Risks of Negative Hiring Experiences – How to Turn Tom’s Experience Around

Negative Hiring Experience

The hiring experience can have far—reaching consequences for companies and candidates. Whether you’re an organization struggling to fill critical roles or an expat navigating the complexities of a new work environment, the impacts of a negative hiring experience are significant. Let’s dive into the risks, explore opportunities for improvement, and provide actionable steps to create a more inclusive and effective onboarding process.

Corporate Risks of Negative Hiring Experiences

For organizations, a flawed hiring process doesn’t just result in a vacant position—it can cascade into a series of challenges:

  • Unfilled Positions: Delayed or unfilled roles leave teams stretched thin.
  • Increased Workload: Existing employees take on extra responsibilities, leading to stress and burnout.
  • Higher Turnover: Overworked employees may seek better opportunities elsewhere.
  • Decreased Productivity: Stress and disorganization sap efficiency and morale.
  • Reputation Damage: Word spreads fast about poor hiring practices, deterring top talent.
  • Wasted Investments: Hiring, onboarding, and training costs are lost when employees leave prematurely.
  • Team Energy Declines: High turnover and workload strain the dynamics of even the best teams.

Expat Risks of Negative Hiring Experiences

For expatriates, a bad hiring experience goes beyond the workplace, impacting their personal and family life:

  • Financial Strain: Savings are depleted due to unforeseen costs.
  • Mental Health Challenges: Relocation stress may lead to anxiety, depression, or substance abuse.
  • Family Strain: Relocation can put pressure on relationships if family members don’t feel supported.

Spotlight on Pharma: The Need for Talent Evolution

Growth in the pharmaceutical industry depends on addressing a major challenge: the labor market’s tightening grip on STEM talent. In the United States, the life sciences sector has seen a 20% surge in demand for STEM roles. However, the current digital talent pool is 14% below demand, according to an AgileOne market study.

https://agile-one.com/market-study-global

The pharmaceutical industry is undergoing a significant digital transformation, necessitating a workforce proficient in advanced digital skills. However, there is a notable shortage of such talent, particularly in Europe.

In the United Kingdom, the life sciences sector is experiencing a shortage of experienced professionals with digital competencies essential for research and development, as well as advanced manufacturing processes.

European Pharmaceutical Review

Germany is also facing challenges, with a reported deficit of 209,200 skilled workers in STEM professions as of September 2024. This shortage poses a risk to the country’s innovative capacity.

Arbeitgeber

Across Europe, approximately 30% of students do not achieve minimum proficiency levels in mathematics, with similar trends observed in reading and science. This educational gap contributes to the scarcity of qualified STEM professionals in the region.

Eun

The European Commission has acknowledged these challenges, noting that labor and skills shortages persist across various sectors, including pharmaceuticals. The Commission emphasizes the need for policies to address these gaps to support economic growth and innovation.

European Commission

To bridge this gap, industry leaders are advocating for improved STEM education and strategies to strengthen the EU talent pool. These measures are deemed crucial for the success of digital and green transitions within the industry.

EFPIA

In summary, the pharmaceutical sector in Europe is contending with a significant shortage of digital talent, which could impede its digital transformation efforts. Addressing this issue requires a concerted effort to enhance STEM education, invest in workforce development, and implement policies that facilitate the growth of a skilled talent pool.  Pharma companies are increasingly adopting strategies like reskilling, upskilling, and automation to close this gap. A shift from traditional HR-driven models to more dynamic approaches is essential. The talent race isn’t slowing down, and neither can organizations. Still, our client Mariam (27) faces challenges when she moves to Duesseldorf.

Navigating Expat Life: Lessons from Real Experiences

Relocating for work brings unique challenges, as illustrated by Tom Jones*, who moved to Switzerland for a new role. Despite his qualifications and familiarity with Swiss culture, he lacked intercultural training and onboarding support, which led him to leave the company in frustration.

