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Does your life need a reboot ?

GRNews — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 07:55:13 +0000

We are used to the idea of rebooting our PC when it starts acting sluggish (specially Windows users). Are you at a stage where you are looking for a reboot ?

An HBR article, prompted this post. Avery Quick Excerpt from the article first -

Consider the story of the boiling frog. It may or may not be true, but the point it makes certainly is. Toss a frog into a pot of boiling water and it instinctively jumps out, self-protectively. Next, place the frog into a pot of cool water. Not surprisingly, it swims around, happily. Now heat the water up very gradually and what does the frog do? It acclimates to untenable circumstances — and slowly cooks. The frog doesn’t notice what’s happening to him, until it’s too late.

We’re experiencing the same phenomenon. Facing ever more demand, complexity and uncertainty, our initial response is to push ourselves harder and more relentlessly, without taking account of the costs we’re incurring.

A fresh start in a new destination, maybe just what the doctor ordered. Global Residency and its partners continue to bring information on new destinations that you may want to think about. It is all about finding the right fit – between your needs and what each of these destinations offers. Write to us to discuss your requirements – info@globalresidency.com

Here is a link to the article -

http://blogs.hbr.org/schwartz/2011/07/is-the-life-youre-living-worth.html

Skills Shortages and the Unemployment numbers

GRNews — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 13:48:05 +0000

Skills shortages and high unemployment – unlikely to exist together. Facts and figures though suggest otherwise. As a sample, data from United States make interesting reading.

The United States unemployment numbers have been fairly high (national average hovering in the 9% range). Even in this scenario, employers are challenged to find the right skill fits for their job openings.

The following text from a recent Time article (June 20,2011) sums up the challenge well -

A bigger issue is that the available skills in the labor pool don’t line up well with the available jobs. Case in point: there are 3 million job openings today. “There’s a tremendous mismatch in the jobs market right now” says McKinsey partner James Manyika, co-author of a new study title An Economy That Works: Job Creation and America’s Future. “It runs across skill set, gender, class and geography.”

The article goes on to say -

A labor market bifurcated by gender, skill set and geography means that unemployed auto workers in Michigan can’t sell their underwater homes and retool as machinists in North Dakota, where homes are cheaper and the unemployment rate is under 5%.

All this goes to confirm that global mobility of labor is a key component of productive economies. An uptick in unemployment numbers does not mean that there is no skills shortage.

Impact of offshoring and immigration on native workers

GRNews — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 09:52:44 +0000

What is the impact of offshoring and immigration on native workers ?

Gianmarco I.P. Ottaviano, Giovanni Peri, and Greg C. Wright (2010). Immigration, Offshoring and American Jobs. NBER Working Paper No. 16439. National Bureau of Economic Research.

The authors ask: “How many ‘American jobs’ are taken away from US-born workers due to immigration and offshoring?”

(1) They examine employment data from 58 manufacturing industries in the United States from 2000 to 2007. They find that an increase in offshoring—the relocation of a firm’s production process to another country —within an industry has no effect on the employment of natives in that industry. However, they do find that an increase in immigrant employment within an industry has a positive effect on the employment of natives in that industry. The authors explain that the results are due to the “productivity effect”: lower employment costs associated with offshoring and immigration increase both productivity and profits in an industry, which then increase overall demand for labour in that industry as well.

The study also finds that an increase in offshoring results in more natives employed in jobs with higher cognitive and non-routine tasks and leads to more immigrant employment in jobs with manual and routine tasks.

Together, the results suggest that immigrants compete for jobs more with offshore workers than with native workers.

A link to the complete working paper is below

http://www.nber.org/papers/w16439.pdf

UK to become less attractive for foreign students

GRNews — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 05:42:57 +0000

UK has announced an end to the post-study route, through which students were allowed to remain in the UK for two years after they completed their courses.

It has been long considered that the 2 year stay allowance, was a point of attraction for many students, who wanted to get work experience or further plan to settle in UK.

Like the US or Canada, international graduates will, however, be allowed to remain in the UK if they have skilled job offers under the Tier II work permit category.

With a competitive advantage now taken away, British educational institutions will have to ramp up their student recruitment efforts agressively, to maintain the same numbers as the last few years.

Germany eases immigration laws for professionals

GRNews — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 05:15:42 +0000

On March 23rd Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Cabinet has passed legistlation that aims to make it easier for foreign professionals to get their qualifications recognized and use their skills in Germany.

“You can still find the doctor from Israel or Turkey whose job qualifications are not being approved,” Education Minister Annette Schavan told reporters in Berlin. “We need different rules, rules that do justice to today’s globalized world and mobility.”

The new law still needs to pass Germany’s lower and upper house of parliament later this year.

The law targets foreign professionals from all over the world and will apply to those already living in Germany as well as prospective newcomers. Citizens from fellow European Union nations are already overwhelmingly allowed to work freely in all of the bloc’s 27 member nations.

“There is a young generation out there today that naturally plans its careers as taking place on different continents,” Schavan said, implying that Germany no longer wants to lose out on international high achievers, who often prefer the United States, Canada or the United Kingdom over Germany.

Germany’s booming economy is especially aggravated by a shortage of engineers — there were some 80,600 open jobs in the profession last month, according to the Association of German Engineers.

Physicians are also desperately needed. A doctors association, Marburger Bund, says the country lacks 12,000 physicians at hospitals and 3,000 general practitioners.

