Reasons and Risks of High Repatratriate Turnover and How HR Can Mitigate Them

Abstract

“[A] developed pool of global leaders is indispensable for operating successfully outside of the domestic market “(Lazarova & Caligiuri, 2001, p. 389). A means for establishing global expertise in a company are international assignments. However, a survey carried out by Deloitte came to the result that 35% of returnees from international assignments leave their parent organization during the first year upon returning (Deloitte, 2008, p. 22). This is problematic as the high turnover rate imposes a challenge to the competitiveness of multinational enterprises (MNEs) (Scullion & Collings, 2006, p.49). It leads not only to loss of expertise (Oddou et al, 2013, p. 257) but also to high financial costs as companies invest heavily into their international assignments (Scullion & Collings, 2006, p. 49). Yet, successful repatriation is a topic which has only now started to gain more attention, and it is thus of interest to carry out further research on the reasons for high repatriate turnover and how it can be mitigated.