North American Companies "Can't Find" Qualified IT Talent
Fifty-five percent of the CEOs surveyed plan to offshore over next five years.
IT World Canada — Inability to find adequate and appropriate IT talent in their own country is causing many North American CEOs to turn their gaze to distant shores, according to a recent survey.
Nearly two-thirds (64 percent) of top-tier executives polled by consulting firm Deloitte and Touche LLP "felt it was important to look overseas" for high-calibre technology professionals.
This, it appears, is not because they are unhappy with the quality of tech educational programs here.
In fact, 67 percent of the CEOs polled believe the North American education system is "successful in producing qualified talent."
The survey indicates that it's a "skills shortage"—or at least a perception of one—that's leading companies to scout for overseas talent.
"The quality of training and professionalism of Canadian and American graduates are appreciated by companies, but the schools are not producing enough [graduates] to meet the demand," said John Ruffolo, national leader, technology, media, and telecommunications group, Deloitte Canada.
Deloitte surveyed a group of 125 CEOs from U.S. and Canadian technology companies in March this year. A majority of the executives said they were encountering hardships in locating ideal IT professionals, said Ruffolo. Almost half (48 percent) the executives polled say attracting and retaining qualified employees are their biggest operational challenges.
To fill vacancies, Ruffolo said, companies have resorted to courting foreigners enrolled in engineering and IT courses in the United States and Canada. Deloitte, for instance, has approached foreign students at Stanford University and offered them positions in the company, said Ruffolo. "We have no choice but to do this if we want to maintain growth."
Government restrictions on foreign workers are also compounding the problem produced by a tight labor maket, said Ruffolo. He said most CEOs polled "are concerned that government restrictions on employment visas will prevent them from obtaining the overseas talent they need."
For instance, he said, despite an IT labor shortage in Canada, the immigration department continues to make it difficult for foreign trained professionals to obtain working or immigration visas. Since immigration rules make it hard to actively recruit foreign-trained professionals from overseas, companies resort to establishing offshore branch offices or "centers of excellence" in foreign lands, Ruffolo said.
While, currently, less than half of the companies offshore some operations, 55 percent of the CEOs plan to offshore in the next five years to achieve growth.
Cheaper labor and material cost in countries such as India make it easier to build remote offices there. The offshore locations are staffed by local IT professionals who are paid at a lower rate than their North American counterparts.