This underscores critical expat pain points:

  • Decision-making differences
  • Misaligned role expectations
  • Inadequate support networks
  • Cultural barriers

Breaking Barriers: Addressing Expat Pain Points

Life Challenges:

  • Immigration processes
  • Housing and administrative hurdles
  • Host language barriers
  • Family integration and schooling
  • Safety concerns, especially for marginalized groups

Work Challenges:

  • Navigating hierarchical and trust-based decision-making
  • Limited role support and lack of teamwork
  • Minimal relationship-building outside of work
The Global Mobility Workbook (2019)
The Global Mobility Workbook (2019)

A Refined “Box of Chocolates” for Expats

Global mobility policies must evolve to provide personalized and flexible support, ensuring a smooth transition for expats and their families:

  1. Budget Transparency: Offer detailed breakdowns of relocation costs.
  2. Direct Payments: Pay service providers (schools, landlords) directly to reduce complexity.
  3. Family Integration: Support the entire family, not just the employee.
  4. Repatriation Clauses: Include provisions for a return to the home country.
  5. Flexible Choices: Let expats choose services that best meet their needs.

Building Better Onboarding Experiences

Companies can address pain points and improve retention through these tips:

  • Review contract templates for opt-out clauses.
  • Provide robust immigration support.
  • Regularly monitor retention data for expat hires.
  • Clarify role profiles and expectations.
  • Offer administrative assistance in the first 90 days.
  • Involve expat partners in planning and decision-making.

The Human Touch: A Game-Changer in Global Mobility

Global mobility must focus on relationships, not just processes:

  • Build trust among all stakeholders—expats, their families, and managers.
  • Treat expats as people, not cases.
  • Offer specialized support, like spouse career coaching or mental health resources.
  • Use feedback loops to continuously improve the expat experience.
  • Partner with boutique companies to deliver personalized services.

Championing Rainbow Talent in Global Mobility

Diversity and inclusion are vital in today’s workforce. By embracing Rainbow Talent—marginalized groups such as women, LGBTQIA+, BIPOC, and people with disabilities—organizations unlock fresh perspectives and innovation.

Moving Forward: The Future of Global Mobility

Global Mobility is no longer just about logistics—it’s about creating meaningful experiences that honor the complexities of human lives. Whether supporting STEM talent in pharma or ensuring the success of Rainbow Talent, our industry must focus on fostering trust, inclusion, and belonging.

Let’s discuss whether you can enhance your global mobility and hiring experience.

📧 angela@globalpeopletransitions.com

📅 Book a Call

 

*Case Study # 1 Tom Jones

(one of 12 case studies from “The Global Mobility Workbook”)

Part 1 – The first project

Tom Jones, 32 is an expatriate in Inhouse Consulting. He came to Zurich, Switzerland, from New York City. Tom sits on the balcony of his overpriced apartment, overlooking the Grossmuenster on a Sunday night, while he types a letter into his laptop. He writes his resignation letter to Star Bank AG. The Human Resources Business Partner Urs Schwarzkopf has reminded him that he had to resign in writing. Otherwise, the bank would not accept his resignation.

The final date to hand in his resignation was the next day. “I must take my resignation to HR personally to ensure I don’t make any formal mistakes this time”. As Tom reads through the letter once more, he recalls some of the incidents that occurred since his first encounter with Star Bank.

Tom was hired as a Senior Consultant in the bank’s in-house Consulting Group. He was working for McKinsey in New York when a headhunter contacted him. He was excited about joining as he was looking for a new challenge and was promised some interesting projects within the bank. One of these projects was to build up a strategic consulting group that would target consulting senior managers on strategy implementation. The Executive Board seemed worried that some of the future strategies required this type of support.

Tom’s Swiss boss, Dr. Peter Schmidt had been hired from Boston Consulting Group to build up the new strategy group. Peter hired consulting talents from major multinationals and Tom was the one who received the best package. Once his offer was finalized Tom agreed to move to Switzerland. When he arrived, Peter explained that he resigned as he had been offered a challenging position at another major consulting firm.

