Opinion Articles
2016/17
|
High-Tech & Technology -
DUN’S
100
21
Opinion Article
I
n last June, the ChiefScientist dropped a bomb:
The Innovation Report to the Prime Minister
stated that during the next decade, the local
high-tech industry would suffer from a shortage
of more than 10,000 engineers, and signs of the
crisis are already apparent today. The gap between
supply and demand for engineers is the most sig-
nificant barrier the Israeli high-tech industry is
facing today, stated the Chief Scientist, and if left
untreated, Israel would have a hard timemaintain-
ing its status as a world leader in technological
innovations. This was old news to high-tech firms.
In a convention last year Or Offer, the CEO of Simi-
larWeb, disclosed that the company already trans-
ferred a part of its R&D activity to Ukraine, because
of the difficulties to recruit engineers in the local
market. SanDisk also transferred unmanned jobs
abroad, and other companies are contemplating
similar moves. Currently, in an attempt to prevent
another wave of jobs transferred abroad, the gov-
ernment promotes a program for importing thou-
sands of high-tech employees, who will receive
work visas for 2-5 years, employment options for
spouses, and double the average salary in the Is-
raeli market. Both solutions– transferring R&D cen-
ters abroad and importing foreign engineers – are
limited by nature, and are claimed to domore harm
than good. It’s obvious that every Israeli company,
leaving to east Europe, India or North America is a
net loss to Israel. This is not just about lost jobs;
the entire economic activity – from administrative
jobs to logistics and restaurants near business cen-
ters–will be lost. In addition, the financial benefits
from importing employees are also limited, since
they don’t spend their salaries in Israel, and there
are significant recruiting and assimilation costs.
Needless to say these employeesmay leave due to
adaptation difficulties, geopolitical disorder, and
other reasons. Importing employees is a Band-Aid
in a place where serious consistent treatment is re-
quired. Fortunately, there is a third way, whichmay
meet at least some of the industry’s needs and has
many positive side effects for the Israeli economy.
It’s called Workforce Diversity. The idea is to de-
tect appropriate candidates in special populations
which are normally excluded fromdetection via the
regular channels, and require special training or
adjustments in order to be taken into employment.
It’s no secret that entire populations are under-
represented in the Israeli high-tech industry. These
are not only Orthodox Jews and Arabs, but also the
engineers of age 45+, the disabled and people who
live in the periphery. Contrary to popular belief, this
underrepresentation isn’t necessarily the result of
a lackof training or skills, but rather of many differ-
ent employment barriers. For example – recruiting
for the high-tech industry is mostly done through
closed networks or referrals, this is why social
homogeneity in the industry is so present, jobs
are kept within a relatively small circle. Orthodox
Jewish women for instance, require adjustment of
the workenvironment to their needs. Senior, highly
experienced engineers and software developers
aged 45+, require up-to-date training and a certain
adjustment in the roles they are requested to fill.
Workforce Diversity should therefore be decided as
a course of action by the executive management,
with the understanding that a certain amount of in-
vestment is required in the process. In large firms,
Workforce Diversity position is sometimes created
to accompany the process validating successful
integration. In smaller companies, an HRmanager
takes this responsibility. Workforce Diversity has
many benefits, significantly exceeding the cost of
initial investment. We witnessed these benefits
ourselves while accompanying such processes in
the last few years. Studies from across the world
support this claim. Some of the best-known ben-
efits are:
•
Creativity and problemsolving.
Many researches
show that diversified groups are better than ho-
mogenous groups in finding innovative, creative
solutions to professional challenges. The reason is
that diversified groups use several separatemeth-
ods of thinking simultaneously for each problem.
•
Long-term HR stability.
Workforce Diversity is
also characterized by increased employee loyalty,
particularly in groups that are usually excluded.
Employees appreciate the employers’ adjustments
and the supporting workenvironment, and are will-
ing to stay at their jobs even when they receive
better-paying job offers.
•
Accepting lessdesiredpositions.
suchemployees
are often willing to enter the organization via less
glamourous positions, especially when presented
with a career path and employment stability.
•
Improved intra-organizational communication.
The challenge of employing diverse populations
leads organizations to adopt better communica-
tions standards and create a more enabling and
open work environment. This effort has great ben-
efits, resulting in improved handling of challenges
or crises.
•
Diverse experience.
Employing people who are
45+ years old provides the organizationwith a layer
of historic knowledge in a specific field as well as
adjacent fields, their vast experience provides a
deeper, broader perspective of the mission. Older
employees tend to be better in intra-organizational
communication and are usuallymore loyal to their
workplace.
•
Greater access to institutes and large organiza-
tions.
Sometimes, the company’s lifecycle leads to
new markets, new types of customers and differ-
ently oriented investors. The diversification helps
the organization with opening into new business
paths, and these employeesmay assist with open-
ing the doors to new markets. Diversification may
be a legal demand or a policy with large organiza-
tions that the company wishes to interact with; and
may be entitled to state benefits or bonuses.
In the past few years, Experis Israel facilitated a
Workforce Diversity program, intended for Orthodox
Jews, Druze and Arabs, as well as for employment
in the periphery and recruiting engineers aged 45+.
The program located specific candidates who had
difficulties in finding appropriate employment op-
portunities. In some cases, the customers decided
to establish new service/development centers for
employees living in the periphery, and attracting
new and educated employees whose life circum-
stances prevented them fromseeking employment
in major cities at the center of Israel.
Above and beyond all of these benefits for employ-
ers, it is worth remembering that Workforce Diver-
sity is also a national calling. It contributes to social
justice and reduces inequality, making sure that
the fruits of the high-tech economic growth reach
more sectors of Israeli society. At a fundamental
humane level, Workforce Diversity make the com-
pany’s employeesmore tolerant and accepting and
contributes to an enabling workenvironment. It cre-
ates a vocation throughout the entire organization,
and generates an atmosphere of high morale and
belonging. For many employers, these benefits are
as important as the P&L bottom line.
Workforce Diversity – The Next Challenge of the
High-Tech Industry
By Alon Strasman
Alon Shtrasman, CEO, Experis Software, running Experis Kickstart program, a unique coding bootcamp for university graduates