 In this topic, we are going to look at another aspect of designing an effective repatriation program and that is the establishment of a mentoring relationship. In the previous topic, we discussed about the various topics on which the organization can work upon to achieve an effective repatriation process. The first thing is a standalone process of achieving a repatriation effectiveness and it is standalone because it covers all the topics which can be covered in an effective repatriation program. So assigning a mentor to an international assignee can actually cover all the topics that we have discussed in the previous topic and can be taken care of by the mentor himself or herself and that can also be done in combination with the organization working on various different topics of the repatriation process and the mentor looking after various different aspects of the repatriation process. So the mentoring relationship is a standalone aspect of ensuring an effective repatriation process. What is mentoring? Mentoring, you know, very well is the assigning of a mentor, a person who looks after the employee personally. So some organizations, they assign a mentor, also called a sponsor to ex-patriots. And you would remember from the previous topics in which we were talking about the repatriation process that the mentor or the sponsor is assigned at the pre-departure level. So before the person is going on the international assignment, the person is assigned to that that, okay, this person is going to be your mentor sitting in the headquarter position and looking after the well-being and benefit of the person while the person is away. So mentor is a person who keeps contact. Mentor is usually a senior person and knows the ex-patriot personally. Why it is a senior person? Because there has to be a significant gap between the level in which the person, the employee and the mentor exists. Because if you assign a mentor at the same level, they would be competitors and definitely competitors cannot look after the well-being of each other because obviously they have claims to the similar goals. So that is why the mentor has to be somebody in a senior position. So this is something which is an important aspect of the mentoring relationship. It should be a senior person and then it should be the person who knows the person personally. This is to overcome the out-of-sight, out-of-mind syndrome. That is what I said last time as well, that if you speak in English, that is out-of-sight, out-of-mind, that if you go away from your eyes, then you don't get out of your mind. So to overcome this syndrome, if a mentor is assigned to you in the headquarters, in the home country, who will ensure your well-being, so that in your organization's headquarters, your existence, even if it is intangible existence, but your existence is still there. It also helps in information sharing on a regular basis. So you keep knowing what is happening in the headquarters. Mentor also includes, ensures inclusion in important decisions regarding promotions and positions. So if you move away from your workplace, so different promotion opportunities come, different positions opportunities come. So if you are not present there, you won't get information. You won't get to know about it. And you won't be going to be an advocate. You won't be going to be recommended that, okay, this is the position which is coming up, this is the promotion opportunity which is coming up, which can be considered as an international assignee. So mentor is a person who fills this gap and he ensures that you are included in the promotion and positioning aspects if something comes up. And if a mentoring relationship is established well, it has a significant impact on the performance of the individual. A study found that 40 out of 50 employees had experienced a mentoring relationship and they said that their management position, which they were on at that particular time, the mentor had a significant contribution to that development. In a 2008 survey, it was found that 22% of the firms indicated the use of mentors for the repatriation process. We have discussed generally what the mentor do, but let's specifically talk about what should be the duties of a mentor. First of all, is maintaining contact with the expatriate throughout the assignment. So contact Rakhna Juhay throughout the period of assignment is the first and foremost duty of the mentor. Then ensuring expatriates are kept up to date with developments in the home country. So this is also part of the communication, regular communication that whatever the updates are that are taking place in the home country, they should be communicated to the expatriates. Then ensuring expatriates are retained in existing management development programs. So the development of management, which is taking place at the headquarters at the parent country level, the mentor make sure that the expatriates are also included in the management development program. Meaning that the plans that the organization has about the management development of its people, that your people have to rise in the organization, the expatriates that you have sent to the international assignments, should be included in the planning of them as well. And then being responsible for assisting expatriates with the repatriation process, including assisting them to obtain a repatriation position. So as I said that the mentor can look after all of the topics that were discussed in designing an effective repatriation program or he can take the responsibility of few of them and the rest of them can be looked after by the organization. But mentor has to play a very important role in the repatriation program. And then because he or she is at a senior position, they make sure that the person who comes back after the international assignment gets a position and a good position when he is repatriated back to the home country. So these are the different types of duties of a mentor that he can serve for a person who is sent on an international assignment and therefore can ensure an effective repatriation process of an expatriate.