The thought of returning home after an international assignment usually creates a variety of mixed emotions for international assignees. The excitement of seeing family and friends, anxiety about how they might be accepted professionally and personally and feelings of sadness about leaving the life they created abroad are all symptoms of reverse culture shock that many international assignees face upon repatriation.
Most people underestimate the potential challenges of readjusting to life back home. In fact, studies show that repatriation is often the most difficult phase of the international assignment process and that reverse culture shock often affects both professional and personal reintegration.
Major professional challenges may involve the:
• Lack of recognition of improved professional skills
• Lack of an appropriate professional role
• Challenge of integrating into a potentially different organisational culture
On a personal level, international assignees often:
• Have unrealistic expectations of life at home and how it has changed
• Make false assumptions about how easily they will be able to fit back in
• Have difficulty supporting family members experiencing reverse culture shock
Studies show that over 40% of returnees leave their companies within one year of their return. This has serious direct and indirect cost implications for the company.
Repatriation Training can help international assignees anticipate the challenges of returning home and develop strategies for dealing with them. Repatriation training provides international assignees an understanding of what has changed in their home country, tips for dealing with reverse culture shock and support from an expert to understand the hidden challenges of returning home. Organisations can also benefit from providing cross-cultural training programmes for relocation to international assignees as it will help them harness their new skills and experience and ensure they have a professional place to come back to.
© admin for Communicaid Blog | Cross Cultural Training and International Communication Skills, 2009. |
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Post tags: Courses - Cultural Training, Cross Cultural Training, cross-cultural challenges, Cultural training for Relocation, Culture, international assignees, Living and Working in, relocation training, Repatriation, Repatriation Training, reverse culture shock
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