Groups representing employers say urgent action is needed to encourage companies to ‘hire Bermuda’.Ways to stem outsourcing overseas could include payroll tax breaks for hiring Bermudians, relaxing work permit rules, fast-tracking retraining, and addressing costs, they said.“Our days are numbered protecting our people from global competition,” said Douglas Soares, partner in employment firm Expertise Ltd.“In theory the Job Maker’s Act should be an incentive but in practice it is not working, because it does not become effective for currently employed executives until 2015 and the incentives are not very appealing.“The most effective incentive that I have heard to date is the OBA’s plan to give employers a two-year payroll tax break when they create a new position and fill it with a Bermudian. If the Job Maker’s Act was strengthened and we can reverse the trend of international business executives leaving the island, such a payroll tax incentive will be very appealing to employers who want to create supporting jobs.”Bermuda Employers Council president Keith Jensen said to stall net job outflows, Government needs to “provide incentives for firms expanding their workforces over a given period; provide incentives for local or international employers bringing home outsourced jobs; open opportunities for training by widening the requirements for bone fide training programmes, thus giving tax incentives to train Bermudian supervisors and managers which in turn promotes change and innovation, and productive and improved organisational performance in our Island’s relatively high cost operating environment”.Diane Newman, co-chair of the Chamber’s Economics Advisory Committee, said while many factors have led to a rise in outsourcing, Government’s “restrictive” work permit policy may have been a trigger.The Bermuda economy went into recession in 2009 and the payroll tax was increased from 14 percent to 16 percent in 2010, reverting to 14 percent in 2011.“The way to keep jobs here is to have a well-educated and affordable workforce, tax breaks and more open immigration policies to attract new businesses to set up and staff up on the Island,” she said.Chamber of Commerce president Ronnie Viera said Government essentially needs to make it easier to employ people in Bermuda.However, on the idea of tax incentives, he said: “Bermuda is already a low-tax jurisdiction as an incentive for companies to operate here, so they already have a very low tax burden. The bottom line is cost and that is not an easy one to address. Who wants to be the first in line to take a pay cut to start the ball rolling to reduce costs in the Bermuda economic wheel?“Mr Soares added: “We must pick up our pace of change or else the many advantages of doing business in Bermuda will be eclipsed by other jurisdictions which are now rapidly doing what it takes to grow and thrive in the globally competitive world.“We need to lead our workforce to be ready to compete. This means speeding up public education reforms and qualifying a greater number of Bermudians at the tertiary level.”Peter Everson, chairman of the Chamber’s Economics Advisory Committee, added: “The root cause is the cost / benefit ratio moving against Bermuda. In other words, other countries are doing a better job than Bermuda in ensuring that whenever their costs rise that the companies and employees work together to try to mitigate this impact as far as possible through improved productivity etc.“Thus Bermuda has to pull its socks up and compete. Costs are an issue in the current climate. The ever escalating health care costs in Bermuda have a profound impact on both companies and their employees. When other countries do a better job of getting value for money then Bermuda falls further behind in this aspect.“The typical response from a Government faced with this type of problem is to grant some tax reliefs and enhanced training.“The Bermuda Government is handicapped at this time because it does not have any funds to fall back on and each tax break or new programme has to be funded by borrowing which leads to higher taxes later to make the repayments.”