When you are running a multinational corporation in Asia that already has significant economic investments, but you cannot find enough skilled and fully-trained local labour to meet your market demands, what do you do?

Skilled Asian employees are 'marketing' themselves to the highest bidder

As the economic position of the Asia-Pacific region strengthens, many multinational organisations are viewing the region as a valuable place to establish operations. Relatively inexpensive manual labour, an increasingly skilled professional workforce, and the resulting growth in economic buying power of the millions of working Asian adults have grabbed the attention of virtually all of the world’s major corporations.

The war for talent in Asia

None of the 'growth' economies in Asia, notably China – one of the fastest growing economies in the world, Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia and South Korea, is able to produce enough fully-skilled workers to meet the current needs of the multinational corporations that have invested in those countries. There is a chronic shortage of fully-trained 'home-grown' skilled labour, in these countries and most other economies in Asia, especially in technical/engineering and managerial positions. This directly drives the need for international assignees.

Indirectly, the need for international assignees is driven even further by the incredibly fierce competition between multinational companies for the limited, fully-trained skilled labour that already exists locally in Asian countries.

Employees in Asia understand all too well the demand for their skills and services and are 'marketing' themselves to the highest bidder with unprecedented frequency. There is clearly a talent war in Asia.

Assignees are diversifying

The vast majority of international assignees are no longer from the United States or the United Kingdom; International assignees are becoming increasingly diverse and intra-Asia short-term international assignments (for instance from South Korea to China) are becoming more prominent.

Also female international assignees, with the male as the trailing spouse, are more prevalent than in the past, as are unmarried international assignees with children and international assignees with same-sex partners.
 
Companies need to be aware that a global business strategy does not imply that the same exact communication rollout, process of execution, and performance metrics can be deployed consistently around the world with consistent results in all locations. Strategies may have to be executed differently to achieve the same result in different host countries.

With regards to assignments, the HR executives, international assignees, and consulting firms I  have collaborated with indicate that the most significant negative issue international assignees and their families encounter during the assignment is the difficulty adjusting culturally to the host location—and subsequently re-adjusting back to the home culture when repatriating

Challenges of short-term assignments from the Asian perspective

From an Asian perspective, short-term international assignments offer some unique challenges and opportunities for accompanying families. For example, the home often is shared with the extended family. The company is likely to provide transportation to and from the host country, as well as housing in the host country, for the immediate family and not to the extended family.

Asian families have the advantage on intra-Asia assignments

In Asia, when the immediate family accompanies the international assignee on an assignment, their home likely will not be sold or 'managed' in the same manner as it would if the family was from a western country.

Additionally, as English generally is accepted as the language of commerce – or the official business language — in Asia and around the world, a family from Asia with limited English-speaking, -reading , and -writing skills on assignment in another Asian country likely will be interfacing with hosts who also have limited English-speaking, -reading, and -writing skills. That means each party will have difficulty understanding the other's limited English.

Asians on intra-Asia assignments

There are also advantages. The similarities in customs between many Asian countries provide a distinct advantage for Asian families on international assignments. The social subtleties in approaching people, communicating, expressing opinions and emotions, building personal relationships, and making decisions typically come much easier to Asian international assignees and their families than they would to a Western international assignee and his or her family.

Whereas Westerners must exercise great self-control and refrain from being very direct, outspoken, confrontational, impatient, and forceful, Asians on assignment elsewhere in Asia already are much more sensitive to and in tune with the subtleties of acceptable social behaviour in Asia.

From Asia to the West

When Asian international assignees and their families are on assignment in Western countries, they have the opposite challenge in order to 'fit in'. Understanding the western mindset and values, not being easily offended or upset by the more direct and open style of the host citizenry, having a 'thick skin,' and demonstrating more of a sense of urgency, are all behaviours that the Asian family must decide how much it will adapt—and adaptability is the key for any international assignment.

Schooling is a big issue

As with families on international assignment from any other country, if children are present on the assignment in Asia, the families will want to ensure the availability of appropriate schools that teach—or at least support—social customs, as well as a high-quality and thorough education.

Asian families on international assignments, who also are accustomed to a highly-competitive academic environment in their home countries, will have high expectations of the schools in host countries. This is a big issue, and the way in which education is handled will have a significant impact on the morale of the family, the performance of the international assignee, and the overall outcome of the assignment.

Support networks

Having access to other Asian families living in the host country, as well as being aware of the location of traditional Asian businesses, restaurants, and places of worship in the host country are additional important items for Asian families on international assignments.

Availability of informal support groups, fellow citizens with a lot in common socially, familiar surroundings, foods, and goods and services from home all will have an enormous impact on the international assignee and family. These are the things that make an international assignment viable as far as many international assignees and their families (from Asia or elsewhere) are concerned.

Pointers to success

There are a number of other important issues a company should consider to increase the likelihood that its international assignees and their accompanying families will succeed in the assignment. One of the biggest 'levers' here is to effectively manage the expectations of all parties concerned, including the family:

• Have a strategy for determining whether and when international assignments will benefit the company.
• Have a realistic definition, as well as expectations, of a successful international assignment.
• Establish terms, conditions, and provisions for international assignments that are financially prudent, externally competitive, internally equitable, and appropriate for the specific assignment.
• If it is a competitive advantage for your company to be able to quickly move qualified talent between any two countries in the world based on the needs of the business, there must not be a large variance between the cost/benefit of the provisions available at one host country versus another. (You do not want the package at one host location to be made so attractive that everyone wants it and the package at another host location to be made so unattractive that no one will accept an assignment there.)
• Select international assignees very carefully, with full consideration for their family situations and the nature, location, and duration of the assignment.
• Plan and communicate effectively upfront so that there are no surprises for anyone involved.
• Include thorough cross-cultural orientation for the assignee and family prior to the assignment, and follow-up on arrival in the host country and throughout the assignment. Be sure to include foreign language training if applicable.
• Provide contact information for future questions and issues.

There are numerous providers on the market that can provide effective cultural orientation and risk management services tailored to cost no more than 1 percent to 1.5 percent of the total cost of an expatriate package for an international assignee and their family. Few investments will yield a greater return and mitigate more risk that affects an international assignee and the accompanying family.
 
Effectively managing and retaining your pool of international assignees, while decreasing the need for such expensive assignments by investing in, developing, and retaining a qualified local workforce, is an essential long-term strategy that is going to require some creative approaches for rewarding employees and retaining them, through managing the work environment, competitive compensation, and terms of employment.

Developing this total core competency must be treated as a competitive advantage, because the company that plans and executes it best will win the Asian talent war, and ultimately, market share.

September 2005

Dennis W. Daniels is corporate vice president, human resources, STATS ChipPAC Ltd., Singapore, and a member of the MOBILITY Global Editorial Advisory Committee. He can be reached at +65 6824 7668 or e-mail dennis.daniels@STATSChipPAC.com.

[Summarised from the original article by Expatica HR]

Reprinted with permission of Worldwide ERC®, from the September 2005 issue of MOBILITY.

Subject: Short-term assignments, assignees in Asia, Intra-Asia assignments