Companies identify ample opportunities to increase the effectiveness of their support for expat partners. That is one of the conclusions of a Global Connection survey carried out in cooperation with the RES Forum, a major ’in-house only’ international HR community – www.theresforum.com
Only 62% of total need for support met
The survey (n=68) follows earlier research by Global Connection which revealed that expat partners feel that, on average, only 62 percent of their total need for support is met. The quality of this support (split three ways between the assigning organisation, a third party and from free websites etc.) scored only 5.8 on a scale from 1 to 10.
Only 37% of funds used
A surprise finding showed how little available support is taken up. Overall, partners used 57 percent of the support offered. Of those, partners used 65 percent of the budget available to them. This means that the total uptake of the funds allocated to partner support was just 37 percent.
46% plan to increase effectiveness
When companies were asked to rate the effectiveness of their expat support programme on a scale from 1 to 10, the average score was 5.5. Almost 46 percent of companies said that they have plans to increase the effectiveness of the support they provide. How? From an extensive list of options, the two highest scores were for better communication (with an average score of 4.0 on a scale from 1 to 5), and the use of a modular approach (3.9). Providing more personalised support was also high on the list of preferred options with a score of 3.8.
Less discretionary, more mandatory
Some 30 percent of participating companies provide a discretionary cash allowance to partners, while 42 percent have some mandatory support. When asked about their plans to improve the effectiveness of their programmes, the option not to provide any discretionary support scored 3.4 on a scale of 1 to 5, while part-mandatory support scored 3.5. Outsourcing and better supplier selection scored high marks: 3.5 and 3.6 respectively.
