This week, we distill insights around the IDCN - a network of multi-national corporates that help mobile employees’ partners find jobs and integrate into new locations. For more about IDCN (Founded by Nestle), visit: http://peopleslab.mslgroup.com/peoplesinsights/international-dual-career-network-peoples-insights-volume-2-issue-34 100+ thinkers and planners within MSLGROUP share and discuss inspiring projects on reputation, employee engagement and citizenship on the MSLGROUP Insights Network. Every week, we pick up one project and do a deep dive into conversations around it -- on the MSLGROUP Insights Network itself but also on the broader social web -- to distill insights and foresights. We share these insights with you on our People’s Insights blog and compile the best insights from the network and the blog in the People’s Insights Quarterly Magazine, as a showcase of our capabilities. We have further synthesized the insights to provide foresights for business leaders and changemakers — in the ten-part People’s Insights annual report titled Now & Next: Ten Frontiers for the Future of Engagement, now available as a Kindle eBook. For more, see: http://peopleslab.mslgroup.com/future-of-engagement

1. Reputation | Employee Engagement | Citizenship
International
Dual Career
Network
People’s Insights: Volume 2, Issue 34

2. What is IDCN?
Founded by Nestlé in 2011,
IDCN is a network of multinational corporates that
help mobile employees’
partners find jobs and
integrate into new locations.
Partners can join IDCN for
advice on finding a job and
to network with local HR
professionals.
Other organizations can join
the network to tap into a
pool of international “turnkey” talent and support their
international employees.
*This post is inspired by ideas shared at Nestlé’s Sue Johnson’s session Dual Careers:
Getting & Keeping the Best Talents at the Global Women’s Forum 2013.

3. Rising demographic: Dual Career
Couples
Between 1996 and 2006, the percentage of
two-income married couples rose 31% in
the US. Now 47.5% of all American married
couples are dual-career couples. In
Canada, the percentage of husband wife
families that were dual earners is roughly
70%, and approximately two-thirds of twoadult families have two incomes in the UK.
Jackie and John Coleman
Contributors, Harvard Business Review
Source: blogs.hbr.org
“Dual career” refers to
couples in which both
partners are working and
both are career-focused.
The term can also refer to
couples in which both
partners are working at the
same company.
Research shows that 60%
of international companies
provide support for partner
job searches.

4. Dual career and the associated
challenges - I
Concerns around a
partner’s career affects both
recruitment and retention of
international employees.
ECA, specialist in expatriate
issues, notes: “According to
research carried out by the
Permits Foundation almost
60% of spouses say that
they would be unlikely to
relocate in future to a
country where it is difficult
for a spouse or partner to
get a work permit.”
ECA 2012 Managing Mobility survey finding

5. Dual career and the associated
challenges - II
ECA 2012 Managing Mobility survey finding
Alain Verstandig notes:
“The problem again affects
those who go on to accept
the challenge. For them, the
partner’s problems in
finding the right
professional opportunity in
the new country are the
prime reason for the failure
or premature termination of
an international
assignment.
“A McKinsey study has
demonstrated that 70% of
the factors leading to a
failed expatriation are
family-related.”

6. What IDCN offers employees
It was difficult to integrate in Switzerland
before I found out about the scheme. The
network became a kind of coach, helping
me to gain perspective and handle the
difficult changes as an expat. IDCN really
helped to fill the gap to take proactive
steps to find a suitable job and create my
own network of people.
David Galán
Global dairy buyer for Nestlé
(recruited via IDCN)
Source: nestle.com
IDCN offers international
employees and their
partners a support
network, job advice,
networking opportunities
and a potential job
database. Employees and
their partners volunteer to
help run local networks,
and the member
corporations fund the
endeavour.

7. What IDCN offers companies
IDCN offers corporates
access to a turn-key talent
pool and a solution to
address dual career
challenges faced by their
own international
employees. Theoretically,
the larger the network, the
larger the number of job
openings and the larger the
talent pool.

8. What companies offer in return
Corporate members can
join and leave freely, make
their own recruitment
decisions and policies and
are not required to hire or
prioritize partners or
spouses in the network.
In return, corporate
members are expected to
support the network with
active participation at
events, permission to use
their facilities, and general
information about job
openings.
IDCN currently 50
organizations on-board.

9. Is IDCN a Success?
IDCN’s pilot program in
Switzerland has organized
over 10 events, has a
roster of 460 partners
registered, 40 spouse
volunteers and has helped
20 partners find new jobs.
In its newer locations Paris,
Zurich and Mexico City,
IDCN has organized 6
events, including
workshops and career fairs
and is already seeing high
participation and positive
feedback from partners.

10. Dual Career support as a recruitment
tool
Family issues remain the sensitive aspect of
international mobility. Today, we place a
great deal of attention on dual career
problems….One often forgets that for the
transferee, the continuity of his or her career
is unaffected, as there is no change of
employer, merely of country of residence.
For the partner, however, the change is
total.
Jan Van Acoleyen
VP Human Resources, Alcatel
Microelectronics
Source: globalbusinessmobiletalent.com
With dual career couples on
the rise, experts point out
that dual career support is a
new-age recruitment tool
(much like social media
engagement!).
Nestlé's Sue Johnson
shared an off-hand figure of
1 million as the cost of an
unsuccessful international
mobility (in terms of
training, recruiting,
replacing, knowledge lost
etc.).

11. Why is mobility so necessary?
Nestlé’s Sue Johnson
shared that mobility was a
part of the Nestlé
experience and was an
important experience to
prepare talent for global
roles (the company does
after all operate in 86
countries). Mobility also
helps transfer talent to
places where the right
talent is lacking.
1) egonzehnder.com 2) ECA’s 2012 Managing Mobility survey
Acc. to ECA, 62% of
companies anticipate
increases in long-term
mobile assignees.

12. Next trend: Mutli-generational
families in the workplace?
Unilever’s Doug Baillie
noted that economic
hardship and personal
ambitions would ensure
more older people in the
workforce, and women
empowerment would
ensure more women in the
work force.
For large companies, multigenerational families in the
work place are almost a
reality – with a grandfather,
father and daughter
working in the same
company.
Source: womens_forum on Flickr

13. Read People’s Lab insights & foresights
The People’s Lab team shares the insights and foresights from the
MSLGROUP Insights Network on the People’s Insights weekly blog , quarterly
magazine and annual report.
MSLGROUP
INSIGHTS NETWORK
100+ MSLGROUP planners
share and discuss inspiring
projects on reputation,
employee engagement and
citizenship.
PEOPLE’S INSIGHTS
WEEKLY BLOG
PEOPLE’S INSIGHTS
QUARTERLY MAGAZINE
We deep dive into
conversations around one
project to distill insights and
foresights.
Every quarter, we compile the
best insights from the network
and the blog into a magazine,
as a showcase of our
capabilities.
For more, visit http://peopleslab.mslgroup.com/peoplesinsights

14. People’s Lab: Crowdsourcing Insights &
Innovation
People’s Lab is MSLGROUP’s proprietary crowdsourcing platform and
approach that helps organizations tap into people’s insight for innovation,
storytelling and change.
For more, visit http://peopleslab.mslgroup.com/peoplesinsights

15. For People’s Lab solutions,
please contact:
pascal.beucler@mslgroup.com