How can your company move on after the H1B difficulties?

In June of 2020, President Trump placed a temporary hold on all new H1B visas in a move that will remain in place until the end of 2020. In addition to this ban, the global pandemic has stunted any travel for work purposes, putting another difficulty in the way of companies that hire talent overseas. 

“Officials said the ban on worker visas, combined with extending restrictions on the issuance of new green cards, would keep as many as 525,000 foreign workers out of the country for the rest of the year.” (NYTimes.com)

The Trump administration intends on expanding its immigration restrictions in the future to stop mid-level employees from gaining visas. This would limit many technology companies from reaching the global workforce to hire programmers and other entry-level or mid-level technology jobs.

The Problem With The H1B Employee

H1B visas are widely considered cheaper talent than US residents, but that is not always the case. In a recent study by Glassdoor, 58,025 H1B offers were compared with over 100,000 US salaries. The findings showed that amongst high-level employees with the same qualifications, the H1B employee was offered slightly higher wages amongst high-level employees with the same qualifications. In contrast, lower-level employees were paid considerably better within the US. “Four examples of these types of jobs are… data scientist, financial analyst, programmer analyst, and software engineer. In these cases, H1B workers usually earn less than otherwise similar U.S. workers.” However, the cost of a visa application should also be taken into consideration. 

Regardless of politics, and taking cost out of the equation, the H1B visa is a temporary work permit that is expensive to come by. The initial visa is for three years with an optional extension of three years (nolo.com).  Adding the inevitable cost of turnover makes the H1B employee extremely expensive. 

What’s The Solution?

To combat a company’s reliance on foreign labor, which can be costly and short-term, we need a different option with low-cost, loyal, and skilled, US-based employees. 

Introducing, TAP

The Technology Apprenticeship Program (TAP) from Tech One IT offers technology employers a way to hire fresh, highly-skilled, hungry talent at a lower cost than traditional employment, with incredibly high retention rates and free training and mentorship and absolutely no commitment. 

Let’s break that down!

Our apprentices are hand-picked from Universities, colleges, and trade schools with which Tech One IT has partnership programs. (Read about our partnership programs with DevMountain, Trilogy, and our presence in the Silicon Desert).

Our recruiters test the apprentices according to the T-shaped methodology, ensuring they are flexible enough to work within an office setting, from home, or any hybrid model. We check that they are a good cultural fit with our client and their fellow TAP apprentices. This increases their collaboration once on the project and increases our retention rates. 

Apprentices are placed on client projects (usually onsite, but we have recently successfully started several TAP pods working from home), with an onsite mentor and a Tech One IT mentor. In our experience, the apprentices flourish from the environment we create, and we have proven that they are a better investment than a traditional hire. 

After one year in TAP, apprentices are considered equal to mid-level technologists at 30% of a traditional mid-level employee’s cost. 

Want to know more about TAP? We’d love to tell you more! Get in touch today:  Learn About TAP: Technology Apprenticeship Program | Email Us: Contact@techoneit.com | Call Us: 480-449-3333