Roll out the expat welcome mat

Returning home is different for all expatriates but reintegrating into a once-familiar work environment can be challenging.

When growing companies decide to expand into global markets, employees often are presented with opportunities to work overseas. Organisations usually do a good job supporting employees who work abroad, however they often overlook a critical aspect of globally mobile workforces: the return home.

For employees, living overseas provides opportunities to develop new skills, experience different cultures and embark on a journey of professional and personal growth. These benefits prompt nearly 100,000 Australians to move abroad each year, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. When people return, they bring a wealth of global knowledge gleaned from being immersed in a new culture — professionally, commercially and socially.

Returning home is different for all expatriates but reintegrating into what was once a familiar work environment can come with significant challenges.

There is often an assumption that Australians returning home arrive with a sense of familiarity: of business, people and places. There is an expectation that because an employee is returning to their country of origin, they already have a robust understanding of the nuances of its business landscape.

However, industries can shift and evolve at a rapid rate. Having embarked on this journey myself, spending two years in London and returning to my roots in Australia, I know how challenging it can be to reintegrate.

With an increasingly globally mobile workforce, businesses need established processes to successfully repatriate employees.

● Allow time to reset. Between packing and shipping belongings, long-haul flights and adjusting to a new time zone, the physical move home is no small undertaking. It takes time to settle on a physical level: organisations should encourage employees to take time off between ending a role abroad and starting work again in Australia.

● Re-onboard employees. When returning to a familiar environment, organisations often overlook reintroducing employees to the local market, industry and workplace. This is an important step for organisations to take, to ensure employees are set up for success on their return home in a similar way to any new employee.

● Facilitate shared learning opportunities. When employees return home after working overseas, they also bring insights from other markets, new ways of working and fresh thinking. Organisations should be proactive about cultivating a culture of curiosity among employees and marry this with opportunities for shared learning. Creating opportunities to share successes, failures and knowledge along the way can be valuable to the organisation, employees and also the person returning.

● Provide opportunities to maintain and develop global connections. Expatriates who have returned to Australia are often keen to maintain their global networks. This presents the opportunity for ongoing learning experiences for the returning employee and their co-workers.

Organisations should encourage these connections to continue the cross-border exchange of ideas, knowledge and perhaps most important — empathy. People who have worked in an organisation’s international team bring a unique understanding of the challenges their co-workers abroad face when collaborating across geographies and time zones.

Each returning team member’s journey home is highly personal. A supportive re-entry strategy — whether through re-onboarding or tailoring roles to allow for global knowledge to be applied locally — will benefit your global workforce. Organisations that understand the challenges returning employees face when relocating to Australia also will understand the value in a workforce with global experience.

Dayne Nash is chief of staff at PageUp.