

If you have a chance, GO!