Summary: How can companies, juggling expatriates and their families worldwide, balance the decisions involved in finding and retaining globally competent employees? Reprinted from Human Resource Executive, 11-19-08

When taking the pulse of the global relocation field, it is apparent that there is a lot to think about. Will companies around the world be able to find the ideal globally competent employee? Once found, what will it take to retain this employee? And finally, how have expatriate family dynamics and needs changed from the classic model?

Balancing these three key issues is on the minds of HR executives worldwide today and will continue to be for a while to come. The trends of global talent shortage, retaining this talent once found, and the need and demand for work-life balance, are the main factors that have a direct bearing on their "balancing act".

Winning the War for Talent

While the phrase "War for Talent" continues to be overused, it is clear that this trend shows no sign of abating. Evidence of this is seen with the beginning exodus, mostly through retirement, of the baby boomer generation from the workforce. There is a resulting growing need to improve employee satisfaction and thus ensure their retention. This is particularly important for expatriates returning from an international assignment, repatriating back "home".

It is known that currently the global demand for skilled labor has exceeded the supply, resulting in shortages in many pockets of the world. For the past twenty years, the U.S. workforce has grown by 50 percent. However, over the next twenty years it is predicted to only grow by 3 percent! Demand in the U.S. continues to be high for skilled non-U.S. citizens (especially from India and China). This year alone, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services received over 163,000 applications for just 65,000 H-1B visas, which were distributed within the first 24 hours.

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About the Author Saskia Meckman is founder of Soleil Intercultural and offers intercultural training and consulting to organizations with employees on global assignments. She has been working in the global relocation field since 1998 based out of New York City, Boston, and currently Boca Raton, FL. US-born, with Ecuadorian and Dutch-Austrian-Danish parents, she grew up in France, Germany, Luxembourg, and The Netherlands and has traveled extensively around the world.

First Published: Jul 09, 2009