Cubans, Venezuelans and Argentines. Those are the main foreign nationalities that joined seven out of 10 companies in the information and communication technologies (ICT) sector in 2018, according to the latest report Trends in Human Resources ICTs 2019, by the human resources consultancy Búsquedas IT.
This year's report gathered the views of 413 people from some 78 companies in the sector, mostly software companies (55%) and mainly professionals with a university degree between 32 and 40 years old.
The phenomenon of the arrival of foreign personnel occurs in a sector that already accounts for 2.5% of GDP and whose growth is limited by the lack of qualified talent. According to the latest CUTI 2018 survey, the chamber's member companies employed 12,919 people in the year.
In addition, of those they hired, eight out of 10 said they had a positive experience with these people.
Although 70% of the companies surveyed acknowledged that they hired foreigners, only 40% said they "proactively" looked for personnel outside Uruguay. Moreover, of the total, only 10% said they had a relocation policy to support the management of this type of profiles.
Seduction game
One of the characteristics that marks this sector is precisely its high demand for labor that drives a strong rotation and struggle of companies to retain talent. In this sense, the report revealed that the intention of workers to change jobs increased. According to the study, while in 2018 80% said they were willing to "consider" a job proposal from another company, this year 90% of workers were open to receive it. When asked what would lead workers to accept the change of company, the majority (38%) said they would do it mainly motivated by a salary increase, followed by career prospects (17%).
That revelation clashes with the responses companies give to this situation, as the number of those willing to make counter-offers to retain talent decreased compared to 2018, falling from 62% to 48% this year.
But despite the fact that salary is what they take into account the most when considering a change of company, this does not coincide with what is most valued by workers in order to stay. In this point, "growth expectations" weighs, with more than 60% of the answers, followed by "culture and climate" and only in third place appears "salary".
Finally, workers highlighted "flexible hours" as the best benefit offered by companies in the ICT sector, followed by "the possibility of training". These answers contrast in part with reality, because according to the study, very few companies indicated that they have a formal career plan. In this aspect, the benefits most offered are "flexible hours", "home office" and "healthy life".
Source: El País
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