Contents

• Introduction 2
• Expatriate Management 3
• Culture 4
• Employment of Spouse 5
• Remuneration 7
• Approaches to overcome the challenges 10
• Portray the company as employee centric 10
• Attractive Remuneration Packages 11
• Efficient Measures to deal with cultural diversity 11
• Measuring Efficacy of Expatriate Management 12
• Conclusion 13
• References 14

Description

Globalization has had many influences on the ways businesses are managed and run. Businesses are opening up their offices in far off lands. Borders have melted and cross border investments have become order of the day. The new mantra in the global business is to take the operations where resource and skills are readily available. The influence of multinational corporations on the global economy is increasing by the day and expatriates are becoming crucial to the success of these multinational corporations (Wang, 2008). While hitherto local companies are operating in many nations due to globalization, human resource is increasingly finding it easier to move and work anywhere in the world. Cross border investments have also resulted in transportation of human resource across borders. Certain talents are restricted to particular parts of world such as electronic engineers in South East Asia, automobile engineers in Europe, information technology experts in India and China. Companies that are involved in particular operations require expatriates who are skilled and experienced enough in carrying out the work. Organizations wish to have competitive advantage in the long run even in the face of additional costs. Cost saving approach in human resource management is slowly giving way to securing strategic advantage in the business. According to Harvey (1996), the key to competing successfully in the global market place is staffing important expatriate posts with skilled and experienced leaders (Lin & Wei, 2005). In order to do so, companies are willing to hire skilled manpower from abroad. This puts up many challenges to organizations such as relocation of employees, ensuring their comfort factor in the new location else the new recruits return to their home country. Related businesses such as relocation consultants are making the best out of the situation and helping employees to relocate in an alien nation. Although, it all looks easy, human resource management needs to take several steps in order to ensure willingness from the expatriate recruits to relocate and also adjust to the new surroundings. This paper analyses some of the issues of expatriate management such as attracting the right work force, dealing with cultural diversity, catering to family needs of the relocating expatriate employee etc.. The paper also discusses the role of the organization in ensuring smooth transition of expatriate employees from home country to the work place. The paper finally makes recommendations to the human resource departments of organizations on how best to offset the challenges of expatriate employee recruitment, relocation and loyalty.