IBM starts fund to aid displaced workers

InfoWorld ^ | March 01, 2004 | Stacy Cowley

[Vision Thing]

LAS VEGAS - IBM will create a $25 million, two-year training fund to assist employees who fear their that jobs are at risk of being shipped away to lower-cost locations, company executives said Monday at IBM's PartnerWorld conference.

The growing clamor in the U.S. about jobs lost to outsourcing unnecessarily begrudges the employment gains of "countries that are simply trying to improve the standards of living of their people," IBM Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Sam Palmisano said during a keynote address at the conference, which is being held in Las Vegas.

Called the Human Capital Alliance, the fund will help workers in positions likely to be affected by the outsourcing trend to retrain for new jobs, ideally with IBM or one of its business partners, according to IBM spokesman Clint Roswell.

At its current budget size, the Human Capital Alliance won't be a large program, Roswell acknowledged, but he estimated that it could be used to aid several thousand employees. Its scope will be global, but its aim will be to assist employees in developed countries, including the U.S. and the U.K. The fund's potential uses include paying for training, relocation and placement costs, Roswell said.

IBM said it will work with its business partners to determine fields in which employees should be retrained. Technologies the company considers strategic include Linux, Web services and business transformation consulting, according to Roswell. He cited data entry and legacy application development as examples of areas out of which IBM would seek to move its employees.

IBM has an uneasy relationship to the outsourcing issue, which is gaining political momentum in the U.S. as elected officials respond to worries about the shifting job market. The company speaks openly about the savings it has seen from outsourcing some manufacturing work, and it encourages other companies to outsource IT work to specialists like IBM.

At the same time, IBM is eager not to be seen as moving jobs out of the U.S. to developing countries as a cost-cutting move. When corporate documents leaked last year suggesting that executives were pursuing such a strategy, IBM officials insisted that expansions in its workforce in places such as India and China would not come at the expense of jobs elsewhere. Last month, IBM said it is in the process of hiring 15,000 new employees worldwide.

[Vision Thing]

Think twice about letting your kids grow up to be high-tech workers.

[speekinout]

Think twice about letting your kids grow up to be high-tech workers.

Yesterday's high-tech is always a bad idea. Tomorrow's high tech is a different story.

[hedgetrimmer]

FYI ping.

[krb]

Well certainly if your kids are mediocre performers you don't want to encourage them to go into programming or engineering. The days of $60,000 starting salaries for anyone who could spell "EE" are over.

But I suspect there will always be a place for excellent performers in the American tech economy, just like there was before the internet era.

[11th_VA]

The days of $60,000 starting salaries for anyone who could spell "EE" are over.

Not if you 'co-op' as a student, and get a Security Clearance ...

[FRgal4u]

Get a technical training in biotech, in clinical testings, in nanotech, in materials engineering - all are superhot areas.

My firm in the biotech area can't find enough folks to do research with the right trainings. You can't offshore clinical testing jobs when the patients are in the local hospitals.

One thing about the US universities though, they should limit the number of foreign applicants while encouraging more home grown candidates.

Of course as a consumer, you have the power as well, for instance, you can always ask if the DELL service rep on the other end of the line is from Bombay or not, DELL got enough headaches from the outsourcing rap that it actually in source all the customer help desk jobs back in the US. A lot of people complain and DELL saw a drop in PC sales. Money is the only language these CEOs would understand.

[oceanview]

they are also offshoring financial people to Brazil.

[nmh]

"Think twice about letting your kids grow up to be high-tech workers."

It's a dead field. Now will the adults catch on soon? The outsourcing has been going on for 10 -15 YEARS! This is not an over night phenomena. Those that haven't read the handwriting on the wall ... well couldn't have been that great to begin with. It didn't take a mental giant to figure out that it would come to this.

My advice to those who insist on doing IT is some form for a living -> consider moving to India, China and other Pacific Rim countries, and Romania for starters.

[nmh]

They get their training here and go home and make a killing. Their cost of living is nothing compared to ours.

I'd better duck on this one but the ugly truth is they are BETTER in the hard sciences than we are in the U.S.. That's one of the reasons the U.S. companies hired them here. They KNOW their stuff.

[international american]

"The growing clamor in the U.S. about jobs lost to outsourcing unnecessarily begrudges the employment gains of "countries that are simply trying to improve the standards of living of their people," IBM Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Sam Palmisano "


Spoken like a true globalist anti american pig? Is IBM from India, you rat Ba$tard?? Karl Marx could have written this doublespeak!!

[Lion in Winter]

Oh, and they sent men to the moon and developed the lunar rover and the cruise missle, too.... NOT!

[sinkspur]

Spoken like a true globalist anti american pig? Is IBM from India, you rat Ba$tard?? Karl Marx could have written this doublespeak!!

IBM has had an Indian subsidiary for 30 years.

There's nothing Marxist about seeking the lowest cost of producing a good or service.

Your outburst is juvenile.

[Vision Thing]

Oh, and they sent men to the moon and developed the lunar rover and the cruise missle, too.... NOT!

I wouldn't scoff too much at India's technical abilities, including their India Institute of Technology.

Most high-level personnel in Silicon Valley admit that Indian nationals played a big part in the high-tech boom here. Just read that old 1990s book called The New New Thing.

The hi-tech workers from India may have been absent during the moon walks, the lunar rover, and the cruise missle, but more than likely, they will play significant roles in future technical developments.

[Vision Thing]

Spoken like a true globalist anti american pig? Is IBM from India, you rat Ba$tard??

Are you kidding? IBM is based in Rochester, NY.

[sixmil]

I'd better duck on this one but the ugly truth is they are BETTER in the hard sciences than we are in the U.S..

I'd rather see you back up that statement with some facts than simply bash Americans and duck.

[sixmil]

Most high-level personnel in Silicon Valley admit that Indian nationals played a big part in the high-tech boom here. Just read that old 1990s book called The New New Thing.

On the flip side, do you believe that they played a big part in its downfall as well? Your statement stinks of PC, so I am interested to see if you are willing to make a logical negative generalization.

[sinkspur]

IBM is based in Rochester, NY.

IBM is based in Armonk, New York.

[Jack Black]

I can't speak for the hard sciences but they run the normal range for programming. On average, a little lower, but I suspect a lot of this is lack of English and communication skills. Some are great. They (Indians) have some awesome math savants, this seems less rare in India than elsewhere.

[Lion in Winter]

Have they cleaned up the Ganges river yet?

Bombay still a teeming cesspool?

billy clinton still sniffing aroung the "higher CASTE" whorehouses in Banglore with bill gates?

Nevermind.

[oceanview]

that word "based" isn't going to mean much if the current trends continue unabated.