The Risk of the Outflow of Doctors and IT/ICT ... - Outlook Web App

The subject of the questionnaire survey was IT/ICT workers in a wide spectrum of
professional specialisations from programmers, through SW architects to IT/ICT salesmen,
from various types of organisations (from IT/ICT companies, through the IT/ICT
Departments of companies and universities), with Prague dominating (83%) in the regional
representation in the entire Czech Republic. The survey took place by filling in an electronic
questionnaire, 30 which was completed by a total of 276 IT/ICT employees. 31
The selected sample of information technology employees cannot lay claim to being
representative and it is important to understand it as a probe of attitudes to foreign
employment migration for a specific, highly-qualified group of professionals that were
judged as being at a high risk for migration. The objective of the survey was to determine
the level of potential risk of Czech IT/ICT specialists leaving the Czech Republic for other
countries.
(3) Almost every other surveyed IT/ICT employee (43%) is thinking about work abroad.
Most of those who are considering it are employees working in Czech branches of
international companies followed by employees of large companies and those that already
have foreign study or work experience and are in contact with colleagues from abroad in
their current work. An inclination for migration is also connected with better English skills
and with a smaller number of children.
(4) The level of feasibility (probability) of the migration intention is apparent from the
following data.
For IT/ICT employees that have stated that they are considering working abroad, migration is
not pressing for 40% of the cases, since they have not taken any specific steps and are not
even preparing to do so.
On third of the “potential migrants” have not yet done anything either, though according to
their statement they are preparing to do so.
The remaining quarter of the respondents with a positive attitude towards migration have
already taken some specific steps. This most often concerns looking for employment through
the Internet, obtaining information on the possibilities of employment or looking for help
from relatives and friends. Migration is most probable in this group.
These most probable migrants make up roughly one tenth (11.2%) of all those questioned. In
this case it can be expected that these employees will leave the Czech Republic in the
foreseeable future with more or less probability.
Four percent of all the respondents already practically have “one leg in the other country”
since their job search has already had concrete results (e.g. a signed contract or living
accommodations set up in the other country).
30 The questionnaire was located on the Internet at the address http://vupsv.periskop.cz, information on the
research (with a request for filling in the questionnaire) was published at the address www.csii.cz
31 According to data from the Czech Statistical Office (the Selective Survey of the Workforce, 2005) almost
80,000 computer specialists worked in the Czech Republic in 2005. The greatest concentration was in Prague
where over twenty thousand were working.
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