Relocation is always challenging for an employee who has been transferred or got a new job in a new country. This is because they’ve to deal with the cultural shock and new environment adjustments. Hiring long distance movers can help to  reduce their stress. But, accepting and adapting to a new culture in a completely new environment affects them in many ways. This also impacts the new hire’s productivity and efficiency after a job relocation

Here are some of the ways through which you can help your employees to overcome such situations after relocation:

overcome the cultural shock

Photo by Tiger Lily

Grouping employees in a team

Adjustment of an employee in a new office environment is not at all easy. Imagine entering a new office, seeing new faces all around and your employee doesn’t know where to start. Not everyone feels comfortable in their office when they’ve recently moved to a new environment. Therefore, the company should ensure that this awkwardness and cultural shock don’t affect efficiency and productivity.

To help the employees overcome the cultural shock, you should group the relocated employee with other native employees. Pairing with other employees will surely benefit knowing about the new environment. 

Job relocation comes with numerous queries in mind related to cultural differences. They can ask these queries from their native colleagues and get guided on numerous new things. Working with someone who already knows about the new place is good to get an insight into what living in another state or country is all about.

Organization of cultural training

You can also help your employees to know the new environment better by arranging cultural training. Well, this training is common among companies that transfer their employees. This is one of the practical and effective ways that help employees in easing them and overcoming their awkwardness. 

Employees who’re transferred to a new place and new office experience several cultural differences that make them startled. Making the new employee a part of this cultural training programming is equally important as any other professional training.

This training should be focused on making the new employees learn about the new culture of the country. Right from laws to cultural respect, learning all these things about the foreign land will surely be beneficial for your employees. 

Planning team lunch

Sometimes, it’s not easy to answer all the queries of the employees in a working environment. Also, it’s important to clear employees’ ideas and thoughts rather than making them assume wrong things. To let the employee learn about the cultural difference and new environment, it would be better to plan a team lunch. When an employee goes out with their native colleagues, they get to learn so many things.

Informally talking to office mates will make the relocated employee comfortable. So, you can plan a team lunch or a small get-together that would be beneficial to make their adjustment easier. In this way, your employee will be able to clarify things related to the new community and culture.  

Offer them a ride

If the new hire is interested in taking the lift or carpooling then you can also do this. Commutating alone in their vehicle or public transport is confusing for a new hire in the city. This sometimes also causes a delay in reaching the office. So, it would be better if you’re offering them a ride or a carpooling option.

Carpooling with the team members allows the new hire to have a conversation with them, explore new things and be familiar with the routes. When you offer a ride to the new employee, it also helps them in reaching the office on time. 

Not only is this a great idea for the new employee to get to know one another, but this will make the new hire feel that their colleagues are caring about them.

To sum up

After moving to a new country, new employees always feel uncomfortable and left out because of the cultural differences. So, it’s always important for an employer to help the new hire to overcome the cultural shock. To do so, you can organize cultural training, plan a team outing and pair the group with experienced team members.