“Beyond the Bottom Line: Understanding and Preventing Assignment Failures”
Introduction
The true cost of assignment failure is often underestimated. While stories of failed assignments can be exaggerated, the reality is that assignment failures can have significant financial and emotional impacts and are not as simple as a success or failure equation. There are in fact many shades of success and failure in-between. This article explores the various forms of assignment failure, the factors that contribute to it, and how companies can mitigate these risks to ensure successful assignments.
The True Cost of Assignment Failure
Many stories about the cost of failed assignments often cite figures between three and five times the cost of the assignment itself. However, failure is not always black-and-white. Typically, when people talk about failed assignments, they refer to assignees returning home before completing their assignment, sometimes shortly after arrival. This type of failure is often due to poor decision-making at the outset, such as not properly vetting the assignee and their family for suitability.
Fortunately, these types of failures are rare but can create reputational challenges and impact the emotional well-being of the assignee and their family. Failure can also take other forms, such as completing the assignment but missing the objectives, thus not delivering the expected return on investment (ROI).
Defining Assignment Objectives
To understand what constitutes a failed assignment, it’s essential to define the objectives clearly. Simply being on assignment for 2 years and returning home afterwards is not in itself a success, the success is based on the impact the employee had during their time on assignment and where or not they achieved the objectives. Many assignments have clear objectives, although many also don’t, but they can be too narrowly focused on one key element rather than considering the overall goals. Without a clear set of objectives, it is challenging to quantify the ROI.
In the absence of an agreed and standard scoring regime, each company must create and define its own criteria for success, considering both commercial aspects and subjective scoring criteria. This helps in creating a roadmap for the overall success of an assignment, not just at the assignment level but also in terms of wider company engagement and employee and, importantly, accompanying family members satisfaction.
Factors Affecting Assignment Success
Several elements can affect the outcome of an assignment:
Clear Objectives: Are the objectives well-defined?
Supportive Policies: Does the assignment policy create an environment for success?
Family Needs: Are the needs of the entire family recognised and supported?
Flexibility: Does the policy allow flexibility around individual requirements?
Research indicates that happy employees are more productive. For example, a study by Oxford University’s Saïd Business School found that happy workers are 13% more productive. Additionally, poor mental health costs UK employers £51 billion a year, highlighting the importance of supporting employee well-being.
The Importance of Support
Many companies try to reduce the overall cost of assignments by removing or restricting policy elements. This can be short-sighted, as the elements removed, while individually expensive, can be insignificant in the overall assignment cost but significantly impact the assignee’s ability to deliver on their objectives. Providing services that improve an employee’s productivity by even 1-2% can significantly increase the overall return on the assignment.
Emotional Journey of Relocation
Relocation is an emotional journey. Human beings handle change differently, but some elements are common across all experiences. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross identified three key stages of change: euphoria, reality, and acceptance. Initially, there is excitement and euphoria, but as the reality of relocation sets in, emotions such as loss, anxiety, and guilt can take over, impacting well-being and productivity. Eventually, the employee and their family come to terms with the new reality, making new friends and finding ways to thrive.
The Holmes and Rahe Stress Scale, also known as the Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS), identifies major stressful life events that can impact health. Developed by Thomas Holmes and Richard Rahe in 1967, the scale lists 43 life events, each assigned a Life Change Unit (LCU) based on its stress level. Research indicates that higher LCU scores correlate with an increased risk of illness. Whilst the highest scoring LCU’s are things like death of a spouse or close family member, divorce or major injury which would not be typically associated with a relocation there are 15 LCU’s such as changing working conditions, business readjustment, change in responsibilities at work, change in residence, change in social activities, change in number of family reunions which attract lower score but when consolidated will typically cumulatively score approaching 350. Holmes and Rahe stated that Scores equal to or greater than 300 carry a high risk of illness with 80% chances of major health breakdown.
Research by Heart Relocation revealed that many assignees and their families felt that relocation management companies added to the stress of the relocation experience. However, families responded well when they felt supported with relevant services and assistance. Interestingly, even families who had relocated several times found each assignment harder, indicating that knowing the challenges did not make them easier to manage.
It is also important to recognise the role accompanying family members can play in the success of any assignment. If they are not given the support to thrive in the new location they can often materially disaffect the employ which can lead them to be distracted from their business purpose.
Conclusion
The true cost of assignment failure goes beyond financial implications. It includes the emotional well-being of the assignee and their family, as well as the overall productivity and success of the assignment. Internally, there is also risk to reputation. If assignees do not have a good relocation experience, there is a good chance that they will actively share their dissatisfaction with colleagues and business associates, which may make it harder to find internal candidates to relocate. If they do, they will try to negotiate harder for themselves, potentially pushing up the cost of mobility. External reputation may also be harmed, potentially making it harder to recruit and retain talent.
Companies must define clear objectives, provide supportive policies, and recognise the needs of the entire family to mitigate the risks of assignment failure.
It is also really important recognise how much of a financial investment in any assignment is by the company and whilst it can be easy to try a control those costs by trimming support from the edges the possible negative financial impact should not be underestimated. Look at the where the assignment costs are incurred, you may be surprised where those costs lie and sometimes looking to refine the higher cost elements can have less negative effect on the overall assignment and enable the retention of some of the “softer” support elements which can have a significant positive impact on the assignment outcome.
By doing so, you can ensure successful assignments and achieve a better return on investment.