The Challenge – To provide Cross Cultural Training on a limited budget

Is it possible to deliver the quality cross-cultural training that expats need to perform effectively when the global mobility budget is tight?

We commented in last month’s newsletter that the desire to cut the cost of expatriate assignments has been a reoccurring theme in industry surveys. In fact, reducing the costs of expatriate assignments has been a continuing goal for most global mobility specialists over the past five years.   Some of those costs remain unavoidable.  Visas, travel costs, furniture removals, and health insurance are usually considered core needs.  Tax advice, relocation destination services, and children’s school fees are often considered a higher priority than training or coaching for cultural effectiveness. 

In our ideal world, all expatriates would receive a pre-departure briefing for the new country, a CQ (cultural intelligence) assessment for the assignee and their partner, as well as coaching for both of them as they arrive and adapt to the new location and build their cultural intelligence to become increasingly effective at work and in the society where they are now living.  The needs of family members are equally as important and can also be met through coaching, particularly as they settle in to new schools and locations, and as adjustment issues arise. 

But the reality of limited budgets and the need to cut costs means that this level of service is beyond the budget of many businesses. 

Over the past five years this has been a real source of frustration for me as I have seen many companies make decisions that didn’t include cross cultural training or coaching for their assignees.  I’ve become aware of many issues arising as a result of poor performance due to low cultural intelligence and / or lack of resilience.

The good news comes from on-line technology and e-learning options.  A US meta-analysis study compared on-line learning with face-to-face options in the university environment and found that on-line learning was an effective learning tool, especially where it provided additional resources so that students could spend extra time reflecting on the learning.  This is good news. Quality on-line learning materials also provide a viable alternative when face-to-face learning is unavailable due to budget, time or location constraints.

So, together, with a team of experts, we’ve built quality, evidence-based resources  (webinars, ebooks, online video and audio) that can now be offered to a greater number of expats at a lower cost. 

We know that the learning needs of expatriates will change throughout the course of an assignment and our learning resources match the needs of each stage. 

We also know that family satisfaction is vital to employee productivity and we address the needs of all family members throughout the adaption process.

Our high quality, on-line learning resources have been streamlined into a user friendly website, which is only available to members and their families. As an organization, you can pay the membership fee for your expatriates and they will receive full access to these on-line resources for a year, including access to webinars and on-line ask the expert opportunities.  Members are able to access the resources relevant to their needs, when they need them most.

But will our expats make use of these resources?  Unlike university students, expats are not required to study the on-line resources.  However, they are required to perform.  They may be frustrated by experiences in the new location and want to gain advice or they may feel overwhelmed as a result of culture shock and want real tools to help them adjust.

Through two regular monthly emails, we gently remind them that the issues they may be facing at this stage of the assignment are addressed through specific resources on the website.  They can access these resources at a time and place convenient to their own learning.   We let them know of the monthly webinar they can join or listen to after it has been saved.  We constantly renew and update the resources and let our members know of new resources that may be relevant and we remind them they can ask us questions through the on-line ask the experts box.  

It may not be our ideal personal training or coaching solution but it’s getting closer! 

Reference:  Means et al (2010)

Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning: A Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies