How to pick and manage expats

Nairobi stands proudly as the envy of many nations in the global south. We host a thriving metropolis of foreign workers, investors, and visitors desirous of our melting pot of ideas across hundreds of cultures. Our welcoming philosophy, enviable climate, and generally favourable immigration policies all boost Kenya’s economic prowess. We win the regional headquarters of nearly every Africa-oriented multinational corporation.Conversely, Kenya flourishes as a provider of foreign labour. We export an estimated five times the workers than we import. Our citizens traverse the globe working in professions from accountants, NGO executives, technologists, nurses, researchers, professors, and highly skilled experts in various fields from oil extractions to mining to entrepreneurial startups.

Stewart Black and Hal Gregersen uncovered that nearly 80 per cent of midsize and large companies send professionals abroad. Also, almost half of such organisations intend to increase the number of expatriates in their global operations.

As Kenyan firms continue to expand throughout the region, like Kenya Commercial Bank, Resolution Health, Nakumatt, and Equity Bank, or throughout the world, such as Craft Silicon, executives must learn which types of employees to send abroad and how to manage them. Not all expatriates succeed. In fact, certain types of expatriates succeed far better than others.

Kelly Ross delineated five attributes of successful expatriates based on an amalgamation of expatriate-related studies. Professionals with high ratings in the categories stand a greater probability of success.

First, adventurous individuals desire new, exciting, thrilling experiences in both the workplace and in their personal lives. Such workers will look at new cultural barriers as positives rather than negative hurdles.

Second, culturally sensitive professionals understand other cultures around them and try to integrate with the local culture. Culturally sensitive people will tend to respect new cultures instead of holding on to their opinions of the cultural superiority of their home nation.

Third, curiosity underlines another key trait of successful expatriates. Curious foreigners desire to learn about their new culture, job, history, and colleagues not purely for adventure, but for a deep craving for knowledge and understanding. A worker’s ability to learn and understand new environments minimises frustrations.

Fourth, flexibility indicates an expatriate’s willingness to try new ways of working, tolerate new methods, and innovate based on local sensitivities.

Fifth, open mindedness entails the capacity to divergently think and see new options and new possibilities, see things differently, and not judge too early.

Among the five characteristics of successful expatriates, flexibility and open mindedness ranked the most salient. So when firms select employees for overseas postings, they should avoid those professionals who in domestic meetings stick to tried and true methodologies, hold to convention, obsess on processes and not imagine what better performance could look like.

Family pressures coupled with a lack of institutional support highlight two of the biggest reasons expatriates fail. They need more support during their first year of deployment. Companies should provide coaching. Entities must incorporate either affective training with language instruction, critical incidents, role playing, and case studies or, even better, an immersion approach with assessment, simulation, sensitivity training, and field trips.

In short, make maximum use out of your expatriate workforce, select the right employees, and prepare them adequately for their foreign assignments.