Expatriate Management: Why Companies Explore Foreign Talent Pools

In order for companies to stay ahead of the competition in this global economy, they must leverage and optimize all the tools at their disposal.  Talent is the most important of these tools and often proves to be the single greatest differentiator among companies in a crowded marketplace.  Talent pools, like the economy, are global in nature today.

Seasoned expatriates can represent a particularly attractive segment of prospective talent as they often share valuable common characteristics that provide companies with key bottom line benefits. For example…

Cross-Cultural Intelligence

Expatriates with a track record of successful international assignments bring with them an innate knowledge of how to effectively work across different cultures and languages.  As a result, they will most likely be able to seamlessly adapt to local systems and values, ultimately delivering the most impactful results.

Flexibility and Team Mentality

Seasoned expats must have the ability to work with people who have different ideas and thought processes based on different cultural standards from their own.  In order to be successful, they must have patience and an openness to diverse points of view.  In considering these views while continually maintaining the department and company’s best interests as their foremost priority, they are highly effective and flexible team members.

Driven, Ambitious, and Connected

By definition, expatriates are motivated individuals who have undertaken bold career moves.  To increase their market value and differentiate themselves, seasoned expats have moved their lives to work in foreign countries and communities, constantly adding to their diverse cross cultural network and intelligence system.  These expats have also most likely cemented valuable relationships with key business influencers across the globe, further enhancing their ability to drive bottom line results for the company.

In conclusion, it would be short-sighted for companies not to think globally in assessing their prospective talent pool.  Experienced expatriates share traits that make them invaluable in this global, multi-cultural economy.  Successful expatriate placement and management represents a significant investment, but if led by the right global mobility provider, it can deliver high impact growth and exponential return on investment to the company that implements it.