NETEXPATIVENESS
Courtney Lind • March 11, 2020
In an increasingly digital and hands-off world, where business can feel more transactional than meaningful, we want to bring the focus back to the individuals who are at the heart of the work we do. Relocating employees, their partners and the many employers moving global talent are all valued members of the NetExpat ecosystem.
They’re at the heart of the work we do and we’re constantly considering how to best meet the needs of everyone we serve. The NetExpat team is represented on six continents and we’re fortunate that we can use this diversity to our advantage, pulling new ideas from across the globe.
With a renewed sense of focus in this new decade we’ve put a name to the term that drives us to
best support our clients and leverage the strength of our team: NetExpativeness
This asks how we can…
This model of progressive thinking puts the focus back on the individual. While we continue to develop new technologies that make employee and partner support more valuable than ever before, it’s the individuals who are at the heart of everything we do.
How do our team members incorporate NetExpativeness?
“NetExpat's fast-paced growth is adding more projects, emails, and meetings on everyone’s agenda. How to make sure we stay responsive to our corporate and employee clients? The answer is simple: focus on the client experience and reduce non-added value processes and tasks. By being NetExpateffective, we will spend more time advising clients and supporting relocating families: this is what we are passionate about, let’s not have technology take that away from us!”
-Nathalie Brotchi – EVP Global Operations
“Companies need their mobile employees in their new location, settled and working as quickly as possible. A large part of settling in their new location is understanding the local culture and making sure needs of the relocating partner are also addressed. Having lived and worked internationally I personally understand both those challenges. Therefore by actively listening to their needs, I am able to pair them effectively with the best-suited consultant and suggest the most adequate programs to their situation.”
-Jill Luecht - Senior Manager, Global Client Services
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A series of trends and events are impacting the way APAC-based companies are doing business, as well as how international organizations engage with them. As workforce borders within this active region continue to blur, intercultural agility has become more important – and more nuanced – than ever before. Whether it’s a business that's building a diverse workforce within the APAC region or a multi-national company working across cultures to do business with them, employers and the employees that work for them must forget everything they think they know about intercultural communication. Growing workforce diversity means not just knowing about the culture a business is headquartered in, but also the many cultures making up their staff. Intercultural training has therefore become a crucial investment for any business hoping to thrive in this diverse landscape.

Most mobile employees accept international relocations with mixed feelings that include excitement and curiosity. However, they’re often surprised when their move comes with more feelings of disorientation than they expected. Culture shock – the feelings of confusion, disconnectedness, and anxiety that people experience while integrating into a new culture – can make it difficult for mobile employees to transition into their new assignments effectively. It can also make it difficult for their accompanying families to settle into their new home, adding further stress to your employees’ relocation experiences. It all negatively impacts employees – but it has costly negative impacts for the organization, too. Understanding the stages of culture shock can make dealing with it easier. Below, we take a look at each and offer suggestions your employees can use for navigating them. While supporting them on their journeys helps them to integrate into their new surroundings faster and with greater ease – it also benefits business productivity, organizational goals, and the company’s bottom line. Stages of Culture Shock & Suggestions for Dealing with Them

Between rising costs and limited budgets, it’s no surprise that many organizations turn to lump sum payments to control talent mobility spending. But is this approach effective – or can it actually end up costing companies more? In this blog post, we’ll discuss the unexpected costs associated with lump sum payment models, where they can go wrong, their impacts on the employee experience, and why managed moves benefit employees and organizations in the long run. Perception vs. Reality: Lump Sum Payment Outcomes When organizations offer lump sum payments to their mobile employees, they're often being driven by a few assumptions. They believe that their mobile employees: Possess sufficient financial skills to manage their relocation budget Are savvy enough to procure the right relocation services/providers at the right times Have enough host-country knowledge to navigate area-specific nuances independently Will decrease the need for administrative resources by self-managing their relocations

Patricia Glasel has a rich international background, having lived in several different countries growing up. Her journey began in Gabon, where she was born, and extended across various African nations due to her father's work. Patricia's extensive experience as an expatriate has given her a deep understanding of the joys and challenges of living abroad. She holds M.B.A. an a degree in organizational behavior and cross-cultural training from Northwestern University, which has equipped her to support others in their global mobility journeys. After having lived in 11 countries, Patricia currently resides in France and enjoys sharing her experiences to help others navigate their expatriation adventures. Patricia also serves as a Foreign Trade Advisor for the French Government, providing high-level insights and support for international trade initiatives.

In a competitive global market, organizations face a myriad of laws, regulations, and ethical standards. And because compliance requirements differ from one country to another, a workforce’s intercultural agility plays a significant part in a company’s ability to ‘be’ compliant in the countries they do business with. Intercultural misunderstandings can be costly, leading to safety issues, lost sales and missed business opportunities, but they can also result in hefty fines, sanctions, and even being barred from operating in key markets. Because the ability to navigate cultural differences is crucial to the success and sustainability of global organizations, cultural compliance should be a part of every organization’s overall compliance strategy.

NetExpat recently interviewed two key members of the Eramet Group Team about their efforts in providing intercultural training for their international workforce through their partnership with NetExpat. The initiative is designed to enhance cultural understanding and collaboration among expatriates and multicultural teams, leading to better teamwork and productivity. The interview offers insights on the implementation, impact on performance, family integration success, and much more.

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When organizations support mobile employees during an intercultural assignment, they benefit long after those same individuals repatriate. The trouble is, too many businesses don’t see repatriation as a component of the assignment, which can have negative outcomes for both them and the employees they’ve invested in: Without repatriation support, employees face a myriad of challenges, from reverse culture shock and career uncertainty to feeling diminished. Businesses end up paying the price, from employees being disengaged to losing talent altogether. Both have negative impacts on a company’s ROI.