Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

US Companies need better human resources directors, not foreign high-tech workers
BIZ PAC Review (West Palm Beach, Florida) ^ | May 17, 2014 | Jonathon Moseley

Posted on 05/17/2014 11:27:27 AM PDT by Moseley

Problems in hiring high-tech workers at big corporations are driving the push for amnesty in the immigration reform debate.

Big businesses say they need to import more foreign workers trained in science, technology, engineering and mathematics because they can’t find U.S. citizens and legal residents to fill the jobs. Democrats will not vote for importing more workers unless they get amnesty for the 11 million to 20 million low-skill undocumented workers. So big donors and political action committees like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce are lighting fires under Republicans to pass immigration reform.

But maybe U.S. companies need to hire qualified human resources directors who know how to find the estimated 11.4 million U.S. citizens trained in high-tech fields who are not working in those jobs now. Is the problem a recruitment failure?

In a 2013 article, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers suggested the United States has all the skilled workers it needs.

“[T]here are more STEM workers than suitable jobs. One study found, for example, that wages for U.S. workers in computer and math fields have largely stagnated since 2000,” institute officials wrote in an article published in its Spectrum journal. “Even as the Great Recession slowly recedes, STEM workers at every stage of the career pipeline, from freshly minted grads to mid- and late-career Ph.D.s, still struggle to find employment as many companies, including Boeing, IBM, and Symantec, continue to lay off thousands of STEM workers.”

The Washington Post made a similar assessment the same year, saying the United States has “more than a sufficient supply of workers available to work in STEM occupations.”

The Post article quoted study by the Economic Policy Institute that found many computer science graduates reporting that they couldn’t find jobs in their computer disciplines.

(Excerpt) Read more at bizpacreview.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: aliens; amnesty; hightech; immigration; stem
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-39 last
To: trebb

“...they can’t find U.S. citizens and legal residents to fill the jobs...

That tells us more about our “education” system than anything else.”

Unfortunately, there is some truth to this. I can’t believe the idiots that I deal with that I know to be quite well-paid. Sadly, I have found many “furriners” to be more serious and studious. Oddly, I find that I generally align politically more closely to newly-minted US citizens than with nth generation Americans.


21 posted on 05/17/2014 12:35:51 PM PDT by The Antiyuppie ("When small men cast long shadows, then it is very late in the day.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: Moseley

Working in hi-tech 25 years ago, this time of year would see company softball games. Now its cricket.


22 posted on 05/17/2014 12:45:33 PM PDT by AU72
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: The Antiyuppie

I’d like to see this meeting in the executive suite of Universal Ajax corporation:

Boss: Johnson, why has no progress been made on project “Cleanser”.

Sub Boss: We can’t find people to staff the project sir. We really tried.

Boss: Well as long as you tried Johnson that’s all that matters. I’ll give one of our staff congressmen a call.


23 posted on 05/17/2014 12:46:04 PM PDT by DManA
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: The Antiyuppie

The layoff’s of the 2000’s destroyed employee loyalty. HR rules and regulations took it’s place.

HR is of the mistaken impression that the workplace should or could solve everyone’s problems and provide social justice. That mentality came to be with company provided health insurance and retirement plans. Now that company provided health insurance is it’s death throws and new attacks on matching in 401’s we may see an upheaval not widely anticipated.


24 posted on 05/17/2014 12:49:54 PM PDT by ImJustAnotherOkie (zerogottago)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: Moseley

“better human resources directors” implies that the baseline is “GOOD human resources directors”. That would be erroneous. I was in H.R. for several years, and early on I realized H.R. professionals are the lowest form of life. Most of the ones I worked with had a lot of background in psychology, and it was fun for them to mess with employees’ heads. Plus, they’re the P.C. Police in an organization, so are extra obnoxious.


25 posted on 05/17/2014 1:21:14 PM PDT by MayflowerMadam
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: csivils

Right, Human Resource managers are as worthless as tits on a boar in high tech companies They can look at resumes all day and not know what was in them.


26 posted on 05/17/2014 1:23:13 PM PDT by ully2
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Moseley

Tell every single one of you what. Go to, say, Home Depot, and do an job app.

Its a GD joke!

So, you sit for an hour, jump through all their cutesy little crap so some useless twerp sitting at a job center can send you an e-mail thanking you for the app and that you are not qualified. But, when you go to Home Cheapo, as I call it, ask any of them at the cash register to count you your change out without the register. Lots of them have no idea.


27 posted on 05/17/2014 1:24:14 PM PDT by crz
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: crz

That is..Home Depots web site. One can “apply” there.

