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Vita Glorieux, Royal Military Academy, Belgium & KU Leuven, Belgium

Salvatore Lo Bue, Royal Military Academy, Belgium

Martin Euwema, KU Leuven, Belgium

Crisis service personnel return home from demanding deployments to a world that suddenly feels very different from the one they left. Reintegration is not just about settling back into family life; it is also about finding one's place again at work, rebuilding routines and re-establishing professional relationships. Yet the professional side of reintegration has received limited attention in research. In our study, we explore professional reintegration and compare the experiences of military and NGO workers. Guided by Organizational Support Theory, we examined how workplace relationships, perceptions of fairness, and HR practices shape the return-to-work experience – and why many employees feel supported by people around them, but not necessarily by their organization.

We interviewed 30 military and NGO professionals who did multiple deployments. Before meeting us, they filled out a short questionnaire to help them reflect on their reintegration experience. We then conducted in-depth conversations with each participant to explore how they experienced their return, what helped, what hindered and what support they needed after their return to work. Combining these insights allowed us to identify clear patterns in how employees reintegrate professionally after crisis missions. Although most reported positive reintegration experiences, almost half still faced difficulties, with NGO workers experiencing more negative outcomes than military personnel. Four profiles emerged: those for whom everything went well, those with mixed experiences, those facing family-related challenges and those struggling primarily at work. Reintegration, in other words, is far from uniform.

Participants often began by discussing their deployments, because what happens over there shapes what follows when they are back home. Communication with loved ones, mission intensity, cultural challenges and unit cohesion all influenced how smoothly people adjusted afterwards. However, once back at work, professional reintegration was mixed. A striking finding was that almost everyone reported low perceived organizational support. HR practices, though well-intentioned, frequently relied on individual initiative, offered only short-term support and did not account for employees' diverse needs. Many described cultures where seeking help felt risky or stigmatized. As a result, participants called for systematic, proactive outreach for instance scheduled follow-ups, counselling invitations and simple check-ins such as "How was your deployment and reintegration?" – offered after an initial rest period and repeated over time.

Amid these organizational gaps, colleagues and supervisors played crucial roles. Colleagues with deployment experience offered understanding that many found missing at home, especially in military units. NGO workers often lost this shared context upon returning to standard medical environments. Supervisors, meanwhile, were expected to monitor well-being and recognize deployment-acquired skills. Yet even strong supervisor support could not fully compensate for a lack of organizational support or fairness.

Across all these insights, one message stands out: reintegration is always a mix of positive and negative experiences. That is exactly why it is so important to look beyond personal adjustment and really examine professional reintegration as process on its own. Our findings show that organizational, supervisor and colleague support each play a distinct role, and none can replace the others. Yet organizational support was strikingly low across participants, likely due to perceived injustice and inconsistent HR practices. We were particularly concerned about those who experienced both low organizational and low colleague support since they appear most at risk for negative reintegration, with potential negative organizational consequences. While military and NGO personnel shared many similar experiences and expectations, NGO workers faced more negative professional reintegration due to the contexts they return to.

If organizations want to retain, protect and empower their crisis personnel, reintegration cannot be left to chance. The real mission begins when employees come home – yet too often, that is precisely the moment support falls silent. Reintegration requires support across three support sources: colleagues who offer understanding, supervisors who monitor well-being and value newly acquired skills, and organizations who take active responsibility for checking in, listening, and ensuring fairness throughout the process. When one support source falters, reintegration becomes fragile. When several falter, it becomes hazardous. For crisis personnel who have already carried the weight of demanding missions, leaving reintegration to zemblanity is simply unacceptable.

To read the full article, please see the Journal of Global Mobility publication: