HD6060-.A84-2008-PDF-Athena-factor-Reversing-the-brain-drain-in-science,-engineering,-and-technology

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The Athena Factor: Reversing the Brain Drain in Science, Engineering, and Technology HBR Research Report United States Running Scared So what does this add up to for the United States? Partly because of the shortfalls and brain drain described above, the United States has begun to lose ground in scientific and technological innovation (see figure 11.2). The 21st-century global economy is driven by scientific and technical innovation. While the United States still leads the way, Asia is quickly gaining. Until recently, a key factor behind America’s success has been its ability to attract the best and the brightest from around the world. According to a report recently published by Duke University, for instance, more than half of all Silicon Valley start-ups in the 1990s were founded by immigrants.86 Furthermore, 41% of patents filed in the United States in 2006 had a foreign national listed as the inventor.87 Now the supply of foreign or noncitizen talent is threatened on two fronts. We’ve already talked about a reverse brain drain to India and China. Compounding this problem are regressive trends on the immigration front, which show up most clearly in limits on H-1B visas. Because of security concerns following the 9/11 attacks, the cap on H-1B visas has been set at 65,000, which doesn’t begin to satisfy demand. In each of the last three years, the cap has been reached at an earlier date in the year, pointing to a great deal of unmet demand for highly skilled foreigners, many of whom have SET qualifications (see figure 11.3). Business leaders are increasingly frustrated by the rigidities of U.S. immigration policy. Alcoa CEO Alain Belda is a case in point. Belda, Moroccan-born and a citizen of Brazil, came to the United States in the early 1990s when immigration rules were looser. He is particularly well placed to understand the price paid by restrictive policies that increasingly prevent Alcoa from filling key positions in the United States with highly qualified foreign talent. In his view, this is putting U.S.-headquartered companies at a competitive disadvantage.88 FIGURE 11.3 Demand for H-1B Visas in the United States 89 2005 2006 2007 2008 Visa quota 65,000 65,000 65,000 65,000 Month quota reached October ‘04 September ‘05 May ‘06 April ‘07 (Cap reached one day after being opened for petitions.) Conclusion Despite these legitimate complaints, the larger truth is, in the United States and around the world, the supply of SET talent is not keeping up with demand. While some strategies designed to up the limit for H-1B visas in the United States have the potential of somewhat expanding the labor supply in specific contexts, these solutions do not provide long-term answers because there simply is not enough SET talent to go around. The answer lies in radically expanding the labor pool by tapping into qualified women already in the pipeline, those highly qualified, extremely committed female scientists, engineers, and technologists described in this report. The upside here is huge. By tapping into women in their own backyard, companies can quickly and significantly expand their talent pool. Bringing back just 25% of the highly qualified SET women who have left the labor market—or stopping them from leaving in the first place—would add 220,000 highly qualified women to the SET talent pool. In a global economy where such talent drives the competitiveness of nations, that’s a goal worth rallying around. 75
The Athena Factor: Reversing the Brain Drain in Science, Engineering, and Technology HBR Research Report APPENDIX Methodology The research consists of four surveys (one U.S. survey and three company surveys), 28 focus groups, and numerous one-on-one interviews. The U.S. survey was conducted online among 2,493 U.S. women and men, aged 25 to 60, with training in fields related to science, engineering, or technology who have held a position within SET in the for-profit sector at some point in their career. (Training was indicated by an undergraduate or graduate degree that focused on science, engineering, or technology. Technology training could also be indicated by current or past employment in a technology profession.) It is important to note that not all respondents are currently employed in the SET field for which they were trained; that is, the survey captures women who have taken an off-ramp either from employment or from the SET fields. Interviews averaged 23 minutes and were conducted between June 14, 2007, and July 9, 2007. The sampling frame consisted primarily of panelists from the Harris Poll Online database and was supplemented with a sample provided by Survey Sampling, Incorporated. Data were weighted to be representative of the U.S. population of college graduates on key demographic characteristics (age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, region, and household income). Propensity score weighting was also used to adjust for respondents’ propensity to be online and join Harris’s panel. The final sample includes only respondents with training in science, engineering, or technology who have utilized this training in employment in a for-profit/private sector organization. The base used for statistical testing was the effective base. The company surveys were conducted within three multinational corporations between August 22, 2007, and October 1, 2007, and included 1,910 respondents (men and women) employed either full- or part-time. Each company represented one of the three climates of science, engineering, and technology. Data was not weighted for representativeness. A finite population correction was applied. The surveys were conducted by Harris Interactive under the auspices of the Center for Work-Life Policy, a nonprofit research organization. Harris Interactive was responsible for the data collection, while the Center for Work-Life Policy conducted the analysis. In the charts, percentages may not always add up to 100 because of computer rounding or the acceptance of multiple response answers from respondents. 76
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HD6060-.A84-2008-PDF-Athena-factor-Reversing-the-brain-drain-in-science,-engineering,-and-technology

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