A Global Connection Needs Assessment is far from a standardised test, discovered expat partner Sylvain*. “My consultant offered help that was based on what she learned about me, instead of scores and graphs.”
Seeking advice
Sylvain is a French professional living in Strasbourg (France). His wife recently started working in Zürich (Switzerland), about 230 kilometres away. Sylvain is keen to join her there and turned to Global Connection for advice. When he met with consultant Josien Berkenvelder, he was pleasantly surprised: “We didn’t dive into the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator or any other kind of psychometric questionnaire. Instead of putting me in a certain box, Josien took her time to get to know me. The conversation was really relaxed. It was based on trust.”
Digging deep
Josien and her fellow Global Connection consultants draw on their own experiences of living abroad to make expat partners feel comfortable and have an open conversation about their expatriation. “We won’t conduct assessments according to a rigid model, because the modern expat community has simply grown too diverse. There are no standard challenges, and therefore no standard solutions. As consultants, we don’t shy away from asking very personal, probing questions to clarify values, interests, objectives, and drivers. Why? Because the better we understand the expat partner, the better we are able to identify the support that is needed,” says Josien.
* Name and some personal details changed at request of interviewee
