Relocation of Specialist Foreign Workers to the Usa

What process does an organization undertaking a long term project requiring technical or specialist skills not readily available in the United States need to go through to recruit and sponsor an employee from outside the United States? How can the organization protect its investment in this employee and what other considerations should be made?

Michael J. Levene

Kaplan University

Introduction

Many organizations have highly specialist functions where the demand for qualified candidates greatly exceeds the supply. Organizations looking to fill these positions are faced with limited options which include the hiring labor from overseas markets, attracting employees from a limited resource pool through differentiation of compensation, growing existing employees into specialist roles through training or utilizing national based or offshore contractors. An example of such a specialist skill is Uniface. Uniface is an enterprise development platform from Compuware Inc. that has a rich European legacy. Companies in the United States through European company acquisitions and the purchases of bespoke software programs have acquired enterprise and mission critical Uniface applications. Consequently they have a requirement for specialist Uniface expertise. Such company’s include corporate giants like BP, Ford and Bank of America.

The option of giving employees with Uniface skills a higher level of compensation may not sit well within an organization where others employees have similar roles and responsibilities but use different tools to accomplish their jobs. It can take 18-24 months for an individual to become fully proficient using Uniface. Training local employees to undertake the role involves risk. An employee may leave once they have acquired their new skills and timescales for project work may slip during the training period, unless contract resources are utilized to supplement the employees undergoing training. Using contract...