“We now have a lack of 400,000 engineers, master craftsmen and skilled workers,” Hans Heinrich Driftmann of the German Chamber of Industry and Commerce DIHK said recently. “We’re already losing one percent of our economic growth and in the future this shortage will only get worse.”

Australian demand for skilled professionals on the rise

GRNews — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 18:08:02 +0000

In her economic speech, the Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, warned of skills shortages – ” a problem unmatched anywhere else in the industrialised world”.

It is likely that Australia will be announcing a more relaxed points system. The new system will place more emphasis on English language proficiency, high level qualifications and work experience. Some of the professions that are expected to be given priority are – medicine, nursing, physiotherapy, accounting, construction, engineering, and a few others.

Given the recent flooding damage to the country, Prime Minister Julia Gillard has also promised a five-day visa turnaround for decision-ready skilled labor applications from those willing to help with reconstruction.

Global Residency – Job listings and application link. Click to continue.

Of Work Permits, Green Grass, and Landscaping in Bermuda

GRNews — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 18:08:10 +0000

Aren’t work permits about the green grass on the other side. Here is a grassy story from Bermuda that was in the news last week.

There is a grassy storm brewing in Bermuda, around the country’s decision to stop issuing work permits for certain occupations. Employers are concerned that the lack of staff will force them to shut down. The issue might actually get the landscaping companies to organize as the Bermuda Landscaping Association.

UK firms feel adverse impact of immigration cap

GRNews — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 21:16:06 +0000

The immigration cap introduced in UK is having a significant negative impact on businesses, as per a survey recently conducted.

The survey was done with 550 senior HR professionals, with a combined workforce of over 2 million.

The recently introduced restriction on the number of visas, has compounded the challenge of an increasing skills gap in the nation. While in 2009, one in five organizations were experiencing a shortage of key staff; in 2010 the problem grew to one in three organizations.

Increased staff turnover and sickness absence were identified as the consequential challenges of having skills shortages.

Download the State of HR survey (pdf format)

Read the full press release.

Global Skill Shortage Deepens

GRNews — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 03:04:53 +0000

The Global skill shortage is deepening, can be borne out from the data released by the Immigration department in Canada. This has been something employers and industry have been saying all along, but hard quantifiable numbers are usually difficult to come by. First lets look at the data, and then explore some of the possible results of the same.

For the second half of 2010 (June to December), Canada had announced it will accept a 1000 applications (for permanent residence) each, from about 40 occupations. These are occupations identified by the Government of Canada where there is a skills shortage and the industry needs more manpower. How are these applicants found – through the following ways

Applicants can apply directly to the nearest Canadian embassy
Representatives authorized by the Canadian government – immigration specialists (close to 2000 members) or lawyers that are members of the bar.

Fair to say that a recruitment force of a few thousand professionals had six months to find “clients” or “immigrants” for Canada.

Now let us look at the hard numbers. For the six month period, the grand total of applications submitted, for a sampling of professions -

Dental Hygienists & Technicians……. 9 (not a typo – it is nine applications)

Medical Radiation Technologists…… 20 (that is twenty)

Chefs……. 41

Cooks……. 94

Crane Operators….. 2

The case with technical trades is no better. With the success rate for plumbers, welders and heavy-equipment mechanics extremely weak too (20, 21 and 23 respectively).

If you are a H.R. professional, and your incentives are tied to your recruitment performance, your payroll team would likely be staring at a 20/1000 ~ 2% number on their screens. That is you have performed to 2% of your expected abilities.

What does this mean for the various stakeholders -

Industry in Canada -
The pool of professionals available for employment is getting smaller. Secondly, “Brand Canada” as a destination for professionals, seems to have taken a beating. Thirdly, if your people-competitiveness will impact your survival, you need to globalize your strategies. Strategies on the line of what American technology companies are adopting to survive, when faced with challenges in hiring foreign professionals. If the human resource can not or will not come to the industry, the industry goes global and opens offices overseas.

Skilled Professionals around the world -
As the ‘consumer’, you speak, and you have spoken loud and clear. Many of you have mentioned in your emails that Canada’s humungous processing delays (4 to 7 years) have tested your patience. Yes Canada is a great place to live, but you would rather choose a destination where your immigration application does not take more than a year (there are options in Middle East, Europe, Japan, USA ?)

Strange to be seeing these numbers and writing a skills shortage piece, while most of the ‘Developed’ world is going through one of its most challenging slowdowns. As the economies strengthen and hiring picks up in the first half o 2011, won’t things get even more challenging for industry ?

[All data for this article was obtained from the Citizenship & Immigration Canada website]

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Opinions are of the writer. To reach the writer of this post, please send in your comments to Jim Maxell at the email jmaxell@gmail.com

Happy New Year

GRNews — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 10:30:52 +0000

Wishing everyone a very Happy New Year.

We hope 2011 brings lots of joy and happiness. All of us at Global Residency look forward to working with you in your relocations and international moves.

Keep in touch with us, subscribe to get updated

globalresidency.com » GRNews

Does your life need a reboot ?

Skills Shortages and the Unemployment numbers

Impact of offshoring and immigration on native workers

Related External Links

UK to become less attractive for foreign students

Related External Links

Germany eases immigration laws for professionals

Related External Links

Australian demand for skilled professionals on the rise

Of Work Permits, Green Grass, and Landscaping in Bermuda

UK firms feel adverse impact of immigration cap

Global Skill Shortage Deepens

Related External Links

Happy New Year