Discussion on:

Should you hire foreign workers to fill positions during a labor crunch?

I am very interested in replies to this question from companies that have been hiring (or were planning on hiring) H1Bs and what they are planning to do in this vein given the current economic slowdown. Also, the numbers quoted in this article seem either old or different. The labor shortage quoted in the article is 269K while the ITAA freely claims 850K. And the # of visa cap was - last time I checked - raised to 195K from 115K. Any help answering the first question and corroborating the factsis appreicated.

I to have been researching the H1B's.
The following website has alot of information on the process, along with current data. http://www.usvisanews.com/

I am tired of companies not wanting to hire and train Americans. There are plenty of new college graduates that are looking for work but unable to get it because the companies do not want to hire and train college graduates. This comes from personalexperience. I graduated with a degree in Computer Information Systems and achied a GPA of 4.00 I was unable to get a position for over 4 months after graduation. What I found was the position I was applying for was given to a worker with a visa suchas the one mentioned in this article. The only positions offered were help desk positions. I was not the only graduate to find these difficulties. Luckily I found a great company to work for who was willing to give me a chance but it was only after applying and interviewing for almost 100 companies. Companies should invest the time in Americans and give them a chance instead of going elsewhere to find people to fill these positions.

I?m currently working with a medium sized IT solutions company that specializes in the deployment of foreign workers. We have proved that this is a cost effective way of filling the skills gap, both internally and externally to our own organisation.

We employ highly experienced professionals from abroad who can match the skills of the local workforce. There are some challenges to be faced, mainly the culture differences, but it is not too difficult to break down these barriers. It requires a simple investment of time to support everyone involved, to deal with any issues that arise. At the end of the day we achieve a win-win situation, where we can fill the gulf of experience and in so doing we are sharing wealth with our poorer (but highly skilled) foreign neighbours.

Thank you.

As a Senior IT New Business Development Consultant to an established offshore (India) software development/IT full service provider - rssoftware.com - I am an American proud of working with a group of highly skilled IT professionals who are willing and eager to work, bring valued-solutions to our broad American clientele, while affording me as an American the advantage as a senior level management personnel to work closely with my clients by helping IT managers get the job done ina cost-effective manner and help to maintain valued IT personnel within budget constraints.

Thanks.

cjt@world.std.com

Personal experience has shown me that many of the H1B job fillers are poorly (or not at all) trained for the position before showing up on the job. I have seen H1B's that have a beginners book in front of them, they are not trusted to do actual workbecause they screwed it up the first time so badly. Plus the fact that what they think is an excellent payscale according to home expense are pitifully low and are unable to even meet contract expenses. Their home agencies have often dumped them at the airport with nothing set up to assist them when they arrive in the US or whatever other country they are going to work in.
If they are highly skilled and experienced, OK - but watch out for the unethical agencies that just dump bodies out on the market, getting cash for quantity, not quality

Don't these companies understand, if Americans don't work - they don't sell product, they don't sell product, they don't stay in business!

Sending money overseas to save a few dollars on the bottom line is like the old practice of bleeding a patient for a headach. The headach went away because of the loss of blood. Lose to much blood or do it to often the patient dies.

Hiring the overseas worker, presents a number of other problems - language for one, most speak very poor english, accept below scale salaries, work longer hours and produce (to the most part) a undocumented product because they don't know the language.

It would be like you going to work in France - and only having a few months of language training - how well could you write let alone speak it.

Hire Americans First - when there are no more of us - then go overseas

First to clarify something, I'm a UK resident IT professional, exploring the possibilities of a short-term contract in the USA.

There are several points to note, Firstly Local Domestic hiring, and training or re-training is essential, as mentioned above.

No point in me going into detail there...

However if you do decide to hire from a different country.

What I list here are a brief list of things I would expect, remember I'm only just starting to explore possibilities here.

1) Get to know the person you plan to employ. Either through a trial period, or by visiting them in there country of residence,

One idea would be to obtain a training visa for them instead, and put them through (at there cost) a short training program, designed by your _local_ (keeping finances in the country) training company, to examine there personality and verify there skill set.

2) Ensure they are fully aware of any and all cost of living implications. Perhaps even going to the trouble ofproviding accommodation etc, but directly deducting the cost from their salary.

3) Eliminate the language barrier, another training exercise, perhaps even used in conjunction with 1 above, If they come from a country that does not teach English in school as a second language, or they demonstrate limited use of the English language, help them out.