Tom was surprised to hear this in his very first meeting in Switzerland. The Managing Director responsible for in-house Consulting, Dr. Rainer Schultz flew in from Frankfurt and told Tom right away that the offer still stood and there were no other changes, even though there would probably not be a replacement for “Dr. Schmidt” for the next few months.

On his first day at Star Bank, he had a meeting with Urs Schwarzkopf, his HR contact who was very nice and gave him some important documents and the L-permit that they had requested for him. At the end of the meeting, Urs Schwarzkopf said “Mr. Jones, if you have any questions, please call me”. Tom was wondering why Urs had called him Mr. Jones, although Tom had requested he is called by his first name. He soon realized that many people called each other by their last names when they spoke German even when it seemed appropriate to use their first name.

When Tom went to a central branch of the bank to open his employee account, no one was able to explain the system to him in English. He had to fill out a German form and was asked for identification. He assumed that there was only one type of account that he could apply for. He had heard that people in Switzerland would stay with one employer for more than 10 years and that they still had lifelong employment. He had also heard that performance was not compensated with a bonus so people would work a lot slower than in the US.

The people in the branch seemed quite rude to him. He was slightly shocked to wait in line while one of the clerks was working at her desk and did not attend to waiting for customers until she had finished what she was doing. As she could not speak English he had to wait for another ten minutes for an “apprentice”. Her English was acceptable but he was worried that she had no idea what she was talking about, as an apprentice in a bank seemed a very bizarre thing. In the USA apprentices are generally used in manufacturing but not in banks. He finally got an account and his account number and called Schwarzkopf to let him know the account number.

Tom raised his concerns, “Urs, are you sure the girls down there know what they are doing? I just had to wait for 30 minutes and then was served by an apprentice because no one could speak English. I hope I did the right thing and filled in the forms correctly. I think I might have a slight problem in the future when I try to call them to get things done for me. What if the apprentice is not there?” Urs replied by telling him to be patient and that he should start to learn German as soon as possible because this would be the best way to integrate.

At the office the first week went very well. Tom got a laptop and a mobile although he had to ask how to get one. He would have expected these technical details to be sorted out before his arrival. He did not have access to any systems immediately but was promised by the group’s team assistant that he would have access by the end of the second week. His group consisted of four consultants who had all lived and studied abroad. One of them was Turkish, two were Swiss, and one came from the Singapore office. As they had all started on the same day, Tom would have expected that they go out on Friday to have a few drinks together and get to know each other a little bit better.

When he brought up the idea they all said that they had plans for the night but that they would go out one night soon. Tom went for dinner alone. By the end of the next week, he still had no access to the systems and he was waiting for a project. By the following Wednesday, Dr. Schultz called him. He needed Tom to work on a concept for an offshoring strategy for the compliance division. Tom asked a few preliminary questions and wanted to know who the client was. Dr. Schultz said “We have to show a concept to the Management Board next month. Please integrate the others especially your colleague John Woo as he is an offshoring expert.” Tom was pleased to be involved in such a high-level project immediately so he did his best and looked for input from the group.

When the presentation was ready he sent a first draft to Dr. Rainer Schultz. Tom learned quickly that he was supposed to address Rainer as “Dr. Schultz”. He did not get any feedback on the presentation and so assumed everything was going well. He gave Dr. Schultz a call finally and left a message with his secretary. The next morning Dr. Schultz called him on his new mobile “Mr. Jones, I have looked at your presentation. Could you please change the things I commented on and send it back to me by tonight. I have to prepare myself.” 

Tom was a little taken aback. There was no word of praise and it seemed very obvious to him that Dr. Schultz was not very happy about the presentation. He also got the feeling that he was no longer involved in the project. Tom was disappointed. In his opinion, he had done a lot of research and given a very professional presentation. He was appalled when he saw that Dr. Schultz had added comments on every single slide. He thought that Dr. Schultz did not take him seriously and that he had used his input to give the presentation himself. 

