Multinational companies invest a significant amount of time and resources in managing and administering expatriate programs. Meeting the needs of expatriates financially, socially and personally is critical to ensure each assignment is successful and productive. However, few multinationals realize that failing to have a repatriation program in place can be a costly oversight.
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According to the “2008 Global Relocation Trends Survey” from GMAC Global Relocation Services, 27 percent of expatriate employees leave their companies within one year of their return. This is double the annual turnover rate for all employees. Now, consider 25 percent leave between their second and third year, and 23 percent after the third year.

Multinationals stand to lose ROI from these assignments on a number of fronts. In addition to the actual costs and associated expenses of the relocation and assignment, expatriates return home with a global perspective, insights and skills that cannot be gleaned from other sources and are integral to sustaining competitiveness in an increasingly flat business landscape. These factors make having a formal repatriation program a critical component of the global assignment cycle.

Both employers and employees need to be actively involved in repatriation before, during and after the assignment. According to Helen Bannigan, COO of BondPR International, “Repatriation is much more difficult than expatriation, much to the surprise of many who experience both. This fact makes the experience challenging from the start, since the expectation is that the transition will be easy, and it rarely is.” Bannigan is an American expat who went through repatriation and currently resides in Italy.

A repatriation program should encompass the following:

● Pre-assignment: It’s likely repatriation is the last thing on an employee’s mind as he or she prepares to embark on a new and challenging position. However, Bannigan said, “It is not too early for expatriates to start thinking about ‘where’ and ‘what next’ the moment they arrive on foreign soil.” To that end, talent managers should encourage both employees and management to work together before the assignment to establish goals for a repatriation date, and identify potential positions that would be a good match upon the individual’s return. These specifics are likely to be revised during the assignment, but Bannigan said this planning will help expatriates identify goals and targets for their time abroad so they can strive to fulfill them.