Like the man said..”Go ahead, make my day”


28 posted on 05/17/2014 1:26:03 PM PDT by crz
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 27 | View Replies]

To: Moseley

HR Directors are increasingly put in place to implement and oversee Federal Government policy within corporations, not to hire specific people. They are the Commissars of the New World Order.


29 posted on 05/17/2014 1:39:25 PM PDT by Mr. Jeeves ([CTRL-GALT-DELETE])
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Moseley

HR people have become bureaucrats. They have power they shouldn’t have. Let the people who run the individual departments make the choice on who to hire. The HR people should just be there to fill out paperwork.


30 posted on 05/17/2014 2:42:38 PM PDT by raybbr (Obamacare needs a death panel.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ully2

“Right, Human Resource managers are as worthless as tits on a boar in high tech companies They can look at resumes all day and not know what was in them.”

No kidding. I applied for a job once that required several federal certifications. I had them, but the HR manager had no idea what they were. Mine covered more than what they were looking for, I guess that confused her.

Her biggest concern was if I could pass a drug test, not the certs that took a minimum of 5 years to earn.


31 posted on 05/17/2014 2:44:23 PM PDT by wrench
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]

To: Moseley

Companies want H1B visa workers. The visa is awarded to the employer, and the imported employee must work for the company visa holder. If he or she loses their job, or leaves it for any reason, they have 30 days to find another H1B job, or they have to go home. It’s the new indentured servitude, enforced “loyalty”. The managers can treat them like crap and force them to work long hours for no extra pay, since they are salaried and exempt. These foreign servants never complain because they know the score. The companies are also able to keep them in line using the green card app process. If the worker is talented, and does look for another H1B job, they have to start the green card process all over again if they switch jobs. This process can take several years, and companies routinely drag their feet to draw it out as long as possible, because they know once the visa employee gets approved, they can demand higher pay, and will mostly likely leave because of all the crap they had to endure. It’s a great big scam.


32 posted on 05/17/2014 3:13:10 PM PDT by Orbiting_Rosie's_Head (argh)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Moseley

No they are not short of people in high tech. Only 50% of IT grads are getting jobs in that field. This is aboutone thing. Democrat party primacy. It is about nothing else.


33 posted on 05/17/2014 5:00:17 PM PDT by amnestynone (Lindsey Graham is a feckless, duplicitous, treacherous, double dealing backstabbing corksucker.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MayflowerMadam

I once told an Irish joke to an HR person. She turned green!


34 posted on 05/17/2014 6:52:48 PM PDT by minnesota_bound
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: Moseley

Foreign tech workers are cheap but not better and once they aren’t on the green card get really expensive. Once they figure out how to game the system they are less productive in many cases than Americans.

I sat in on a meeting to do set up some programming work. There was an Aussie, a Pakistani or Indian, a Japanese, a Korean, a Turk and two Americans. The work needs to get done soon and the international contingent was all about how they were going to help. That is until I gave the timeline and said I would have them a scope of work by Thursday and wanted it reviewed and back with a time table and work program by Tuesday. One had somewhere he had to be, out until Thursday. Another has to go on vacation, out for about 15% of the project time. The other guy was staying but didn’t seem to understand what we needed to do. The Aussie was a coordinator and the two Americans were just trying to get the work done and stayed until things were as finished as possible.

Most times I feel like I’m at a meeting of the UN instead of being at work in the USA.


35 posted on 05/17/2014 9:15:16 PM PDT by Sequoyah101
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Menehune56

I’ve been at what I do for most of four decades. I doubt I could make it past HR to become an employee so Instead I’m a conslutant at nearly double the pay. Oh well.

Blame Sarbanes - Oxley for the rise of HR. It is like revenge of the nerds.

What was it Plato said? “The measure of a man is what he does with power.”


36 posted on 05/17/2014 9:21:43 PM PDT by Sequoyah101
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: ully2

One of the most amazing things I have seen over the years is how stupid managers and HR are about thinking about people they have known and people who supplied resumes some time ago who were told, “we’ll keep you on file in case something comes up”, they don’t.

If you aren’t right ther, right when they are looking for someone... forget it. You’re never getting that job. Same thing in sales. If you’re not right there when the customer wants to buy just about better forget that sale. Buyers and employers are lazy.


37 posted on 05/17/2014 9:28:31 PM PDT by Sequoyah101
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]

To: minnesota_bound

“I once told an Irish joke to an HR person. She turned green!”

Once in a staff meeting I referred to the SEIU union employees as “organized crime”. My boss’ face turned 50 shades of red and purple, totally pissed off. Later, I was “spoken to”.


38 posted on 05/18/2014 4:20:44 PM PDT by MayflowerMadam
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 34 | View Replies]

To: Moseley

H1B Visa bump for later......


39 posted on 05/18/2014 8:25:58 PM PDT by indthkr
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-39 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson