Although expatriates may comprise only a small percentage of
total employees in a large corporation, the majority are chosen
because of their technical expertise or leadership qualities,
according to a recent survey by Mercer Human Resource
Consulting.
Oftentimes, expatriates have a specific project, which usually
includes transferring skills to local employees. Most employers
also see the expatriate assignment as a career development move.
But how do companies go from identifying a possible
expatriate to actually sending that person to another country?
Here are three views on the selection process from Canon Europe,
Mattel Europe and Reuters.
Canon Europe
Canon, a Japan-based multinational, says that many of its
expatriate staff are based at the company’s headquarters in
Amsterdam and number around 200 in total for the whole of
Europe. Apart from Japan these employees tend come from Italy,
Spain and the UK. Other expats are employed in offices based in
Eastern Europe, the Middle East or South Africa. They either run
a specific technical operation or are sent to imbue the local
division with the company’s specific culture.
“Most of the expats are sent here to build up company
interrelations,” said Patricia Panke, a HR specialist with Canon
Europe, based in Amsterdam. “Most of them are on contracts of
between three to five years and after that period most of them
return to their home country where they will continue to work
for the company.”
Panke added that because of the current economic downturn, some
employees discovered that they could not get a position back
home and have been found a role within the head office.
What usually qualifies such people for working abroad is first
their technical knowledge, second their ability to explain the
corporate culture to other people and thirdly the likelihood
that they would be able to cope with living abroad. This is
usually done through a rigorous interview process.
Mattel Europe
US-based toy manufacturer Mattel tends to employ expats in
senior managerial positions who will run major departments at
the European headquarters based in the Netherlands or in other
offices throughout Europe, observes Monique Gort, HR specialist
with the company. Throughout the continent, Mattel employs over
1,000 people, with 150 of them at the head office; only 20 to 25
of these employees are expatriates.
As these are senior people, the company already knows quite a
lot about their personality and their ability to survive in a
foreign environment, although they must first go through a tough
interview process.
The company will help new staff with language training and
assistance for the costs of the move for the employee and their
family. Mattel also needs to sort out work permits, as most
expats come from the US, when they are employed in Europe.
Most expats have contracts that last between two and three
years, although Gort says about half will decide to stay longer.
The longest stays in the Netherlands are between eight and nine
years.
Reuters
The expatriates that Reuters, the UK-based financial news and
information company, employs in the Benelux region generally
come from the UK. Their numbers are quite small compared to the
total number of employees based in offices in Brussels and
Amsterdam: 15 out of a 100 in the Belgian capital and 10 to15
out of 180 in the Netherlands office.
They tend to be journalists or business managers with a specific
technical skill or expertise that is useful to Reuters
consultancy work. A significant amount of a manager’s time will
be spent training up local employees to take on expert roles
within the company.
Candidates go through a series of interviews and tests in London
before being appointed. Reuters also looks for employees who
have a “global view” and are mentally mature, says Carl
Michel, HR manager for Reuters in the Benelux region. “We also
use questionnaires to find the right people for the expat jobs,”
he says.
The average length of a contract is three years, but that can be
extended if both parties are happy with each other. “In our
assignment letters we usually stipulate three years,” he adds.
October 2002
Jeremy Slater is a freelance business writer based in Brussels.
For more information or to make an appointment you can email
Robbert-Jan
Nuis at
rjnuis@expatriatecounseling.com
or call + 31(0)6-282 440 88
more about RJ Nuis
