How to manage dual careers and international assignments?
How to manage dual careers and international assignments?
Santa Fe’s 2019 Global Mobility Survey identifies several areas where dual career households can increase the complexity of sending an employee on an international assignment. Our listing of the main challenges that Global Mobility teams can expect include several that are family driven, including reluctance to accept assignments for spouse career or family reasons, and insufficient value for the family from taking the assignment.
Source: Santa Fe Relocation GMS 2019: Revision, Mobility through the looking glass.
As the gender balance of employees moves more towards equality, more and more trailing spouses are male, leading to a whole new dynamic for employers.
There are many ways an employer can assist with this. Providing Spousal Career Support to enable the spouse to work in the host location is a popular option. This can assist the spouse in updating their resume/CV, taking some language courses to enable them to work locally, and more.
In isolated cases, it may be possible to employ the spouse on local terms, but that very much depends on the industry, location, and availability of a role, to say nothing of the challenges of someone working closely for a close relative.
Where the assignee can be brought into the country with the correct visa type to permit the spouse to work on local terms and conditions, that gives everyone more options, which can only help.
So, whether it is Cultural training or Immigration services, Santa Fe’s relocation services can support you, regardless of where the potential solution lies.
We recommend that you stay up to speed on trends and information through our webinars, white papers, surveys and events. Find more in the Mobility Insights section of our website, www.santaferelo.com or read more from the below articles:
Managing Global Mobility programs effectively
How to guarantee and measure ROI in Global Mobility?
Short-term or long-term assignments?
Challenges of female international assignees
How to effectively support and manage a return from an international assignment?
Most challenging assignment destinations: How to overcome multicultural differences?
