Recruiting workers for the booming growth of Dubai takes more than just finding bodies. I was fortunate enough to sit next to one of these recruiters while I was eating breakfast at Luxury Hotel Dubai and overheard his conversation with a Dubia Reporter. The recruiter understood that to relocate overseas is about far more than just the job. He continues to say there is what’s called ‘a culture shock cycle’ that all expats have to go through in order to adapt. He said that those who have the right attitude to work through and survive this cycle makes for a happy expat employee and a successful international worker .
The cycle is something I’m familiar with and have talked about it were I currently work in Dubai. We know it affects all those who move abroad, whether they are relocated with work or actively make the choice to move themselves with no professionals backing up their relocation. I continued to listen to the recruiters explanation. He said it starts with the individual person in question loving everything about their exciting and thrilling new life, they embrace change and ignore the challenges seeing only the beauty and the good. This period is quickly followed by a period of negativity which can turn to hostility. They see the differences between their old and new life as being more pronounced, they miss the old and the familiar and homesickness, boredom and resentment can kick in. It is at this stage that one needs to be most adaptable and have the ability to think positively. The recruiter continued, those who cannot, well, the recruiter paused, they either return home or remain living the life of an unhappy isolated expat.
I couldn’t help but intrude into this conversation, and I said there’s a final point worth mentioning, and that the would-be expat who is expecting his or hers spouse to accompany them on a work assignment abroad needs to keep their happiness in mind too. The Recruiter agreed with me, not seeming to mind my interruption, and added to my statement saying the success of an assignment can so often rest largely on the shoulders of the one expected to remain in the home, adapting the family to the new life abroad.
I knew for an employer who has spent far more on recruiting a professional from abroad, such as me, and relocating them to the new nation and not understanding The Cycle will be a costly mistake. this is why an increasing number of firms in countries like Dubai are using the services of professional recruiters who know what to look for in a potential employee.
