Many agree the most important assets of any organization is its human resource base which, when effectively utilized, generates the core intellect to gain a competitive advantage. This paper is dedicated to addressing the question: If there is a brain drain in the high-tech industry, how are companies in this industry dealing with it? In addition, this report will provide examples of how companies are solving the brain drain problem, how companies should deal with the problem and recommendations on how to alleviate it. .
What is Brain Drain?.
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 a training ground for elite minds who will inevitably, go elsewhere, particularly to the US, to help build that economy at the expense of their native country's prosperity"" (Jeffcott 1). A recent study by Statistic Canada shows "that Canada has suffered over the last decade a net and increasing loss of skilled workers to the United States in several economically important occupations"" (Hodgson and Schellenberger 1). In addition, "compared with the general population these workers who have left Canada are more likely to be better educated, higher income earners, and individuals of primer working age"" (Hodgson 1). A study produce by Statistic Canada indicated that Canada has an "estimated shortage of 20,000 computer programmers, parallel by an estimate of 190,000 vacancies in the information technology sector in the United States"" (Drew et al.