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The possible impact of empathy on increasing ROI on global assignments

As I read the LinkedIn post "Putting Empathy into the World of Global Mobility" I could not help being reminded of how our work here at Plus Relocation (a Global Relocation Management Company - or RMC) is sometimes split between 2 clients with very different needs and goals. We are responsible for both the corporate client and the relocating employee.

In the post, Louise does a great job of spelling out the value of "empathy." It is not only a critical leadership skill, but organizational empathy, when infused into a mobility experience that supports employees relocating abroad, leads to less assignment failure. Not only that, but it also causes greater employee development, higher levels of employee engagement and performance, improved leadership and better retention of talent. 

Maybe a bigger pinch of empathy is exactly what is needed in the recipe for increased ROI?

Despite the diverse nationalities and professions of the attendees, there was a strong connection, one that comes from shared experience in this case international living. Seeing empathy at work in this context sparked me to think about empathy in corporate international mobility. Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another (Oxford English Dictionary). There is a growing body of research that points to the value of empathy as a core leadership skill, positively related to job performance (Centre for Creative Leadership, 2009). In my recent article ‘Expatriate Assignment Failure; The Tip of the Iceberg’, I suggested global mobility strategies to help to lay the foundations for a smooth transition and for high levels of assignee engagement with a resulting positive impact on performance.

Tags

roi, assignments, global relocation, expatriates, experience, investment, global mobility, policy, process, empathy