Consider this Case Study $-$

On a summer's day in $2017,$ Charles Ramoz$-$Ram$$rez was chairing a meeting of the six most senior employees of the HR consultancy he established almost five years ago. His decision to establish the consultancy was an extremely difficult one for him, as he held a senior, well$-$paid and secure position as an HR executive within a Multi$-$National Corporation $($MNC$)$ based in New York. This HR position within the MNC involved training and developing professional executive staff such as engineers and project managers to undertake overseas assignments mainly in Spanish$-$speaking countries in South America.

At this meeting with his senior staff, Charles reminded them about the history of the consultancy for which they now work. He reminded them that there were two main reasons which underpinned his decision to leave the employment of the MNC and set up the consultancy business. First, he found himself being invited to deliver, on an increasingly frequent basis, specialized training sessions on expatriate programs organized by independent training organizations and even other MNCs$.$ He concluded from the frequency of these requests that there was a scarcity of HR professionals who possessed genuine expertise in preparing US executives for assignments in Mexico. Second, he did not agree with his HR director's view of expatriate training which was very much a case of 'send them and see'. That is$,$ his HR director did not doubt that pre$-$departure training for expatriates was helpful, but she did not see it as a critical success factor. Charles's view was that pre$-$departure training of expatriates was not just helpful; he saw it as a prerequisite for any overseas assignment no matter what its duration. His belief in the value of pre$-$departure training thus became a key operating principle of the CRR Expatriate Development consultancy organization which he formed on the day he left the employment of the MNC$.$ In essence, Charles established a consultancy which aimed to design and deliver in$-$house pre$-$departure training programs for employees of US MNCs who would be taking up assignments in Spanish$-$speaking countries in South America.

After reminding his senior staff of how the consultancy came into being, Charles explained to them that a recent event had served to convince him that the emphasis he placed on the training of expatriates was fully justified. Charles informed them that he had recently been approached by the current HR director of the MNC which had previously employed him. $($The previous HR director for whom Charles worked had retired approximately two years ago.$)$ The current HR director told Charles that, over the last $12$ months, the senior management of the MNC had become increasingly concerned about the general failure of its expatriate workforce to adjust to life in Mexico. As a result, the HR department had commissioned an independent training needs analysis. Part of this analysis was based on responses from $40$ engineers who had returned home in the last two years from assignments in Mexico. Charles proceeded to inform his staff about the findings of this analysis which were supplied to him by the HR director of the MNC$.$

The independent analysis provided a fascinating insight into the pre$-$departure training that the $40$ employees had received. Notably, only $25$ of them had received any formal pre$-$departure training at all. Subsequent investigations revealed no obvious explanation as to why the remaining $15$ staff had received no formal training. Further, when the MNC$\text{'}$s training records were examined, they showed that the duration of the training received by the $25$ staff varied tremendously.

Organizational records offered no obvious explanation as to why these $25$ employees received training which varied so much in terms of duration.

$1)$ Assume that you are a member of the senior team of CRR Expatriate Development. On the basis on the case study material and also your wider knowledge of the subject area, highlight what you think should be included in the content of the new ten$-$day pre$-$departure program for the $30$ engineers and project managers.

$2)$Having drawn up your list of the essential elements of this program, $($a$)$ explain why you think that each element is necessary, and $($b$)$ state how much program time you would devote to each element.

$3)$Assuming that you were permitted access to the $40$ employees who have already completed their assignments in Mexico, state what further information you would seek from them to help you to design the ten$-$day pre$-$departure program.

$4)$Highlight what further information you would seek about $($a$)$ the $30$ engineers and project managers, and $($b$)$ their forthcoming assignments in Mexico, before finalizing the design and content of the pre$-$departure program.

$5)$Explain how you would seek to augment the content of a program, such as the one you are proposing, with ongoing cultural training