Your mind is made up: you have decided to seriously pay attention to spousal support. The next step is to select and contract a supplier that suits your needs. How to proceed? We are happy to share our best practices.
What’s in a name
First and foremost: what is spousal support?
- Relocators and DSPs often assume the main purpose of partner support will be assisting families to find a house and school, or perhaps open a bank account.
- Career support companies tend to assume partner support will focus on assisting partners to find a job.
- Culture training providers assume partner support will focus on cultural training.
Thus, if you rightly define spousal support as demand driven support for multiple stages and aspects of expatriation, you must be sure to focus on suppliers that can cover this broad scope.
Willing to let go?
Approaching spousal support as a specialist topic requires customised solutions. That’s why it’s hard to handle in-house. As one of our clients has said: “We manage the expats, Global Connection manages the spouses.” When you decide to outsource, it is imperative to outsource the full programme. Two captains will steer the ship in different directions and prove counterproductive.
Don’t ask the turkey
Work with an independent supplier. If a career coach is responsible for assessing the needs of your expat partners, there is a very good chance that they will offer career coaching as a sole solution. A life coach will tend to advise life coaching. So, don’t ask the turkey what to have for Christmas dinner! Make sure that your supplier will address the real, and diverse, needs of your expat partners. This will also safeguard your budgets. Only a party that has no interest in supporting their other (main) products (such as career/intercultural support) will be in a position to act as your ‘gatekeeper’.
Budgeting tip
For budgeting, please keep in mind that the uptake is never 100%. This is not the case when offering ‘Gucci Money’ – we never heard of anyone saying ‘thanks but no thanks’ to a bank transfer.
Free lunch anyone?
Don’t go for a provider who offers free intakes, or introductory offers. As the old saying goes, there is no such thing as a free lunch!
The myth of on-the-ground presence
Beware of focussing on a supplier’s physical presence, as there is a good chance this will lead to suboptimal solutions. An actual example: the best match for a support request of a British expat partner in Singapore was found in New Zealand! Therefore, dare to work with a virtual organisation that can offer a global coverage and address the ‘real needs’ of the expat partners in the most effective way.
Not a commodity
Genuine spousal support is not a commodity. That’s why suppliers that mainly work with commoditised services are unable to deliver the holistic approach you need, when you intend to offer a broad scope of services. Don’t be deluded by the promise that a specialist will be subcontracted: that extra link in the chain will only increase the price, and often freezes the process for the expat partner.
A la carte or set packages
A supplier that works with a modular approach, only advising the modules that are needed, will manage your budget and, at the same time, the expectations of the expat partner. Depending on specifications for required services, set packages can, however, also be an appropriate choice. Ideally a supplier can offer both and, consequently, give independent advice.
Importance of first-hand experience
Select a provider whose staff have first-hand expat experience. This ensures familiarity with the challenges that your expat partners typically face. Surveys show this is greatly appreciated. Actually, in line with our coach survey (2013), we have found that expat experience trumps coaching experience.
Cooperation
Select a supplier good enough to serve as an extension to your global mobility team, so you can be sure that your expat partners will be offered the right support they need, nothing more, nothing less.
