Close to half of the 500 fastest-growing North American companies use offshore services and another 55% intend to send work overseas in the next five years as CEOs cite hiring and keeping qualified employees as their biggest operational challenge, according to a survey released this week by Deloitte.

"It’s not unexpected that CEOs of fast-growth companies would look offshore for the talent they need to continue growing in a tight market," said Tony Kern, managing principal of Deloitte's Technology, Media & Telecommunications Group, in a press release. The study, conducted during the first quarter of 2007, tapped the CEOs of companies on Deloitte's Technology Fast 500, an annual ranking of the fastest-growing technology companies in North America based on percentage of fiscal-year revenue growth over five years.

China shows Sputnik-era resolve with tech plan, group says

CEOs are turning to overseas talent, the survey found, with 30% of CEOs in the next five years intending to have up to 10% of their workers offshore; 27% planning to have 20% of workers overseas; 19% expecting to employ 30% offshore talent; and 15% seeing the number going as high as 40%.