We’ve had a rather lot to deal with in Britain over the past few years. Never mind the global pandemic, we had the Brexit process that took seemingly forever, we’ve faced extremes in weather and to top it all – that cup didn’t make it home.
Trying to conduct business in this environment has created many challenges and while there are signs of positive growth coming for this year, of the many challenges that UK businesses are facing is a growing difficulty in recruitment. Certainly, Brexit has not helped this case very much and so the UK is once again looking to the Commonwealth to fill key and often highly-skilled positions.
So, how can you Brexit-proof your business?
There are many ways that you can keep top-quality candidates coming in through the front door and the most obvious solution – is to recruit locally. Now, this could be a challenge if you’re in the hospitality industry and if you’re in farming, the short answer seems to be: good luck.
However, what many businesses have not thought of (and perhaps have not had to think about) is creating better relationships with UK universities. This is especially true around areas like Manchester and Edinburgh where high standards of teaching attract equally good undergraduates from all over Britain. If you get in early, you’ll have the pick of the crop.
Something that American businesses have done successfully for years, is establish internships and entry-level positions for young school leavers who either can’t access university for whatever reason or have decided on a non-traditional route to getting qualified.
Take the lead in your local community. Reach out to Job Centres, community development initiatives and trade schools or vocational training centres and offer recruitment days along with other businesses in your network.
But what happens when you must recruit from overseas?
So even though the number of prospective job applicants from the EU has fallen sharply, it’s not impossible to recruit from the continent. It’s just going to take a little more effort and paperwork and if the applicant qualifies for the job and you’re prepared to sponsor their work permit application, the process is fairly simple.
This same level of due diligence extends to recruiting from the Commonwealth as well.
There are great benefits to recruiting from the Commonwealth when you have not been able to fill these positions at home. These include knowledge of a similar legal system in many cases, certainly English Common Law, high standards of spoken and comprehensible English and in many countries an incredibly strong work ethic, which is sometimes missing in candidates from the U.K.
As always, the onus is on you – the business owner or recruiter to get creative when sourcing workers that are going to be the right fit and add value to your organisation. If you’re currently experiencing issues with retaining staff from the Commonwealth, encourage them to check if they qualify for and could get British Citizenship and for this or indeed your pursuits at foreign recruitment, you’ll both be needing good immigration lawyers.
No one likes change, but those who embrace it – usually thrive and recruitment is no exception.
