Career Development Programs for Retaining Expatriates

Career Development Programs for Retaining Expatriates

Part A

1. Description of the HRM Issue

Today, organizations are facing human resource challenges associated with globalization. Specifically, most companies with global operations have been forced to maintain employees across different countries. (Donaldson, T, 2016, April 29) Modern multinational organizations often send expatriate employees to different countries to facilitate their overseas operations. The process often involves large investments as it is costly to send people into foreign countries. However, many organizations have continued to experience a high turnover of expatriates and repatriates. This is a major issue in strategic human resource management since the high turnover creates large losses to organizations. As a result, there are various studies that have been performed to determine strategies that can be used to retain mobile employees and expatriates. The purpose of this paper is to address this issue from the perspective of human resource development. The main question is: can career development programs assist organizations to retain their mobile workforce?

2. Explanation of the Question

Career development is one of the important elements that are used to retain employees within an organization. (Yazinski, S, Aug 9, 2003)It is important to note that pay is not a major factor for mobile workforce since most of them are paid highly for their foreign assignments. However, most companies do not have career development programs for their expatriate and repatriate workforce. For example, individuals who return from foreign assignments are positioned into immediately available and unsuitable roles. The main reason for a lack of career development for the expatriate workforce is that human resource managers tend to focus only on employees working in the home country.

3. Importance of Addressing and Resolving the Issue 

Human resource managers are always focused on reducing high employee turnover rates because they are costly for organizations. For example, it is expensive to recruit and train expatriate employees. It is also often difficult and expensive to replace qualified expatriates. Therefore, a high turnover of expatriate and repatriate employees causes large losses to companies. The lack of career programs for this group of employees is a problem within the human resource function. In essence, it is essential for human resource practitioners to address the problem so as to minimize losses for their organizations.

4. Reasons for Interest on the Issue

I am interested in the issue because it has been given limited attention by many organizations. Since there is an increasing movement of employees across national boundaries, companies need to increase their focus on the needs of expatriates and repatriates. As a human resource practitioner, I am focused on assisting organizations to address the problem.

Part B: Literature Review of the HRM Issue

1. Statements from Previous Studies

Previous studies have also indicated the significance of creating strong programs for expatriates. According to Chew research shows that many companies do not have procedures for handling their mobile employees. (Chew, 6.2017) Most expatriates tend to be ignored by their home country human resource professionals once they have been assigned foreign duties. Most of them return home without an effective plan. (Shelda Debowski, 8.2017) As a result, they end up being positioned in unsuitable roles.

2. View Points of Previous Studies

The studies agree that the high turnover rate among expatriate and repatriate employees in multinational organizations. Moreover, they agree that effective career development programs can assist such companies to reduce the problem. In essence, almost all the previous studies on the issues have produced consistent results.

3. Personal Opinion

I agree with the previous literature that career development can assist companies to solve the problem. Today, most employees prefer organizations that can enable them to advance their knowledge, skills, and positions. Therefore, HR practitioners should develop effective career development programs for their expatriate and repatriate employees.