Sending employees to work in the international subsidiaries is usually one of the most challenging tasks for the managers. Deciding on which employees to send abroad and providing the required training comes with costs to the company. The first kind of training that will be offered to the US employees before sending them to work in Romania is the cross-cultural communications. The cultures and communication in the United States and Romania are different and the employees to be sent to Romania must receive the necessary training on the culture. A series of cultural talks on the cultural differences that exist between the two countries can be useful when dealing with the customers abroad ( Wurtz, 2014 ). Unless they receive the right training on the differences in both verbal and non-verbal communication as well as business etiquette in Romania, these employees might face a lot of difficulty working in this country.
The other kind of training that will be essential is on the Romania business laws. Different countries have different laws that govern the business operations and to operate effectively abroad and to avoid falling the victim of law-breaking, the employees must understand the laws and how they operate ( Mesman, van IJzendoorn & Sagi-Schwarz, 2016 ). Given that Romania is the EU business laws guide a member of the European Union, its business operations and the international trade. These laws are different from those of the United States, and therefore the employees need to be trained before being sent to Romania. The employees being sent to Romania must also be trained on the taxation policies. The accountant and the manager must know and understand how corporations are taxed in Romania because this could be different from what takes place in the United States ( Adekola & Sergi, 2016 ). The employees being sent to Romania will also require training on the employment laws. Because the manager may have to hire the locals as employees, there is a need to understand the labor laws that govern hiring as well as remuneration.
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Managing the repatriation of the employees working abroad will require addressing issues such as career planning, mentoring, communication, and home visits. Managers and employees working abroad are usually responsible for the handling of challenging issues abroad, and as they stay there, they will always expect promotion in return ( Baruch, Altman & Tung, 2016 ). Having a career plan for the employees working abroad can help them grow and remain motivated even as they handle their international duties. They need to know what they will get in return as part of their efforts in the international duty, and career growth and development can be the best return for such employees. Constant communication with the home office to understand how everything is going on can be useful in keeping the expatriates connected and to identify how the overall overseas experience can be used on return. Sometimes, the employees can be provided with a home visit and also making them attend a few home office meetings can increase their visibility and the need to remain connected with the home staff. By keeping expatriates connected, they can identify the possibility of advancement in their career by expecting promotions or increased job responsibilities which comes with the need to increase the pay. Working in a foreign country can be very challenging due to the lack of proper understanding of how things operate in that country. For managers, it can be the most challenging task to manage a new business in such a new environment. As a result of the hard task, it is appropriate that the company sets a career plan for them so that they can advance to the next level.
The company can use various approaches when deciding the right compensation for the employees working abroad. One of the methods to compensate the expatriate employees is to pay them based on the local, national rates. This is where the rates at which the employees are paid is determined by the national rates at the foreign country ( Yanadori, 2014 ). This can be accompanied by other benefits such as house allowances and other incomes depending on the situation of the country. The other method that can be used to compensate the expatriate employees is to use a headquarter-based approach. This is where the employees regardless of the geographical location are paid based on the US national rates. Using the headquarter method assumes that all employees are at the home country and therefore paid based on the home rates. However, this will require the inclusion of other benefits and bonuses due to the hard task of working abroad.
The expatriate employees can also be paid using a balance sheet approach where the compensation is determined using the home-country based approach, and all the allowances, as well as deductions and reimbursements, are considered. After the determination of the net salary of the employees, it is then converted to the host country’s currency. The primary goal of the international compensation management program is to maintain the current living standards of the employees living abroad. However, it is usually a challenging task to develop an equitable and a functional compensation plan. Using a balance sheet approach can however solve this problem because it guarantees the employees are working abroad continue to maintain the same standard of living that they had while working in their home country. A comparison into the living standards of the two countries is compared while also considering the expenses in the home and host country to reach a fair compensation plan.
References
Wurtz, O. (2014). An empirical investigation of the effectiveness of pre-departure and in-country cross-cultural training. The International Journal of Human Resource Management , 25 (14), 2088-2101.
Mesman, J., van IJzendoorn, M. H., & Sagi-Schwarz, A. (2016). Cross-cultural patterns of attachment. Handbook of Attachment: Theory, Research, and Clinical Applications, third ed. Guilford, New York, NY , 852-877.
Adekola, A., & Sergi, B. S. (2016). Global business management: A cross-cultural perspective . Routledge.
Baruch, Y., Altman, Y., & Tung, R. L. (2016). Career mobility in a global era: Advances in managing expatriation and repatriation. The Academy of Management Annals , 10 (1), 841-889.
Yanadori, Y. (2014). Compensation and benefits in the global organization (Doctoral dissertation, Taylor & Francis Limited).
