EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE


UNDERSTANDING THE REPATRIATION JOURNEY Joining Ms Sullivan during the workshop is Dario Kosarac, who will share his personal experiences as a frequent expatriate to talk through the details and impact of key aspects of his repatriation journey. Delegates will reflect on what he might have been doing, thinking and feeling and what the emotional, career, and family concerns were. The audience will create an empathy map along a timeline that starts six months before the repatriation notice and highlights milestone activities such as ‘advise family’ and ‘book household goods moving services’. Workshop participants will then select the most impactful touchpoints in the assignee journey. This experiential approach will help


delegates to understand the pressures and pinch-points for assignees on multiple levels and, ultimately, inform and improve their practice. Ms Sullivan explained, “With dozens of touchpoints and unavoidable tax, compliance and security requirements, we know how confusing and challenging relocation can be. “By looking at the process from the


employee’s point of view, we can develop a better understanding of what the experience is like and design an exceptional employee experience to drive better outcomes which in turn will result in better ROI.” Using design thinking is also part of


Weichert’s stakeholding approach. This accents objective listening and systematic engagement, with everyone involved in the assignment life cycle. “By listening to their concerns and exploring the best way to overcome them, we can create an impartial roadmap to an ideal future state,” says Ms Sullivan. “Every stakeholder in the process – HR,


compensation & benefits, finance, service provider, support functions, etc. – can have a voice in developing a better understanding of the process and how to improve the repatriation journey.”


ARE YOU LIVING THE DREAM – OR A NIGHTMARE? To get a sense of the type of challenges and their impact, Mr Kosarac explains his experiences of repatriation and the lessons he is now applying from these in his current role, sharing them so they can be reflected on more widely to improve repatriation process and practices across the sector.


Mr Kosarac first moved to Canada from


the US, then to Hong Kong. His repatriation inbound to Canada was the result of a new job, and he is now in charge of moving the investment organisation’s growing number of employees across nine global offices. Having had a chance to process his


experience and action new practices that are improving the assignment experience for colleagues and creating efficiencies, Mr Kosarac delineated the challenges as he sees them into three core areas: timing, logistics and social. “In terms of timing, I moved from Hong


Kong to Canada in the middle of January – one of the coldest months of the year. This change in climate – from getting on a plane where it was about 65ºF to arriving in Canada, and it was just under 0ºF was a bit of a shock,” he says. To make the relocation even harder,


Mr Kosarac’s shipment of household goods was delayed by nine weeks due to a storm in the Pacific and a strike at a port along the way. The challenge of timing meant he had to move from his furnished temporary apartment to his permanent apartment without any personal items or furniture. “I had no utensils, nothing to cook or


prepare meals with,” he says. “This added to the significant challenges around the quality of life. To make matters worse, in one of the coldest times of the year, the apartment building’s heating system broke down on the first night. I was sleeping on a blow-up bed in an unfurnished, freezing apartment.”


DEALING WITH UNFORESEEN CHALLENGES Changing jobs is stressful enough without these additional logistical challenges. In Mr Kosarac’s case, in terms of social support, his partner was still in Hong Kong. Reconnecting with friends and family also doesn’t always come as easy as one might hope or expect, as circumstances change and shared experiences are fewer. Surveys and research show that Kosarac


was not alone in having to live with and manage these types of repatriation challenges. “I sometimes joke that I was a victim of mobility before I became a manager of it!” says Mr Kosarac, who is now drawing on his experiences to improve the mobility experience for his people-centred role at CPPIB. “It is the interconnectedness of all these little things that add up to a pretty tough


combination of experiences,” he believes. “While I did get lots of support and sympathy, people only saw small parts of what the repatriation meant for me from the perspective of their role in it. It was difficult for them to understand the whole picture.”


REWRITING REPATRIATION Mr Kosarac describes repatriation as a lonely and frustrating experience. To overcome this, he advocates for a two-pronged approach to make the process easier and more empathetic to individual needs and unique circumstances. The first step is realistic preparation,


which includes providing more information on every aspect of the move and continuity of support, so there is a sense that someone is in charge of the whole process – whether that is through coaching or a mobility manager. “Every employee is unique,” says Mr


Kosarac. “It would be great if there was someone there who could have said ‘right, your shipment didn’t make it in time, let me help you figure out how you might rent some furniture for a few weeks.’ “It’s the importance of empathy and


recognising the sacrifice employees make when they either go on assignment or are repatriated, and being able to make those creative, marginal decisions that make such a huge and often disproportionate difference to expatriates’ quality of life and well-being,” he adds. By the end of the workshop, attendees


will have first-hand insights into the repatriation process and newly acquired design- thinking skills and will have learned how to design an exceptional employee experience from the beginning to end of the assignment life cycle.


GLOBAL MOBILITY


TOOLKIT Managing across Cultures


FACTSHEET 1: Guiding principles –


Developing a global mindset Factsheets produced by Relocate Global


REPATRIATION FACTSHEET


For FREE downloadable factsheets on mobility policy content for business travel, rotational, short-term and commuter assignments visit our Global Mobility Toolkit at bit.ly/GMToolkit


For further information on Relocate’s new Factsheet series or to find out how to sponsor a Factsheet contact Fiona Murchie, Managing Editor.


editorial@relocateglobal.com + 44 (0)1892 891334


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