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Findings of Survey Research

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Survey research conducted for over a decade by the National Foreign Trade Council, GMAC Global Relocation Services and SHRM Global Forum, as well as surveys by the Employee Relocation Council have consistently shown that:

The psychosocial factors of spousal adjustment and overall family adjustment are the most frequent reasons for assignment failure.

A recent study conducted by Cendant Mobility in partnership with Willamette University entitled, "Emerging Trends in Global Mobility: The Assignee Perspective" (2004), confirms that assignees themselves, like the third-parties who observed them in the above-noted surveys, see "family adjustments" at the top of the list of assignment challenges, with repatriation and burnout the second and third ranked challenges. Some of the most important findings of this study of 548 assignees sampled world-wide are then reported in the section, " Support For Challenges":

To whom do assignees turn when faced with challenges? The data suggest that assignees turn to their home- or host-country manager for professional assistance, whereas they turn to their family or peer groups for personal assistance. Family is relied upon for daily living adjustments, family adjustments, and burnout. Peers are relied upon for dealing with cultural adaptation and, to a lesser extent, working with local employees, family adjustment and burnout. Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) and the Internet are rarely utilized as sources of support for the challenges that assignees encounter. HR, whether based in the home or home country, is rarely relied upon for assistance with the exception of challenges related to repatriation and inadequate policy revisions. Even here, however, HR is not relied on to the same extent as home- and host-country managers. A possible reason for this low utilization is that assignees may see HR as dealing mainly with tactical issues. (p.13)

The finding that families primarily turn to other accompanying family members for support when facing adjustment issues (that could cause the assignment to fail) has clear implications. If couples and families are not inclined to look to "outsiders" for help once on assignment, resources are best committed on a pre-departure basis to strengthening their own capacity to manage assignment challenges. The International Assignee Assessment Program (IAAP) offered by Expatriate Consulting, while primarily a final stage check on selection, integrates personal preparation and enhanced marital teamwork into the assessment process.