Pre-assignment planning

Last month, I wrote about why a company might decide to send someone on assignment. This month, I want to focus more on the assignee and their family.

At this point, you'll already have determined why you want to send someone on assignment, what are the expected outcomes and how long the manager is expecting the arrangement to continue. So, now it's time to talk to the prospective assignee.

Initially, I am sure that you'll be focussed on what the arrangement will bring to the company and of course the employee will be thinking about their career. But how will this huge step impact the lives of the rest of the family?

While it's important to have the conversation about the employee's life outside of the office, it can feel intrusive to ask lots of personal questions.

For this reason, I have often utilized pre-assignment questionnaires that enable the employee to discuss the potential move with their partner and the rest of the family and to self-analyse their readiness to move.

In designing such a questionnaire, I would usually focus on spousal career and expectations, family health matters (including the extended family of parents/ in-laws) and children’s education. I would also ask the family to think about their willingness to integrate with different cultures and ways of doing things as well as their willingness to learn and operate in another language.

This is not a tool with right or wrong answers and can't predict the actual success of the assignment. It is a tool to enable self reflection and to help the family to determine their readiness.

In addition to the traditional pre-move visit, we have found that matching up the assignee and their family with another current or ex-assignee family in the same location can really help to bring the reality of life there into sharper focus.

Finally, there are some locations which do not recognize non-married couples, where homosexuality is illegal or where women might be treated less favourably than men. It is important not to automatically exclude individuals from moving to the location on the basis of your expectations of what they would want. Rather, your role is to provide the potential assignee and their family with information about the location and enable them to do further research and to make an informed choice for themselves.

Sometimes, an employee and their family will determine that now is not the right time or perhaps even that there will never be a right time for them. It can take just as much bravery to say “no” to an assignment as it does to go on the assignment.

On the other hand, the family may determine that now is the right time for them to move, but that they might require different or additional support to enable a more successful move.

Now you’re clear on manager and employee expectations for the move, you’re ready to start putting a compensation package together. I'll cover that in a later post.