For assigning organisations, spousal support is the norm. Brookfield GRS, in its Global Relocation Trends Report (2012), says that only 8 percent of companies provide no support at all for their partners.
First awareness
Still, it’s only about twenty years ago that companies first started to become aware of the special position of their expat spouses. To be fair, before the dawn of extensive professional partner support, some pioneers offered forms of specific help as a side business. But things really gained momentum when a number of multinationals started to take a serious look at the matter in the Nineties.
Schlumberger – 1996
Schlumberger started a pilot programme in 1996 that provided twenty spouses in four cities with email accounts and dial-up access to the company’s intranet. That very modest beginning developed into the Schlumberger Spouses Association (SSA).
Shell – 1995
In the early Nineties, Shell commissioned a survey to examine the barriers to expatriation. The findings showed that two significant factors were spouse employment and recognition. It lead to the foundation of Shell’s family support organisation Outpost in 1995. The driving force behind this was Lady Judy Moody-Stuart. In an interview with our magazine she said this about her motivation to help the partners: “They keep their husbands working and that is why, very early on, I felt that the company owed them.”
HEINEKEN – 1993
In 1993, the HEINEKEN Partner Network (HPN) was founded at the initiative of Ingeborg Hooft Graafland, who, after three years as an expat partner in Zaire, realised that her experience could be of great value to others. In our Expat & Partner Guide she says: “A dream was born: to create a partner network in which various companies would collaborate in the interest of accompanying partners.”
2013: 20 year celebration
HPN gradually grew into what is now Global Connection. It means that in 2013 it will be 20 years ago that our activities started. We’ll come back to that next year!
