A well-managed assignment includes pre-assignment discussions with the employee to align the expectations of both the employee and the business. It can lead to satisfied transferees and an assignment that benefits both the employer and employee. A mismanaged global assignment, however, can prevent the employee from focusing on their assignment goals, resulting in higher costs and an unsuccessful assignment.

If employees feel unsupported and/or incur financial losses, dissatisfaction could lower both their professional performance and job satisfaction. In such a situation, there could be costly consequences such as:

• Loss of Productivity – Whether an employee temporarily underperforms due to challenging circumstances or a key position becomes vacant because top talent leaves, productivity suffers, and you run the risk of missed returns.
• Loss of Human and Intellectual Assets – When employees leave the organization, either voluntarily or involuntarily, they take their knowledge with them. If not restricted by non-competition clauses, they could take that knowledge to a new job with a competitor.
• Negative Public Relations – When high-profile employees leave a company, it can become news. Depending on how much information is made public about the situation, there’s always a chance of speculation and negative attention.
• Cost of Recruitment – Recruiting, hiring and training key talent is expensive and time consuming. When that compromises business operations on a larger scale, the potential cost to the company increases.

A successful global assignment is more likely to result in a high-performing, productive employee who remains loyal to his or her employer. Combined with good assignment cost management, this is exactly what companies should strive for to maximize the return on their investment.