Wednesday, June 25, 2008 Departure of Pinoys for overseas jobs hamper RP’s development
AN OFFICIAL of a training and consultancy company yesterday said the country is currently experiencing “a new wave of brain drain.”
“The Philippines is losing its competitive edge with human capital flight,” said lawyer Dwight Ramos, managing director of iCareer Academy Inc.
Ramos was one of the speakers during yesterday’s business forum hosted by online job search company, JobsDB.com.
As part of its advocacy, JobsDB brought to Cebu the forum called “Winning the War for Talents” to help sustain the “economic growth” in the province.
Cora Llamas, web content and communications manager, said the company feels the industries in Cebu would need inputs on talent management to sustain “Cebu’s boom.”
This is also the first time JobsDB hosted such an event in Cebu since it opened its office here last April.
Ramos explained that with human capital flight, the country no longer holds a critical mass of talents for productivity and progress.
“Forty-three percent of companies see it as a major roadblock to expansion,” he said, quoting a recent report by the Punongbayan and Araullo.
Ramos also quoted an SWS survey that more Filipino workers opted to work abroad due to the high salaries offered by foreign companies.
“There is a very tremendous gap,” he said. Aside from the compensation, work abroad also means more work security and a
chance to get a second job due to lesser work hours, he added.
He said the same SWS survey, released this year, revealed that 41 percent of the present labor force in the country is actively looking for a better job not just locally but internationally.
Ramos also cited as an example the departure of 50,000 Filipino nurses in the last three years for overseas jobs, causing local hospitals to scale down or even close.
“It threatened our health care system,” he said.
Talent migration has also impacted, not just the medical and information technology industries, but the banking, semiconductors and pharmaceutical industries as well.
Ramos said the Department of Science and Technology had also reported that 500 of its 3,000 personnel who have doctorate degrees have resigned.
“If they (foreign companies) get the best workers, there will be a more tremendous effect and we will be left with the laggards,” he said.
As Filipino talent continues to fuel global progress, Ramos said there are immediate solutions that companies can adopt to retain skilled workers.
One solution is to upgrade the pay scale in various industries in the country, he said.
He admitted, though, that some companies have opted to keep salaries low believing that their employees would leave anyway. He said this practice is more evident in hospitals.
Ramos also encouraged human resource (HR) managers and practitioners who attended the forum to provide continuous training for employees and productivity incentives, as well as benefits to the workers’ families.
He said companies should invest in the interests of their employees to be able to retain talent. These interests can be varied and may include family or sense of nationalism and service.
“Put back rice allowances, health care plans since the Filipinos are interested in (the welfare of) their families,” he said.
About 140 HR practitioners, managers and recruitment officers attended the forum at the Cebu City Marriott Hotel. The biggest group came from the business process outsourcing sector, although there were also representatives from the hotel, manufacturing, food and furniture industries.
A total of 57 Cebu-based companies were represented in the forum. (DME)
