Expatriate advice - coming home after working abroad
Taking on an expat assignment can be a great career move. Different ways of working and living, experienced first hand and with an open and non judgmental mind, mean you can apply new learning and thinking to challenges in your future. Being the job-seeker with direct experience across multiple markets is also increasingly the winning advantage for HR leadership roles within international companies.
However, when your overseas assignment is coming to an end, and you're ready or due to come home again, there's actually quite a lot to consider to ensure your return is successful and rewarding. Again recently I had to manage the expectations of one such leader within the HR profession, who has been working on a different continent to his homeland for 6 years. But it’s been enough time for him to forget that the expat perks, are exactly that – perks, and NOT entitlements. The temporary uplift in his package as part of the expat assignment, does not mean an absolute uplift in his worth across the broader market.
The chances of him returning to his homeland and finding an employer who will pay a high enough salary or special allowances to pay for children’s international schools, household rent, nannies, cleaners, caterers and chauffeured cars, tax advisory support, private family medical costs in top rate international hospitals……these chances are slim to none existent. A reality check has been needed.
As HR professionals, we know that the expat package was originally designed as a sweetener to attract top talent – to compensate people for the hardships of being away from home conditions for an extended time, to allow for any potential reduction of "real value" to income, to eliminate negative inflation differences to domestic packages whilst they're working away, and as an incentive for working in countries/environments that were otherwise unattractive.
More and more though, we’re seeing companies who are open to moving their staff across borders, but who are offering a domestic package arrangement only, sometimes with short term “sweeteners”, but often not much more than the cost of initial costs of relocation. The rationale for this has been threefold:
increase perceptions of fairness and equality between newcomers from abroad and their local counterparts
reduce staffing costs, especially when companies can take advantage of high candidate demand for overseas postings and experience
provide incentive for the expat to actually return home or move to another locale to continue their career development, and to actually develop local talent as successors, rather than remaining as the “highly paid overlord” for an extended period of time
Despite this domestic package trend, there is a number of professionals, who think of an expat package as an automatic entitlement whenever they move countries, even if the move is to somewhere with no danger, no language barriers, no hygiene or safety issues, no cost of living disparity, and with easy access to their homeland.
This thinking is crazy in an age when the globalisation of companies is now a norm, and mobility of the workforce is an ever increasing expectation by employers. Why for instance, should a Canadian receive an expat package to work in the USA? Why should a German receive an expat package to work in Austria? Why should an Italian receive an expat package to work in England? Why should a Singaporean receive an expat package to work in Australia?
If the move is going to cause a financial loss due to cost of living disparity, or inflationary or exchange rate differences, then sure, compensation of some form is fair. Even on a state level within the USA for instance, you wouldn’t want to be moving from Indianapolis to San Francisco right now with the eye watering cost of living difference. And its great if the employer chooses to give you an expat rather than domestic package for an overseas posting. But I cannot for the life of me understand how homeland employers could or should have to "weight up" domestic packages for the returning global warrior.
If you're an expat reading this, and contemplating your move home, here are some tips to help you on your way:
Check into the job market, properly. It may well be that your skills which were greatly in demand in the foreign country, are not in demand in your homeland. You might actually find it really difficult to get work at your perceived seniority and experience level. The responsibilities and pay you’ve experienced abroad, might not marry up to the equivalents in your home country, which means you could get no traction for your resume, and/or be applying for roles where you just won’t get consideration.
The company brands or work terminologies you’ve experienced overseas, may mean nothing to someone in your home market. For instance a HR Director in the UK could actually be the owner and leader of a large function there, but in the USA, this title denotes a lesser level of responsibility.
Use the right benchmarks. It may well be the case that your former peers have actually progressed their skills and knowledge significantly whilst you have been away. We regularly see instances of people returning home from their challenging but still basic bread and butter HR focused roles abroad, who are just not the calibre of former peers, who have stayed local but worked on more significant and complex projects.
Get currency. Legislations change constantly, and you may well be judged as not being as up to date for local needs, as your domestic peers. In a "scarce jobs, candidate oversupply" market, employers don’t need to chance waiting for you to come up to speed on their time.
Keep tabs on housing options. I recall a friend of mine who sold his expansive country house before going overseas. He lived “high on the hog” with his very generous expat package whilst abroad, thinking he could easily re-enter the real estate market on his return home. He was shocked to find the housing market had sky rocketed in his absence, and he barely had enough left from his time abroad for the deposit to rent a “shoe box” apartment.
Save, save, save whilst you’re abroad. If you’re moving somewhere with a low cost of living, and you’re effectively being paid more than you could have ever earned at home, this is a chance to stash away enough cash to make your homecoming very comfortable. Another friend of mine did this so effectively that he didn’t need to work for 5 years upon coming home AND he was able to invest in a property portfolio plus build a stable of vintage cars. I’m not pushing materialism – but do give some thought to your overseas posting as being a chance for you to build a "nest egg".
The onus will be on you to adapt. What was in vogue both personally and professionally when you left, is likely to not be the case when you return. You’ll likely be surprised by the level of administration for insurances, banking and various benefits that had been managed on your behalf whilst overseas. The types of conversations you have with friends and family who are still in your homeland, the concepts that your children will encounter, the prejudices you hadn’t noticed before - these things and more may actually be a culture shock. Be prepared to face similar challenges for integration on your return home, as you did when you first landed in that foreign country.
The demand for HR professionals with genuinely international experience is showing no signs of slowing down. But this international community within the HR profession is no longer a select and tiny few. Many people have wised up to the advantage of adding global experience to their career portfolios over this last decade. Every day, we speak as a matter of course with high calibre leaders who are bi or multi lingual, and who have lived and worked across countries and across continents.
This means that as an expat, you can and should expect more competition with other international job seekers when you do return from your overseas assignment. So do your research, be prepared, be realistic about your worth in the market, and it will be a much easier transition to be welcomed home.
About the Author
Tracey Thompson is well regarded within the industry for her ability to source and engage high performance HR talent. Over many years she has built a well deserved reputation for her uncanny ability to access proverbial “purple squirrel” HR specialists and as a result, is looked to as a global sourcing subject matter expert.