After the presentation, Dr. Schultz sent Tom an email to let him know that everything went well and that the Management Board had approved the budget for the project. Tom was still angry that he had not even been invited to join Dr. Schultz at the presentation and replied:” Dr. Schultz, I don’t understand what my role in this project is going to be. I don’t know whether I should be happy about the approval or concentrate on some minor project where I am fully responsible.” 

Dr. Schultz replied about an hour later: “Dear Mr. Jones, you have the budget approval. Also, the project plan was approved. I would like you to go ahead. I have marked some milestones in the project plan and if you report to me on time I will not bother you in between. I expect you to discuss all people-related decisions in the team with me and if you would like to have any amendments to the budget please schedule an online meeting with my assistant.”

Part 2 – The culture clash

As of then, the project went ahead pretty well. Tom had to change direction several times but the group was following and delivering high-quality results. Tom had to get used to the fact that it took a long time to get things done compared to the States. When he changed the project plan after week 3, some people on the team seemed to be confused but they got used to the new direction quickly. 

The Turkish colleague gave Tom a hint “Look, you have to involve us before you decide about any major changes in direction. We would like to participate in what is happening”. By week 6 Tom got a call from Dr. Schultz saying, “I expected your report yesterday. I assume you have been too busy. Can we set up a meeting for 3 p.m. and give me an update on milestone 1.” “Sure I will,” Tom said wondering what milestone 1 actually was. 

Then he remembered the original project plan. He had forgotten that Dr. Schultz had taken his first project plan very seriously and even marked out some milestones. From previous projects, Tom knew that his best plan would never match reality. However, he usually did a weekly status check on Friday so decided to email his status check from the last week to Dr. Schultz with a brief explanation. “Rainer, FYI – Let’s discuss later, Tom”.

Dr. Schultz was late for the video call and he seemed to struggle with the technology. When he finally was able to talk 10 minutes had passed. He was even more serious than usual. “Mr. Jones, we have to talk. I would like you not to send these important documents via email. I do not want it to get into the wrong hands. Secondly, I would prefer it if you could address me properly next time. I do not remember the two of us going out for a beer and becoming close friends. I am afraid I have not explained clearly that the project plan is already approved by the Management Board. You cannot change it after approval.”

Tom was puzzled. Dr. Schultz sighed and shrugged, “I have the feeling that you are doing whatever you want to do and you do not have any respect for me. If you continue to work like this I will have to send you back to America. You are very expensive and you are overstretching my budget. I had very high expectations of you and after the first presentation I thought that the project would be a great success but now you have changed everything without consulting me and I am inclined to cut off your budget. Why did you not follow the plan as we had discussed it?”

Tom was very confused and angry as well, “I do not know what your problem is Dr. Schultz. The initial project plan was not meant to be final. It was a starting point for the first two weeks. I didn’t even know whether we had a budget when I drafted the plan. I had no idea about the available resources. So I had to factor those into my initial plan. Some people here have a very low work attitude. It takes ages until things get done and no one even apologizes. We spent far too much time in meetings, at lunches and coffees without doing any real work and I assume this is because you pay those socialist wages to people and do not reward good performance. How could I have known all these things at the beginning? You did not give me any explanation nor did you put me in touch with the right people. Why are you so keen on sticking to an old plan?”

At the same time, Tom was thinking to himself: “I do not understand you. Maybe it is because I am not a doctor. I only have an MBA from Princeton but I assume that this is not good enough in this country.”

Dr. Schultz was very quiet. Tom could tell he was thinking about the conversation and took a sip of water to calm down. Then Dr. Schultz finally said: “OK, I understand we have a different approach to planning and budgeting. Next time you change something I would like to be informed about it. Otherwise, I look bad in front of the Management Board. They probably already think that I have no control over my team.“

He knew that Tom would manage to get the outcome the Management Board wanted but he found him very arrogant and very American. Tom started to send Dr. Schultz a weekly update, a crisis was averted and the project seemed to progress steadily.

