The gap between supply and demand for engineers is the most significant barrier the Israeli high-tech industry is facing today, stated the Chief Scientist, and if left untreated, Israel would have a hard time maintaining 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 SimilarWeb, disclosed that the company already transferred 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 government promotes a program for importing thousands of high-tech employees, who will receive work visas for 2-5 years, employment options for spouses, and double the average salary in the Israeli market. Both solutions– transferring R&D centers abroad and importing foreign engineers – are limited by nature, and are claimed to do more 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 centers– 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 employees may leave due to adaptation difficulties, geopolitical disorder, and other reasons. Importing employees is a Band-Aid in a place where serious consistent treatment is required.
Fortunately, there is a third way, which may 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 detect appropriate candidates in special populations which are normally excluded from detection 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 lack of training or skills, but rather of many different 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 work environment 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 investment 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 HR manager 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 benefits are:
• Creativity and problem solving. Many researches show that diversified groups are better than homogenous groups in finding innovative, creative solutions to professional challenges. The reason is that diversified groups use several separate methods 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 work environment, and are willing to stay at their jobs even when they receive better-paying job offers.
• Accepting less desired positions. such employees 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 communications standards and create a more enabling and open work environment. This effort has great benefits, resulting in improved handling of challenges or crises.
• Diverse experience. Employing people who are 45+ years old provides the organization with 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 usually more loyal to their workplace.
• Greater access to institutes and large organizations. Sometimes, the company’s lifecycle leads to new markets, new types of customers and differently oriented investors. The diversification helps the organization with opening into new business paths, and these employees may assist with opening the doors to new markets. Diversification may be a legal demand or a policy with large organizations 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 opportunities. 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 circumstances prevented them from seeking employment in major cities at the center of Israel.
Above and beyond all of these benefits for employers, it is worth remembering that Workforce Diversity 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 company’s employees more tolerant and accepting and contributes to an enabling work environment. It creates 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.