4) Include in the contract with them, a clause whereby they must train an American in the skill set's necessary to perform the job function after the end of there contract term.

5) If you have international offices in there country of origin, employ them there first.

And Finally

6) Treat them in the same manner as any other candidate, give them the respect they have earned, and theywill return that respect.

Again, I?m fully in support of American companies employing Americans first, I have many good friends several of whom have had issues with employment,

First to clarify something, I'm a UK resident IT professional, exploring the possibilities of a short-term contract in the USA.

There are several points to note, Firstly Local Domestic hiring, and training or re-training is essential, as mentioned above.

No point in me going into detail there...

What I list here are a brief list of things I would expect, remember I'm only just starting to explore possibilities here.

1) Get to know the person you plan to employ. Either through a trial period, or by visiting them in there country of residence,

One idea would be to obtain a training visa for them instead, and put them through (at there cost) a short training program, designed by your _local_ (keeping finances in the country) training company, to examine there personality and verify there skill set.

2) Ensure they are fully aware of any and all cost of living implications. Perhaps even going to the trouble of providing accommodation etc, but directly deducting the cost from their salary.

3) Eliminate the language barrier, another training exercise, perhaps even used in conjunction with 1 above, If they come from a country that does not teach English in school as a second language, or they demonstrate limited useof the English language, help them out.

4) Include in the contract with them, a clause whereby they must train an American in the skill set's necessary to perform the job function after the end of there contract term.

5) If you have international offices in there country of origin, employ them there first.

Again, I?m fully in support of American companies employing Americans first, I have many good friends several of whom have had issues with employment, caused by Non US contractors, and I for one don?t want to push an American out of a job.

"People with disabilities" tend to be ignored as good reliable workers and find that "people with visas" are almost always hired before "People with disabilities" are given a chance to work.

The original spirit and purpose of our work visa lawis again being suborned to drive down competitive wages and benefits. Is the need to create new profits and soaring stock prices worth the price in underutilized human resources. I for one think not!

OWEN P.DOONAN III, Chairman of the Board
THE-Group [The Handi-CAPABLE Executive Group]

E-mail: mentor-one@usa.net

They can speak english quite well : )

Are you SURE they speak English?

All kidding aside, Aussies would be another good choice. From what I've seen, the cultural differences are relatively minor. I have a number of acquaintances from OZ that blend in quite well, except for the odd spellings they use.

Of course, they comment about the odd spellings the typical American uses...

English, in all its variations, can be interesting.

Why Hire Foreign Workers while some many
high tech American workers are being laid
off. Simply, foreign worker can be paid less
and in some causes are subsidized by our
government (pay 3/4 of wages for first year.
They will not do same for American Workers.

I am an IT professional with 21 years in the business. I have been everything from a COBOL programmer to a Database Anallyst and Administrator on mainframes to a network administrator on PC networks. I was let go about six weeks ago. Since that timeI have sent out over 100 resumes to three different parts of the country and received six, count 'em, six postcards, no interviews and certainly no jobs.

You think it might be because I might ask for a decent wage for that experience? Why hire mewhen you can get two young people just starting out in the field or two or three foreign workers for the same price? Not to mention you can intimidate and or bamboozle a young or foreign worker a lot easier than you can me.

If 269,000 jobs a yeargo wanting, contact me, I know at least one person who can fill at least one of those jobs. And you won't have to worry about visas or anything else related to bringing on a foreign employee.

Thanks

The economy is broken.
Unemployment is skyrocketing.
Outsourcing/Offshoring is killing the economy !

Hundreds of American companies have sent
thousands of jobs overseas and this action
is directly responsible for skyrocketing
unemployment and our broken economy.

Here are the facts:
1. Foreign workers DO NOT PAY Federal or State Taxes.
2. Foreign workers DO NOT PAY into the
Unemployment or Social Security Funds.
3. Foreign workers DO NOT spend their money
in the United States.
4. The Federal Government gives American Businesses
"cash incentives" to hire foreign workers and
put American workers "out of work".

U.S. Dollars paid to foreign workers go overseas and
never come back. The U.S. Economy gets no benefit
from giving jobs to foreigners and is directly responsible
for the daily collapse of the U.S. Economy.

Skyrocketing unemployment is a direct result is a direct
result of Outsourcing/Offshoring.

STOP Outsourcing/Offshoring NOW before "It's Too Late".