How to Engage and Retain Expat Employees: An Uncomfortably Honest Guide

If you're involved in hiring international talent, engaging your expat team members from day one is crucial. Research indicates that onboarding programs lasting under a month can negatively impact retention rates, whereas companies with robust onboarding processes improve new hire retention by 82% and boost productivity by over 70%. Despite this, only 12% of employees believe their employers excel at onboarding.

Continuous onboarding

Onboarding your new expat hire begins as soon as they accept your offer and should continue well beyond their first few weeks. Even if you’ve hired a top performer, it’s essential to provide ongoing support. From arranging their relocation and immigration to ensuring they feel safe and engaged, your role is critical.

Before your employee arrives

• Clearly communicate the benefits, perks, and support your employee can expect.
• Be transparent about the immigration and relocation process and timelines. Give estimates where you can, as accurately as you can. Communicate any changes as soon as you know about them.
• Avoid confusing jargon and ensure responsiveness, especially if you’re working with global mobility providers or relocation services. Quick response times are vital to alleviate any pre-move anxieties.
• Make sure that everyone in touch with the talent treats them with empathy and that messaging is consistent across the board. Any conflicting information from different sources willl cause unnecessary confusion.
• Prepare them for life in your country. Provide information on local culture, including aspects like religious tolerance, diversity, LGBTQ+ rights, and the political environment. Sharing your company culture and foundational materials in advance can help them get acclimated. Jobbatical has multiple free city guides available to help you in this task.
• Onboarding isn’t just an HR responsibility; it’s a company-wide effort. Encourage your team to support and engage with the new hire.

Once they’ve arrived

• Meeting them at the airport, preparing their workspace, and assisting with essentials like a SIM card or groceries can make a significant difference in their initial experience. If your company does not have the resources for this, hiring a relocation service provider is a great solution.
• Conduct an entry interview. This makes them feel valued and helps you get on the same page about how you’ll work together.
• Help them navigate the new work environment by introducing them to colleagues and facilitating social interactions. Provide clarity in their role to avoid any uncertainty, which can be detrimental to their job satisfaction.
• Take time to communicate and engage with your new hire, not just as a formality but as part of a healthy and open work environment;
• Avoid overwhelming your new hire with too much information or responsibility at once. Regular check-ins are essential, especially as they approach the six-month mark when job satisfaction can start to decline.
• After the first six months, keep check-in meetings frequent and continuously access employee satisfaction and engagement.

Personalized support

Relocating to a new country can be an anxious time. It’s important to balance excitement and engagement with appropriate support. Offer opportunities for social and professional networking and assist with family needs, such as finding schools or facilitating connections with other expat families. If possible, implement a child-friendly office policy and consider offering language classes to help them adjust. There’s a lot of room for customization in what kind of support your company can offer. Find out what your employees' biggest pain points are and be realistic about what you can do to help.

• If your new hire is relocating with a partner or family, it is important to consider their needs as well. The partner may face a period of unemployment, which can be difficult in an unfamiliar environment. Facilitating connections with other expat families or local support groups can help ease this transition.
• If the family includes children, assist in finding suitable schools and introduce them to other employees with children.
• If your employee is relocating with pets, providing guidance on pet-friendly housing and local regulations can be a thoughtful touch.
• Offering language classes or directing your employee to reputable resources can greatly assist in their integration process. If internal resources are limited, providing recommendations for external language programs can still be highly beneficial.
• While your primary objective may be to have your new hire onsite, offering flexibility, such as the option to work remotely for a short period to visit home, can help maintain their well-being and productivity during the adjustment period.

Anchor them to your culture

It's impossible automate the way people feel about your company and the work environment you’re creating. Every new hire comes with their own set of emotions, assumptions, cultural quirks, expectations, and everything else that humanity entails.

• Educate yourself on your new hire’s cultural background and map out how that’ll fit into the fabric of your organization. Read up on decoding cultures: Erin Meyer’s book The Culture Map is a great place to start.
• Make sure your company culture and core values are documented, actionable, and adhered to across the organization. Make them part of your new hire’s training.
• What’s obvious to you isn’t necessarily obvious to everyone else. Don’t be afraid to overcommunicate. It’s better than letting things get lost in translation.
• Celebrate your differences and use them to your advantage: share experiences and perspectives, learn about each other’s cultures. Make your new hire feel included in shaping a company culture that is unique to you.

Optimizing and automating your onboarding process is important, but don’t lose sight of the human element in HR. Ensuring your expat employees are engaged and supported will not only improve their experience but also contribute to the overall success of your global mobility strategy.

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