They witness
- Sacha KalusevicSenior Director at Michael Page Technology
- Marie-Claire Lemaitreassociate group at Mercuri Urval France
- Marguerite MonroseDirector of Marketing Operations France and Benelux at Remote
- Emmanuel Stanislasdirector of the recruitment firm Clémentine.
Will the French tech champions in the United States return to France?
On paper, the equation seems simple: landed overnight from the American tech giants, the French IT cracks will no doubt pack their bags to return to work in France and thus make life easier for hundreds of recruiters who row to find competent, willing and available candidates.
Read also >> American tech continues to tighten its belt
So much for the theory. Because in practice, for the moment, nothing seems to move.
To date, what is happening in American tech has zero impact in Europe.
Sacha Kalusevic, Senior Director at Michael Page Technology
In other words, recruiters are not detecting any return of homesick Frenchies. The firms we interviewed have not even received any resumes from across the Atlantic since the announcement of the wave of layoffs in American tech.
Why such radio silence?
“There is such a shortage of IT profiles in the world that those who are in the USA will have no trouble finding a job quickly. Maybe not with tech giants but more broadly than the start-up ecosystem”, he adds.
And then, of course, there is the question of remuneration.
In the USA, salaries are much higher than in France. Potential candidates for the return are not ready to sacrifice their level of remuneration. And opposite, companies cannot match American wages.
Marie-Claire Lemaitre, associate group at Mercuri Urval France.
According to our expert from Michael Page Technology, IT salaries in the USA are 25 to 40% above those of the French market. “In the past, I had a Frenchman living in the USA who earned 180,000 dollars a year. To return, he was ready to agree to a reduction in his remuneration to 120,000 euros. Except that in France, it was worth between 80 and 100,000 euros ”, illustrates Sacha Kalusevic. So he stayed in the United States.
“If French companies are reactive, it would be interesting for them to drive out these Tech talents based in the US, but beware of the wage escalation. This approach is rather viable for large groups, but also for SMEs or ETIs, which can align themselves with the market. For structures of smaller sizes, with reduced budgets, it is necessary to broaden the research to several geographical areas »says Marguerite Monrose, Director of Marketing Operations France and Benelux at Remote, specializing in the management and support of distributed workforces on a global scale.
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Will French companies turn to foreign candidates? The Indians for example?
Again, not so sure. Even if the recruitment of talent has become largely international, with in particular the possibility of teleworking from everywhere, French companies are not necessarily fond of it.
Marguerite Monrose
“Only 11% of them hire abroad in order to fill vacancies in the tech sector, which is the lowest rate compared to the global average (29%). The Netherlands (40%), the United Kingdom (25%), Germany (23%) and the United States (20%) are the countries that recruit the most outside their borders to meet the lack profiles in their markets »emphasizes Marguerite Monrose.
So the French boxes remain cautious on the subject. And when they take action, “more than two-thirds (78%) of French companies are turning to New York, London, Berlin or San Francisco, the oldest tech ecosystems. Emerging centers such as Buenos Aires, Helsinki and Guadalajara are however taken into account by almost half (46%) of firms in France”, she adds.
As we can see, the shortage of talent in tech in France does not currently push national employers massively to open their chakras abroad. The end of the talent shortage is therefore not for tomorrow. With a downside, however, in terms of salary.
Emmanuel Stanislas
“Scale ups are currently having trouble refinancing themselves, so they have to be more careful in controlling their salary costs. In France, giants like Google or Microsoft have frozen their recruitments. All this to say that in the future there will perhaps be less excessiveness in the demands of candidates in terms of remuneration”, concludes Emmanuel Stanislas, director of the Clémentine recruitment firm.
