The advent of e-business and the explosion of the Internet have caused a shift in the skill set required by companies in order to survive and grow. This is especially true among high-tech companies where highly skilled professionals are needed to meet and exceed the demands of the customers. Canadian companies in the high-tech industry are finding it hard to recruit highly skilled professionals that are needed to develop innovative solutions that will meet customer expectations in the new digital economy. The brain drain phenomenon is basically the migration of highly skilled workers out of Canada because of better opportunities that exist elsewhere. Canada is “becoming

Upper management, praising and providing effective and timely feedback to employees for their contribution to the firm is one way of establishing a good work environment and maintaining high employee morale. Employees knowing that they have the support from management would encourage their efforts in the company as well as establishing a better relationship among the employees. Usually, managers intimidate employees therefore, having such a relationship would help retain some key employees.

In the high-tech industry many companies face difficult challenges in recruiting and retaining key employees within an organization. In order to reverse the brain drain, companies must focus on the needs of the employees as well as providing them with competitive financial incentives. The work environment is key to how well employees will fit in with the organization because they require the support, flexibility and challenges every organization should provide for their employees.

Another financial incentive companies need to focus on is equal pay. This is a major issue among employees when they are being paid less than the market rate in comparison to other regions or countries. So how can companies ensure that their employees will remain with the organization? Companies must “make market comparisons and [adjust] salaries to match the market and also [ensure] that the new employees [hired] are not paid more than… current employees in similar jobs” (Martin 77). When dealing with pay raises the organization must ensure that employees are informed about the raise, how the raises are derived and the justification of the raise.

• 23% of people who left for the United States believed they will receive better financial compensation

Having a flexible work environment is another key issue that most high-tech employees consider to be important. A majority of high-tech related jobs are stressful and require long hours especially in the programming field. Therefore, companies should focus on providing some form of flexibility within the work environment. Companies should provide flexible work hours, especially if the employees require personal time to deal with family related issues. Another suggestion would be to allow a casual dress code for the employees. This would make the employees feel more comfortable and create a casual and pleasant working environment. Since high-tech related jobs require a lot of overtime, companies should offer their employees the option to work at home. By providing employees with the necessary hardware and software, employees can work at their convenience at home and perform any personal related duties.

Canada’s future is dependent upon its highly skilled workforce and with over 20,000 unfilled positions for high-tech jobs; there is a cause for concern for the Canadian economy. Of the 300,000 post secondary graduates form the class of the ’95 “just over 4600 of them move to the U.S. between graduation and the summer of 1997” (Belair and Frank IX). In addition the graduates of 1995 who moved to the U.S. “about 44% ranked themselves in the top 10% of their graduating class in their field of study”, and “were some what more likely…to have received scholarships or other academic awards.” (X). What this means is that even though only a small percent (1.5%) of Canadian post-secondary graduates move to the U.S. the ones that move are the smartest and brightest, thus these could be people that could have a dramatic impact on the Canadian economy.

The American market was a birthplace of many new and highly successful high-tech companies, especially ones that were located in Silicon Valley, San Jose (U.S.), and many of them offered new employees highly attractive financial incentives to lure them to their organization. The strong U.S. dollar, high salaries and stock options lured many candidates from Canada to the U.S. The brain drain is a highly visible problem to many

Some topics in this essay:
David Martin, Brain Drain, Lucent Technologies, Nortel Networks, Recommendations Conclusion, Industry Trends, Corel’s HR, Telemanagement Ltd, Personnel Systems, Frank IX, brain drain, highly skilled, high-tech companies, financial incentives, high-tech industry, canadian companies, skilled workers, companies focus, personnel systems, watson 13, highly skilled technology, reverse brain drain, highly skilled workers, companies reverse brain, drew et al,