As many organisations are looking to the international talent market to overcome current skills shortages, improving the retention of your valuable international workers and their wellbeing is crucial.
Often, international talent arrive in Australia on a skilled work visa or employment visa as part of an organisation’s internal staff mobility program or an overseas recruitment drive. They may leave at the end of their agreed employment term or sometimes they may leave earlier, even though they are happy in their role and enjoy interacting with their colleagues. The reason why they leave usually doesn’t come down to them; it ends up being a family decision.
While numbers vary, some sources indicate that unplanned international assignments can fail up to 40% of the time (depending on the destination country and many other reasons). At The Migration Agency, our experience working with specialised international recruitment firms indicate that well prepared candidates who move to a desirable destination are retained at rates of up to 97%. These impressive retention results are achieved through some deliberate strategies which we outline below.
Trailing Spouses
The term trailing spouse refers to someone who relocates to a new country or location because of their partner’s work. They will usually be able to enter Australia with a partner visa. For example, if someone holds a subclass 482 Temporary Skills Shortage Visa, it is possible to add their spouse or de facto partner to this subclass 482 visa as a secondary applicant. Evidence may be required to prove the relationship.
For spouses and other family members moving countries to support their partner’s career and potentially sacrificing their own, things can be quite different. After they arrive, they may feel overwhelmed when it comes to securing a home or selecting a school for their children. While their partner is settling into their workplace and meeting new people, they may experience social isolation and find it difficult to secure a job of their own, particularly if they require a specific visa pathway for their chosen career.
In order to maximise the outlay for the primary candidate, it pays to also ensure their family are able to easily find community, purpose and fulfilment in their new country and therefore be less inclined to want to return home.
| “Multiple factors combine in preventing spouses from adjusting in a foreign country. Some of the most important include lack of familiar network of friends and family, an inability to speak the local language, and sacrificing career for family (Hill, 2015). Personal characteristics such as introversion would only exacerbate these problems.” – The Impact of Family Adjustment in Expatriate Success |
Preventing The Loss of International Talent
Of course, you can’t force someone to stay in a country where they don’t feel at home. However, in our experience Australia is a highly desirable destination for an international worker to migrate for work and you can take positive steps to ensure your new employee’s family has a sense of belonging and retain your valuable employee for the longer term.
Your strategy to encourage this may include:
- Pre transfer ‘familiarisation’ visit
- Welcome events for new staff and their families
- Support with accommodation upon arrival
- Assistance finding and leasing a quality home in a good area close to transport and local amenities
- Welcome packs with information about their new city
- Regular events for international families
- Introductions to local diaspora groups in the community
- Recommend expat support groups
- Support to enrol children in school
- Subsidised language programs for newcomers and their families
- Support to find a job for the spouse or partner
- Providing the option to float public holidays to celebrate other culturally significant days
- Allowing employees to ‘buy or bank time off’ so they can return home for a period of time
- Making provisions for remote work if an international employee needs to return home for an extended visit
- Clear benefits and incentives for employees who stay for the long term, such as permanent residency and citizenship support
The aforementioned research study showed expatriate success is largely dependent on strong support from one’s spouse and family, and having support increases smooth adjustment in a culturally different environment. A recommendation it mentions is pre and post-departure training programs.
According to the report, “to be effective in an unfamiliar culture, expatriates and their family members need to develop cross-cultural literacy through extensive pre-departure and post-departure training programs. Yet, only 30 % of expatriate managers received training before going to an international assignment (Dowling and Welch, 2005) despite the fact that training can help expatriates and their spouses to adjust in a foreign environment and reduce the failure rate.”
A small investment and a policy to offer ongoing support can help your new talent’s whole family feel more settled in Australia. As a result, their short term stay can evolve into a longer one and even a citizenship application, giving your company better retention.
At The Migration Agency we work closely with organisations to ensure all aspects of workforce mobility are considered – from skill-sets, organisational match, visa suitability and onboarding so your team – and their family have the help they need to settle into Australia.
