On a big billboard facing a large research complex of Northern Telecom Ltd. in Ottawa, a competing U.S. company is trying to lure away some of the Canadian company's best employees. Cisco Systems Inc. of California acquired Ottawa-based Skystone Systems last year and now wants to double the company's work force to 100 people. Because of the shortage of skilled workers, Cisco is having to raid other companies - a practice it excels at, according to a Fortune magazine article last year. Plans by Nortel and Newbridge Networks Corp. to hire a total of 10,000 workers in the Ottawa area over the next four years are also adding to the concerns of smaller companies, which face escalating personnel costs.
Former employees can be an important force in luring more talent away.
Base pay is also rising. Companies are scrambling every which way to find employees so they can pursue new business opportunities, or replace workers they have lost. U.S. companies are aggressively recruiting in Canada to lure Canadians, especially younger Canadians, to the United States. According to a study last year by the U.S. Department of Commerce, an estimated 190,000 technology jobs are vacant. But the other problem is that Canada is simply not producing enough of the highly skilled workers needed for high-tech industry growth.