What does it cost you when an international hire leaves?
A recruitment fee. Relocation and immigration costs, again. Months of lost productivity, and a team that starts over. Most of that risk builds up between month four and twelve, and it’s visible long before anyone resigns.
Between half and two times their annual salary.
For an international hire earning €60,000, that's €30,000 to €120,000, before you count a new relocation and a new work permit. And 52% of employees who leave say their manager or company could have kept them.
Source: Gallup
Free · no sales call
Sound familiar?
Onboarding ends when the permit is approved.
After that, everyone assumes it’s going fine.
The buddy programme exists on paper.
The buddy was assigned. They never had time.
Line managers weren’t briefed.
Culture shock gets read as underperformance.
Nobody asks about the partner.
Until the resignation letter mentions them.
The free scan shows which of these apply to you, in four minutes.
Built around the full journey, not just week one.
International onboarding follows the same pattern almost everywhere. That's why everything we do follows four phases.
BE Ready
Before you move. Documents, housing for your registration, expectations.
For HR: The audit checks how you prepare hires before they arrive: permits, housing, first-week practicalities. See the audit →
BE Connected
Your first six months. Registration, healthcare, banking, your first local network.
For HR: The audit checks who owns the first six months after the paperwork is done. See the audit →
BE Engaged
Month seven to year three. Language, belonging, support for partners.
For HR: The audit checks language, belonging and support for partners from month seven to year three. See the audit →
BE Home
Year three and beyond. Long-term stability and reasons to stay.
For HR: The audit checks what gives people a reason to stay for the long run. See the audit →
Onboarding & Integration Audit
We talk to your international employees, review your onboarding against our four-phase framework, and show you exactly where people get lost, and what to fix first.
Founding client price: €1,750 excl. VAT (regular price €2,950)
That's less than 6% of what a single departure costs at the lowest estimate.
For the first five companies. In return, we ask for honest feedback and permission to share anonymised results.
3 weeks · up to 5 employees interviewed · Onboarding Toolkit included
How it works
Intake · Week 1
A 60-minute call about your goals, your current process and which employees to interview. You send us your existing onboarding materials.
Interviews · Week 1–2
45-minute one-on-one conversations with up to five of your international employees. Online, confidential, and outside HR, so people can be honest.
Analysis · Week 2–3
We score your process per phase, from BE Ready to BE Home, and combine what’s on paper with what your employees actually experienced.
Report and walkthrough · Week 3
A 90-minute session with HR, and management if you like. We go through your gaps, your action plan and the Toolkit.
What you get
A gap report
With a score per phase and what’s behind each score.
An action plan
Ordered by impact and effort, with an estimate of time and cost per action.
The Onboarding Toolkit
Ready-to-use templates in your company’s name and colours.
What it takes from you
About 3 hours of HR time in total, plus 45 minutes per interviewed employee.
Built by someone who's seen it from the inside.
Nathalie De Langhe spent ten years in international employment and handled more than 10,000 work permit and residence files. The Expat Buddy exists for everything that comes after the paperwork.
She saw the same thing again and again: the paperwork got done, and then people were on their own. Good hires left. Not because of the job, but because life around the job never came together.
That's why the audit covers both: the formal side she knows inside out, and everything that comes after it.
Questions HR managers ask us
How much of our time does it take?
About three hours for HR in total: the intake, planning the interviews and the walkthrough. Each interviewed employee spends 45 minutes with us.
Is what our employees tell you confidential?
Yes. Interviews are one-on-one, without HR present. We report findings in aggregated, anonymised form, unless an employee explicitly agrees to be quoted.
We only have a few international employees. Is it worth it?
Often it’s the best moment. Fixing the process before you scale is cheaper than fixing it after people have left. We interview everyone you have, up to five.
How is this different from a relocation agency?
A relocation agency handles the move: housing, permits, logistics. We focus on what happens after, when the admin is done and the risk of losing someone starts.
What happens after the audit?
Most companies implement the action plan themselves, using the Toolkit. If you’d like support along the way, we can agree on that separately.
In which language are the interviews?
English or Dutch, whichever your employee prefers.
Why is there a founding client price?
For the first five companies, in return for honest feedback and permission to share anonymised results as a case study. Your company name is only mentioned if you agree.
How do payment and cancellation work?
We invoice 50% when you accept the quote and 50% on delivery of the report. You can cancel free of charge until the intake. All details are in our Terms and Conditions.
The platform: early access
Your international hires get their own dashboard with expiry reminders, practical how-to guides and a Flemish word every week. HR sees one overview of what's expiring. We're opening it to a small number of companies first.
Start with where you stand.
Four minutes, twelve statements, and you'll know your three biggest gaps. No sales call needed.