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Acquisitions usually have a higher turnover rate than usual, but a
100%50% annual turnover rate isinsanevery high and I'm very doubtful that half your workforce immediately bounced from a job they were happy with just because they got some experience. Some people will absolutely do this the first chance they get, but having half a company made up of these guys would have to be the worst luck I've ever heard of.In the end it's just the internet so I can't fact-check what you say, but training your employees only brings so much goodwill and I suspect that either the acquisition made their job a lot shittier or the job already had high turnover and you got suckered on the purchase.
The timelines are also very short here which to me also points to something more than just people getting poached with a better offer. People who already have a job usually take some time to find a good option when looking for a new one. That 50% who left within half a year either started looking immediately or wanted out badly enough they took the first thing that gave them an offer. For some of them, probably both.To get back to the point about H1B workers, your post shows the problem with H1Bs very well. Your company is unable or unwilling to provide sufficient benefits to retain US workers, so you turn to cheap foreign labor instead. This is bad for local workers' pay and erodes the local talent pool as less locals can find jobs where they can gain experience.
Edit: Lewis2 below pointed out that the turnover was 50% over a year (I read the post as 50% over 6 months). Edited to strike a section and make a couple changes, but I still think the rate is high enough to be indicative of other problems pushing employees away rather than them just gaining new options.
Yes. And more insidiously, captive labor. If this foreign worker is fired then they are quickly deported, unless they can very quickly get a new job with the same title as their previous one. They can change jobs, but it again has to be approved as a comparable job with a comparable title and responsibilities. This specially skilled person with talents we cannot find in US workers is largely forbidden from growing and branching out in their career.
That friction in changing jobs and their precarious position in America is what I believe employers truly want. Americans and green card holders are free in their employment prospects. If this trained American in the anecdote is qualified for a new higher responsibility role and title at Google, then he'll go for it. His comparable H1B coworker will not and will be much more locked in. What employers wish they had were enforceable non-competes and captive workforces.
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