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There’s nothing more old-fashioned and romantic than sending handwritten letters across the open seas. While assignees should feel free to keep a stack of envelopes at hand to channel their inner John Keats, encourage them to communicate to those stateside in a more modern manner as well.
Keeping a corporate travel blog is one of the best ways to detail their time abroad. Not only is it a great chance for them to keep in contact with loved ones at home, it can help teach others at your company about what relocation looks like and can even help boost company morale. Here are some best practices for so your assignee can have the most awesome travel blog on the block:
Setting the Tone and Pace
Similar to that well-crafted letter to a loved one, your assignee’s travel blog should clearly state its intentions up front. Likely, their blog audience will be corporate partners and those back at home, but that’s no reason not to encourage creativity. Provide your assignees with clear guidelines upfront on what type of blog content they should strive for and how their blog will be utilized. Providing personal anecdotes is a great way for readers to feel truly connected to the blogger, but remind your assignee to keep it appropriate and resist the urge to include details they wouldn’t want their bosses to know.
Setting the pace is also a key guideline to relay to your assignee. Do they have a specific time every week they can dedicate to their blog or are bi-weekly postings more realistic? Regardless of how frequently your assignee can post, keeping up with a schedule is the best way to make sure that the posts get done on time and they can build a following.
Language and Cultural Lessons
There’s nothing like a quick kultúra lecke (or culture lesson in Hungarian) to get blog readers’ to truly step into the cipő (shoes) of your assignee. Readers will be itching to learn more about the adjustment period your assignee is experiencing and there’s no better way to depict what life is truly like than by putting a little language and culture in it!
Encourage your assignee to start sharing stories about their initial adjustment period. Whether it’s rehashing the tale of a visit to the world’s best restaurant, El Celler de Can Roca, or how they made friends with a couple of strö gris (stray pigs) in Sweden, cultural anecdotes are a great way for your assignee to provide readers with a realistic sense of adjustment. For assignees who are living in areas different from their mother tongue, encourage them to provide language learning tips to readers, as well as some new vocabulary. Even if your assignee isn’t completely fluent, simple phrases like γεια το όνομά μου είναι (“Hi, my name is” in Greek) or کے بارے میں میں مزید جان سکتے ہیں Mango (Can I learn more about Mango? in Urdu) can add some color to your assignee’s blog and can even help increase global fluency—what’s not to love?
Corporate travel blogs are a fun way to get involved with your assignee even from miles away. For more tips on staying in touch with your assignee, take a look at our eBook: 10 Tips for Making Relocation a Company-Wide Success.
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