Question was to see how does the presence of a

question was to see how does the presence of a repatriation program influence the
turnover rate of the expatriate employees.
Table 4. Cross tabulation on presence of repatriation program and resignation rate of
the expatriates
As the literature review showed, some companies consider a repatriation program to be
of a great importance and to help their employees re-adjust they offer support in “ (1),
organizational policy and position definition; (2), financial counseling; (3), professional
adjustment time; and (4), family reorientation programs” (Harvey, 1982). Adler (1981)
goes even further in her suggestions and says that the degree to which the employees get
this assistance should not differ depending on the country the country the international
assignment took place: “re-entry from similar countries (e.g. countries that use the s
need of same language and are developed at the same economic level) should be as well
managed as re-entry from dissimilar countries”. Moreover, some researchers state that if
no attention is paid to repatriation adjustment and don’t offer any assistance to the
Bachelor Thesis Teodora G. Nikolaeva
32

repatriates, the chances of the them leaving is higher (Black, Gregersen, and
Mendenhal, 1992 in Lee & Liu, 2006).
Both of the respondents who do not see the need of the repatriation program have a low
expatriates’ turnover rate (the other one who has not answer the question about the
turnover rate is not going to be analyzed). This leads to the conclusion that both of the
companies do not have considerable problems in connection to repatriation. To support
this statement a cross tabulation between the need of repatriation program and the
company’s perception about the resignation from the expatriates was made. The same
two respondents who do not think the company needs a repatriation program see the
problem with the expatriates’ resignation as not problematic at all.
Table 5. Cross tabulation on the need of repatriation program and the company’s
perception on the resignation from the expats.
The findings show that the companies have found another way to motivate their
employees, succeed in the repatriation process and thus reduce the intention to leave.
Allen and Alvarez (1998) suggest that there are different ways for this to be done: (1),
select highly qualified employees for international assignment; (2), assign a formal
sponsor for each expatriate; (3), link overseas assignments to long-term career plans;
(4) retain the expatriate in the home country human resource planning system; (5),
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33

increase the size and flexibility of the reentry time window; (6), transcend divisional
boundaries; (7), implement a “holding pattern” and make it count; (8), foster an
appreciative home country environment; (9), create a repatriate directory; (10), utilize
repatriates as trainers of future expatriates. A question concerning the expatriates’
training and the person responsible for it was asked. Table 6 shows the results form the