Part 3 – Getting organized

After four weeks, Tom finally started to organize his private life in Switzerland. He was looking for an apartment with the bank’s relocation service, Ms. Ulrike Apfel. Ms. Apfel found a nice and expensive apartment in the Niederdorf with its bars and pubs. Tom liked the place immediately. Ms. Apfel called him and explained to him the details of his lease contract in English. The contract was in German and his German was enough to order a beer but he certainly did not understand any of the legal languages. He asked for a translation but Ms. Apfel said that the translation could not be paid for by the company. He would have to pay for a translation out of his pocket. So he signed the contract trusting that Ulrike Apfel was authorized by the bank.

Life seemed to improve after a few months. Tom met a few other expats but gave up on the idea of making Swiss friends. They had a good time and spend a lot of weekends watching the Swiss ice hockey team and the soccer championship. They enjoyed the highlights of Swiss culture (skiing, hiking, carnivals, street parade, opera). The only Swiss person he spent time with was a man who had lived in the US as a student, who was very open and showed Tom some nice hikes in the Swiss national park. However, Tom got fed up with being a tourist and he could not see any added value in being in Switzerland. In-house Consulting might as well hire a Swiss in his opinion, to get on with the project. Tom had left his girlfriend in the US to come to Zurich and now he started regretting that career decision.

For Christmas, he flew back to the US and met her but she still could not understand him. She wanted to have a serious relationship and she had no intention of giving up her career for a man living in a foreign country. His mood worsened after he flew back to Zurich in January. The weather was miserable and he was not enjoying his job and felt useless. Then he found out that the payroll department had made some adjustments to his personal bank account. Again he was very angry about the fact that things had been changed and that he had not been informed. Urs Schwarzkopf said. “You were on vacation I could not reach you in the office”. Tom could not understand why he did not send an email but he was too angry to reply nicely so he hung up the phone.

Tom’s anger exploded the next morning when he found out he could not draw any money from the cash machine because his account was overdrawn. He called Klaus again “Klaus, what the hell is going on with that payroll? Now I cannot even get any cash. Can you explain this to me?” Klaus replied: “Well, they have asked you several times to hand in your social security number and you did not hand it in. There was a correction necessary for all the social security you had not paid yet basically from August to December. If they had waited, the correction would not work in our system any longer.”

Tom thought that this was a joke. He had forgotten about the social security number. He found a letter from his early days that indicated it had to do with social security. He had never understood the letters and as nobody had given him a clear explanation, he had assumed that this was just a copy for his files. He was getting very frustrated and complained to the other expats. Others had similar experiences and they decided that coming to Switzerland was a very difficult move.  

In April the project was at a stage where the Management Board found that they had expected more savings from offshoring the compliance processes. Tom had been wondering why nobody had questioned the business case earlier. When his assignment was complete, he handed it over to Dr. Schultz in June and waited for his project bonus. The project bonus was paid in July in addition to the regular bonus payment in February. For Tom, the amount of 15’000 CHF seemed ridiculously low. At this point, Tom decided that there was no point in staying. Dr. Schultz was fine with the decision, as he had to get rid of the highly paid consultants. The budget was reduced and there was a crisis in sight.

Tom missed his close friends and his girlfriend. He started to look for a new job in New York and seemed to get interviews easily. When he discussed his plans with the relocation service, Ms. Apfel alerted him to the fact he had a rental lease for three years. This was a problem. Tom called Urs Schwarzkopf because he was sure that the bank would come up for any double rent but was told, “Sorry Tom, this is your problem. You have signed the contract and the bank cannot be held liable for your matters.” Tom could not believe what he heard. Looking back at his time in Switzerland, Tom signs the resignation letter and opens his laptop again to write to his best friend.

 



One thought on “Risks of Negative Hiring Experiences – How to Turn Tom’s Experience Around

  1. Pingback: 10 Years After "Frankenschock," 5 Years After the Global Pandemic—Where Does Global Mobility Stand in February 2025?

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