Talent shortages have been so serious in Taiwan that fresh graduates from top univeristies have been "booked up" by top companies. However, indiscriminate recuitments regardless of the new employees' experiences and career planning is actually bad, often resulting in high turnover and talent misuse.
In some famous semiconductor companies in Taiwan, the turnover rate of new recruits in the first year is even as high as 15%. It is time the industry adjusted the employment concept: it is necessary to take into consideration the employees' sense of values and achievements, apart from professional skills in manufacturing and R&D. Otherwise, they will be only employees who can play passive roles in the company.
In the past, Taiwan-China relations were more ambiguous and the Taiwanese government did not take much precaution against talent poaching by China.
While the US is investing a lot of efforts trying to reboot its semiconductor supply chain, the younger generation in the US is becoming less and less involved in the semiconductor industry, so US firms are poaching from Taiwan, whose expereinces can be replicated in the US. This is creating much pressure on Taiwan's industry in terms retaining local talent. According to former Global Unichip president Jim Lai, it is quite common for US companies to offer salary raise by 20-45% when they come poaching.
Where does talent come from? If we look at the deployments of backend firms in Italy and Spain, we can see why European engineers would work in Taiwan.
Presidential adviser Mei-Yuei Ho has note that only when we consider talent as investments will we have a different view in the process of bringing talent from abroad. Winbond also has expressed its intent to recruit IC design talent from overseas. I think India, Vietnam, and the Philippines are constantly trying to convince Taiwanese companies to set up factories in the Southeast Asian countries. So if we let Winbond, Macronix and other companies go ahead and discuss various possibilities from joint ventures to talent introduction, it may be the best choice for Taiwan.
The problem of talent shortage cannot be resolved in the short term. We are waiting to see how the government is ging to respond. Thinking from the other side's perspective may be the best solution. I am going to try to see if I can help Taiwanese companies find foreign engineers who are willing to work in Taiwan.
