As an HR manager you face different challenges when hiring international talent. Of course, the ‘traditional expats’ who is sent on an assignment of 3-5 years need your attention, but there are also more and more self-initiated expats that are hired directly in the host country. Especially small and medium sized companies might not have a lot of experience with supporting these international employees. With my research, I hope to help you in supporting your international talent in certain specific challenges. My work mainly focuses on how companies can help expats build a new social network in their host country, how they can facilitate contacts between expats and locals in the workplace, and how employees – both expats and locals – can develop intercultural competences to facilitate working together with people from different cultural backgrounds.
Global mobility’s forgotten partner: The case for supporting host country nationals
Expats are the focus of much research in global mobility because they are often strategically important and costly. But what about the host country nationals…
“Willing to go the extra mile”
Companies increasingly depend on their employees to invest their time and enthusiasm. With my colleagues Mette Strange Noesgaard and Snejina Michailova, we just published an…
Living in an expat compound
Guest blog post by Dr Reto Wegmann, Senior Advisor of Swiss Ibex LLC, Lecturer at the University of Lucerne1 Making friends with locals is much…
How do expats make new friends?
‘The happy expat needs friends’, yes, but how does this work? What helps and what doesn’t? And what can expats do to help the process…