Jenkins Consulting is a national firm based in Cleveland, Ohio, that helps companies improve their performance and effectiveness by advising on all aspects of business management and operations. Companies hire consultants from Jenkins Consulting for a variety of projects such as assisting with company-wide cost reduction initiatives, revenue growth initiatives, improving supply-chain management, and/or improving individual departments such as information technology. Jenkins employs consultants in 40 offices across the United States.
A company located in Hong Kong has asked Jenkins to take on a major project that will be based in Hong Kong but may occasionally require short trips to Shanghai and Beijing. Jenkins will assist the company with an organization-wide effort to restructure and reposition the company to succeed in a market that is becoming highly competitive. To undertake this project, Jenkins will assign five full-time management consultants for a period of two years. Because of the significant time commitment, Jenkins has decided to relocate the selected consultants to Hong Kong for the duration of the project. Jenkins sees this assignment as an opportunity to expand its operations internationally.
Dale Kugar, the human resource director at Jenkins, must identify the consultants for this project and prepare them to transition to this new assignment within the next 60 days. This is the company’s first exposure to expatriate management so Kugar intends to select the consultants from the Cleveland office, if possible, so that he can have better control over Jenkins’ first overseas venture. However, he has some concerns about the consultants’ interest in taking on the international assignment. Some of the consultants with whom he has had initial conversations are concerned about the impact the assignment might have on their families and their careers. As one consultant put it, “Out of sight; out of mind!”
In addition to selecting the right persons for the expatriate positions, Kugar wants to ensure that the consultants who move to Hong Kong are compensated appropriately. The compensation package needs to ensure that the expatriates are not concerned about financial matters during their assignment but also that costs to Jenkins are minimized. His initial thought is to maintain their current benefits, including health care insurance, 401(k) retirement plan, vacation, and related benefits but to alter the compensation. The two issues he is less sure of is how to develop a compensation package that takes into account other aspects of pay and how to ensure that the consultants are not disadvantaged professionally by taking the assignment in Hong Kong. All of the potential expatriates he has talked to thus-far are not married, which he thought would likely make the assignment less costly to the company and less stressful for the consultants selected. However, it is possible that, in the end, he will have to consider married consultants, as well, to achieve the number needed for the assignment.
Questions:
- As the HR director for Jenkins, what external influences and data should Kugar take into consideration when planning for the transition of these consultants to the Hong Kong assignment?
- What are the various compensation approaches that Kugar can consider for this first wave of Jenkins expatriates?
- Of the various compensation approaches available to Kugar, which approach should he recommend in terms of how to compensate these expatriates? Why should he recommend the approach you selected?
- Should Kugar provide any incentive compensation or additional benefits to the expatriates as part of their compensation package? Why or why not?
- Is there anything else that Kugar should do to ensure that these expatriates are not hurt financially or career-wise by their assignment in Hong Kong?
