“How do you handle failure?” An Asian potential hire may be surprised to hear an American job interviewer ask this “provocative” question, but some American companies ask it because they like to confront issues head on. This is a question many young Asian expats may...
What’s wrong with this picture? Two foreigners: One partner or spouse is working, and the other is staying put at home, taking care of the children, if they have any. Who do you think would be able to adjust to their new environment faster? The...
As people born from 1995 onwards -- or Generation Z -- enter the workforce, one has to ask why global mobility managers and employers are making a big fuss with this younger generation of assignees. Well, technology’s rapid pace has changed many people’s behavior, habits...
“Should I let my child study in a private school, or a public one?” That’s a question most expatriates or assignees ask before flying to their new country of employment. It’s also been answered in one of our blogs. Some expatriate workers, though, have posed a...
The roasted turkey amidst a table of plenty, which is surrounded by happy family members and friends, is a very familiar and welcome sight to all of us. Thanksgiving is just right around the corner, and Christmas is just a few weeks away. Thanksgiving is an...
How does one solve unconscious biases? In a recent day-long UX design hackathon hosted by HexHacks in New York, nearly a hundred people attempted to create solutions to solve this most perplexing dilemma. At no other time has this issue reared its ugly head than...
Evacuating assignees during a crisis is a challenge that global mobility managers do have to prepare for. More important, they have to constantly do it, updating their plans, checking support systems and replacing them if they prove to be outdated. It would not be an...
Existential despair and/or emotional chaos. Those complex terms describe the debilitating reasons that are spurring tech workers in Silicon Valley, most of them millennials, to seek out psychiatric help. The New York Times’ thorough expose of the subject says that many of these tech workers...
As a global mobility manager, you will meet assignees who think their employment prospects are not bright. However, a look at the bigger picture shows that the United States as of today is experiencing a healthy job market, with the current unemployment rate at 3.6...
It can happen to any global mobility manager at any point in their career, especially if they are managing a significant number of direct reports or assignees. They get asked this question: “Would you be willing to sponsor or mentor this assignee?” Sometimes, an HR director...