Family-friendly Settling-in Checks
When your organization recruits someone for an international assignment or transfer, it is often because there is a job to be done in that location. For your colleague to focus on that job and execute it successfully, they need to be able to concentrate. Now, imagine your colleague leaving home for work in the morning, knowing that their partner and children are struggling with their life abroad. Your colleague feels pressured to compensate their family for their hardship while going through their own rollercoaster of emotions.
Confirming that your colleague and their accompanying family members have settled in well is essential to mitigate the risks associated with international relocation. The most straightforward way to find out if your internationally mobile employee has settled in successfully is to simply ask them. This article is a 5-step guide on how to conduct Family-friendly Settling-in Checks.
Why checking in is important
Many organizations measure the success of their Global Mobility program, its benefits, and service providers by sending (many) surveys to their employees. By doing so, you are asking them to provide you with feedback, which might benefit a future relocation but often does little to improve the successful outcome of the current move.
A Settling-in Check allows you to obtain that same feedback, often at a much higher response rate. Your colleague is much more likely to share their feedback with you when you inquire about their experience in the context of their own (and their family’s) needs and wellbeing.
If employee wellbeing is important to your organization, there is a secondary reason to conduct Settling-in Checks. Most people underestimate how long it takes to settle in, especially when they experience a ‘honeymoon stage’ shortly after arriving in their new location. While each person’s experience is unique, most people report that they start to find a rhythm in their new lives (meaning that day-to-day tasks no longer cause frustration and/or cost exhaustive amounts of energy) approximately 4-6 months after moving. Often, it takes even longer before they report enjoying life abroad and feeling at home. You want your colleague and their family members to have such insights as a frame of reference to their own experience to manage their expectations and open the door for them to seek help if they are worried about their (mental) wellbeing.
A third motivation for a Settling-in Check is to ensure that your colleague knows who to contact and when. Most likely, you will have already shared information about the various benefits available and how to initiate such services. However, receiving a reminder of this information when the rollercoaster of relocation events has come to a stop is a great way to remind them of what resources and provisions are available to them through your organization’s Global Mobility program and to optimize utilization.
When to check in
Your timing should depend on when other services come to an end. Ideally, your Settling-in Check comes a few weeks to a month after the last touchpoint of destination services. Such timing ensures that your message is received as a stand-alone gesture, not as one of the many communications your colleague receives associated with their international relocation.
You now know that settling in takes longer than most people anticipate, but you don’t want to wait until that 6-month period is over. As part of your message involves information provision about this settling-in period, you want to send your Settling-in Check before they start to worry.
We advise you to conduct the Settling-in Check with your colleague and their family approximately 3-4 months after they have moved. Keep in mind that not all family members may have moved simultaneously (see also our article on Family-friendly Assignment Planning). Such insights should be reflected in the composition of your message.
Where to check in
When it comes to the route of your Settling-in Check message, the more personal, the better. However, you should keep privacy laws and regulations in mind. Most organizations use company email for their check-in message, sometimes with their colleague’s partner in copy if they have permission to contact them.
Ideally, your Settling-in Check is an invitation for a virtual meeting. Speaking to your colleague and/or their partner ‘in person’ shows your genuine interest in their wellbeing, while providing you with both verbal and non-verbal feedback on how they are doing.
If a virtual meeting is not an option, a personal message is your second-best choice. Of course, you can use a template for most of your text. A little trick to make your message more personal is to include a short opening paragraph, referring to your colleague’s family members by name and/or to a recent event.
When your work is done under tight budget and time constraints, a standard questionnaire is understandably your best option. Aside from the time investment to build the questionnaire, we suggest exploring software functionalities that allow you to personalize your message.
What to check in on
Our favorite composition for a Settling-in Check message is the following: Personal Intro; Key Question; Information Provision; Additional Questions; Closing message.
Most importantly, we suggest you ask the following question: “Have you, and your accompanying family members [use their names if possible], settled in successfully to your new location?”
Next, we suggest that you provide further information to clarify why you are asking this question. Your information provision could include information on what settling in looks like for most families, what they can do to support themselves and each other, red flags to watch out for, and what to do when they are worried about themselves and/or a family member. Weaving understanding and compassion in your information provision helps normalize the experience and associated emotions that your colleague and their family are going through. One way of doing this is by explaining that “successfully settling in” looks different for every family and reiterating that you care about them starting to feel at home in their new country.
As mentioned before, the Settling-in Check is also an opportunity to receive further feedback from your colleague. We advise not to include too many additional questions to avoid discouraging your colleague from responding. Rather, focus on those questions that are most important to your organization. Think about questions that evolve around your Global Mobility program’s goals, recent changes you have implemented and want to obtain feedback on, or specific concerns that you are looking to surface to build a business case for future changes.
How to follow up
Of course, you are hoping to hear from your colleague that they, and their family members, have settled in successfully. If so, you could point them to resources in case their situation changes. However, if your Settling-in Check triggers your colleague to share their hardship or worries about one of their family members, we strongly suggest you take action. The minimum you should do in such a scenario is to point your colleague in the direction of resources designed to help them understand their challenges better and find solutions that work for their family. Expat Valley’s Family Support Services are a good example of such a resource. It is even better when you make a case for your organization to cover the costs of such support, as it should be considered part of its duty of care towards employees and other individuals affected by business decisions.
You don’t have to be a Family Relocation Expert to offer a Successful Family Relocation Experience. Let us be your Family Relocation Experts. We are happy to support you, your employees, and their family members with successful relocation. You can set up a free consultation with one of our team members to ask any Family Relocation Experience related questions you may have.
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