There’s no bigger sign that a nation has stopped being an economic backwater than when its companies are forced to start looking abroad for employees.
For a country still scarred by its history of emigration, the idea that Irish companies would ever need to hire professionals from overseas was one that would have seemed laughable until a few years ago.
However, the nation’s skills shortage during the late 90s meant that many employers in the IT sector did indeed have to consider such an idea for the very first time.
Having exhausted the local skills pool and put out an appeal to ex-pats around the world, some companies had to face the fact that if they wanted to find skilled professionals for their organisations, then they were going to have to look outside of the country for them.
As a nation that had never established a practice of hiring from abroad, many local employers were wary of doing so even when the skills shortage was beginning to have a negative impact on their organisation. But, as Adrian McGennis, manager with Sigma Recruitment makes clear, once companies did embrace the idea, they found it a rewarding experience.
McGennis says, ‘even though there was such a level of frenzied activity in the recruitment sector a few years ago, many employers were reluctant to look overseas for personnel.
However, the skills shortage reached such a crisis point at one stage that some organisations had no choice but to turn to other markets for staff. Once the initial reluctance to look outside of Ireland was overcome, a lot of companies had good experiences with the employees they hired from abroad.’
Multinationals led the way forward in recruiting from abroad, according to John Tormey, manager of Computer Staff Recruitment’s (CSR) technology division. Since they already had experience of operating in different countries they were already aware of the pitfalls and benefits of hiring outsiders and were therefore ready to do so when the skills shortage began to bite here. However, as Tormey makes clear, while the multinationals influenced other organisations, the introduction of the government’s ‘fast track’ visa scheme for non-EU nationals contributed greatly to the practice of looking further afield for employees. Tormey says, ‘the fast track programme was very useful during the boom years in that it helped to cut down on the red tape involved in hiring employees from abroad. The initiative had a significant effect in encouraging Irish organisations to look further afield for skilled IT professionals.’
Paul O’Dea, chairperson of the Irish Software Association and CEO of International Ventures is also one of those who believed that the government’s visa scheme was of great benefit to the IT industry. However, O’Dea believes that the current slump means that we never got to see its full benefits. He says, ‘the initiative was very welcome when it was introduced, however the industry downturn probably did not give it enough time to prove itself’.
Cultural differences
Overall, most of those companies who did resort to recruiting from overseas during the skills shortage, found it to be much less hassle than they would have previously believed. However, that’s not to say it was smooth sailing for all employers. Some organisations found that while they may not have had to face as much red tape as they’d anticipated, they did have to come to terms with cultural and social factors.
‘Companies had very different experiences recruiting candidates from overseas, says John Tormey, ‘but the highest incidence of failure appears to have been where the initial existing cultural differences were greatest. This posed the greatest challenge to an employer in trying to integrate the IT professional into their organisation. In fairness though, most HR managers worked extremely hard to implement policies to smooth integration and reduce the risks involved in hiring employees from abroad.’
Future trends
While employers may have been persuaded of the need to search overseas for skilled professionals during the boom times, the economic downturn has pretty much put a stop to the practice. Few IT organisations are currently hiring, and those that are, now have a greater number of Irish professionals to choose from.
Nevertheless, while the slump may have reduced the need to look abroad, most people working in the recruitment and IT sectors believe that the practice has only been temporarily halted. They believe that once the market picks up, Ireland will once again experience the same shortages it had previously. Paul O’Dea is one of those people. He says, ‘I feel that there will be a need to recruit from abroad again when the market picks up because we are likely to experience the severe IT professional shortages that we saw a few years ago. A number of recent surveys highlight the fact that there will be a shortage of IT skills in Europe in the coming years and we’ll need to find employees who can help us solve the shortages.’
Meanwhile, Thomas Walsh, manager of PricewaterhouseCoopers’ executive resourcing division believes that the decision of many college graduates to forego IT courses at university may also lead local companies to search overseas again in the future.
Walsh says, ‘no one is looking for employees at the moment, other than at the executive level. However, graduates are now enrolling in fewer IT-related courses and as the Celtic tiger economy was based on a large, highly educated and skilled workforce, it may mean that we have to go abroad to find employees again in the future.’
Even if future graduates do start taking more IT-related courses, Ireland is still likely to face a shortfall in the number of skilled personnel it has. Obviously, this means that more employers are likely to have to look outside of the country to solve the problem. However, Ireland is not alone in facing such difficulties and the question is whether, the country will be attractive to non-EU nationals in the future.
As John Tormey puts it: ‘There will always be a need to import IT skills, particularly in higher value technology skills such as Oracle. We must also remember that the current depression within the IT sector is temporary and therefore we’ll soon reach a point in the future again where there will be a renewed shortage of IT skills. But we have to consider the fact that there are already a number of non-EU nationals in the country and the treatment they receive will influence whether they (and others) will want to work in Ireland in the future’.
‘There are currently quite a number of non-EU national IT professionals that are either in the second year of their visa, or have a work permit, and difficulties will arise when these come up for renewal. If the present downturn persists deep into 2003, then even more non-nationals will be faced with the prospect of having to move on to another country. The experience these people have gained and their treatment while employed here will have an effect on the possible re-entry of non-nationals when the market returns to steady growth rates and we need to look abroad again for skilled personnel.’
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