The hidden costs of culture shock

Just what you need isn't it? The senior hire that was brought in, who you thought would be really fantastic has turned into an endless money pit. He walked in on his first day looking exhausted, he isn't productive, and he appears to be struggling to build effective relationships with others in the office. Best yet, you've not seen any of that dynamic leadership you expected when you first hired him.

I can already hear the rebuttal and I agree.  Human capital remains one of the greatest threats to any business, exacerbated in this region by the high number of expats that need to relocate from home countries to work here. But I would argue that you're missing a money pit parked in the middle of your company. So what really happened?

How did your fantastic new hire go from super trooper to blooper in just a little under six months? You're not alone. Globally, one in three senior expat placements terminate early or finish contracts and go home.

Working with businesses across the region for over a decade, my experience time and again leads to culture shock as one of the main culprits for these short-termers, and sadly some companies and individuals still ignore this fact.

The reality is that how new employees integrate on arrival actually determines the level of culture shock they feel, and therefore also impacts the bottom line in productivity and poor relationships which affect performance. Senior managers that have survived culture shock speak of weeks of lost productivity, feeling emotionally and physically overwhelmed and equally frustrated that the management techniques used at home don't appear to be working in their new environment.

Companies across the board are already removing the physical stress of moving and are helping them to settle in. By and large senior guys come in and somebody helps them move their boxes and house. They arrange visas, get the kids into schools and help spouses find jobs. But who is helping them to shift their mindsets? Who tells them how to read the behaviour of the people around them or offers them advice on how to behave?

Managers often don't understand the environment they're walking into or the cultural dynamics that can lead to misinterpreted situations and not really understanding what is happening around you. Given time, most managers work it out themselves, but at the expense of months of lost productivity and exhaustion.

Expecting your new recruit to perform from day one is just not realistic without the right support, and even then you have to allow room for them to breathe. Culture shock affects everyone differently, but you can pretty much count on one of the following: lack of clarity of thought, tiredness, emotionally drained, disrupted relationships and anger. This is particularly true for  a number of senior managers who find that tried and tested methods of building relationships and driving results are just not working for them.

You wouldn't go for major surgery and then walk out of the hospital the following day without a treatment plan or arranging a check-up. So why do we expect expat workers to be able to land one day and be fully functional the next? Major surgery requires follow up, pulse checks and often a slow recovery and in much the same way this is how a change in mindset should be treated if you want to ensure effective integration of overseas joiners.

Educating staff and making them culturally intelligent has been shown time and again as a proven method of reducing the impact of culture shock. Small windows of self reflection, six to ten month plans and lighter schedules for the first one to two months are just a few proven methods that companies have adopted. Involving the existing senior team has also proven to be highly successful and has the added benefit of stronger relationships between members of the senior team.  Many organisations would do well to integrate short modules related to managing transition into their induction programme. Experience has shown that a four-hour programme soon after people arrive in the country saves a lot of money, drops the number of early terminations and enhances productivity and creativity.

But unfortunately getting beyond culture shock and integrating new employees quickly is not part of all HR and managers' roles and it should be, if you want employees relocating to the Middle East to thrive.

It's time to review. See how many expat employees you've lost within an average year and do the math. Are you missing a potential upside by not dealing with this secret productivity killer?

Marco Blankenburgh is the founder and director of Knowledgeworkx.