How do you measure the performance and satisfaction of expatriates and their families?

Measuring the performance and satisfaction of expatriates and their families involves a combination of objective metrics and personal feedback. For performance, I track key indicators like job success, goal achievement, and adaptability in their new environment. Regular feedback from both the expatriate and their supervisor helps assess progress. To gauge satisfaction, I implement surveys and personal check-ins that focus on their overall well-being, work-life balance, and family adjustment. Including the family’s perspective is crucial—understanding their challenges with relocation, education, and daily life impacts the expatriate’s retention and long-term success.

involves a combination of professional and personal evaluations. For performance, key indicators such as job outcomes, leadership effectiveness, and adaptation to the local work environment are assessed through regular reviews and feedback from both supervisors and peers. On the satisfaction side, surveys and one-on-one check-ins with both the expatriate and their family can provide insight into their well-being, adjustment to the new culture, and overall happiness. It's crucial to evaluate areas like work-life balance, support systems in place (e.g., housing, schooling, social networks), and how aligned they feel with the local community. Tracking their satisfaction ensures the expatriate remains productive and engaged in work.

In my experience as either an expat myself or the manager of multi-cultural teams, I have learned the value of welcoming the expaxt, and explaining some of the main difference that they might observe in relation to their origin, also making myself available to talk about anything that he/she believe that is strange, unusual or even awkward during their time there. Frequently it all came down to cultural differences. If other members of same origin are available, promote an introduction between them, if necessary have a buddy-system in place, as this will help not only the worker but also their family to integrate better not only in the organization, but also on the local society.

It is well known that an expatriate family arrives, their natural tendency is to seek their culture, either in the form of neighbourhoods, churches / temples, restaurants, specialized supermarkets / shops, social media groups, or other cultural activities, as this gives the feeling of being closer to their origin. Although this is very comforting, this tends to place the families in a bubble, so in one of he places I worked, we were 54 nationalities, and HR had the great idea to make a cultural week, where you had the families participating, and bringing food, costumes, music, panels / presentations about their country and/or cities. This alone allowed not only the employees to share the culture, but also for the families to interact.

Another way to involve families is starting a spouses network with the support of the company. With a small investment from the company, it will definitely pay off at the end. When we lived abroad the spouse network was greatly involved with the company and the local community, making sure the spouses and families felt home and had a place to go when they needed support, having fun or learn new things. And never forget to pay attention when they relocate, that was the hardest move I made.

This is my focus when working with expatriates. I know we have done a good job when the parents are excited to attend a PTA meeting or aren't scared of the doctor. It's very exciting when you see them join cooking or walking clubs. If your spouse is unhappy, the job isn't worth the move and everyone will suffer when this happens including the company because the expatriate won't be at their best.

Measuring performance and satisfaction specifically for expatriates and their families can create a sense of otherness, as if they're subjects under scrutiny rather than integral community members. Broadening this practice to include all employees avoids singling out one group and fosters a more inclusive, unified workplace culture.

Recognizing that employees may initially relocate without their families, later desiring to include them, and acknowledging that others may form families during their expatriate journey, underscores the ongoing and dynamic nature of this process.