Expat onboarding & retention in Flanders
Keep your international hires past year one.
Most international hires don't leave in their first weeks. They leave after month four, when the paperwork is done and nobody owns what comes next. The Expat Buddy closes that gap, for companies and for the expats themselves.
Free · 4 minutes · no sales call
The risk starts when the paperwork stops.
International onboarding follows the same pattern almost everywhere.
Months 1 to 3 · Busy
Permits, registration, a desk, a laptop. Clear tasks, clear owners. Everything looks fine.
Months 4 to 8 · The dip
The admin is done. The novelty is gone. No local network has formed yet, and nobody is responsible for making sure it does.
Month 12 and later · The decision
The resignation comes now. The reason usually dates from months earlier.
It's not bad intentions. It's a gap nobody owns. That's the part we fix.
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
Where do you want to start?
For companies
Find out where your international onboarding loses people, and what to fix first.
Start free: Onboarding Maturity Scan. 12 statements, your score out of 60, and your three biggest gaps.
Go deeper:Onboarding & Integration Audit. We interview your international employees and hand you a prioritised action plan.
For expats & families
Your own free dashboard with reminders before your residence card or passport expires, practical how-to guides and a Flemish word every week.
Create my free accountBook a session · €95Built around the full journey, not just week one.
Integration doesn't happen in the first month, and neither does the risk of losing someone. 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 →
For expats: Free First 90 Days checklist, Expat Admin Session
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 →
For expats: Free account with how-to guides, Expat Admin Session
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 →
For expats: Word of the week, the expat newsletter
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 →
For expats: Expiry reminders for your documents and contracts
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.
Because everyone deserves to feel at home.
For the people who move here, and for the companies that bring them.