Death of the 457 Recruiter...

Ouch. That’s blunt. After all, wasn’t Recruiter protected under the new visa guidelines released last month? Not like the unfortunate Goat Farmer… Potter… or Archaeologist… who sadly are no longer deemed worthy of such an honour.

We all rejoiced and breathed a long… satisfying sigh of relief and promptly choofed off to Ryan’s Bar…. Or the Mitre Tavern for a celebratory pint. It was business as usual right? Wrong.

Look… I am not going to attempt to explain what is going to happen to Recruiters on existing 457’s. I don’t think anyone knows really… Are you protected by a ‘Grandfather Clause’ where the conditions of your current visa allow you move employers… work your 2 years and apply for PR… I don’t know? Will you be subjected to the same conditions laid out in the new visa scheme? I don’t know.

I tell you what – on that front you will probably get better advice from comments on this thread… so please add your knowledge… tag a Migration Specialist… and skip to the bottom…

What I want to talk about is Recruiters applying for a visa on the new scheme.

Recruiter as a profession has been placed on the STSOL (Short term skilled occupations list)

What that means is that you can apply for a 2 year visa… and an extension for another 2 years… then that’s it. You are repatriated and have to leave our sunny shores forever… no more weekends away to the Great Ocean Road… Blue Mountains… Gold Coast or even Big Pineapple… you’re gonski. At best you’ll have a 3 day leaving do… and rock up to the Qantas departure lounge with a massive hangover… and have to fork out big bucks for all of your excess luggage.

But that’s hardly the death of a 457 Recruiter right? Wrong again.

Think about it. Ostensibly (I love that word ostensibly… it shows just that right level of command of the english language without being a pretentious twat)…. So… ostensibly the new regulations are inviting nothing more than a long term backpacking trip.

The holy grail for most Recruiters was the ability to gain their PR. Many uprooted their family… or at the very least made the decision to leave their family to start a new life in Australia and forge out a career. And now that opportunity has been taken away.

Think about it. If you were a career Recruiter would you move to the other side of the world only to know you would be kicked out after a finite period of time?

And what about Employers? The allure of investing in a 457 Recruiter was the golden handshake of Permanent Residency. In an industry where the average tenure is 11 months… that’s right 11 months… there was an opportunity to invest in a professional for a minimum of 2 years as an avenue to their PR. Now there is no such pathway.

Call me an hysterical, toy thrower outerer (I know it’s not a real word even before spell check told me) of the pram charlatan. But the quality of Recruiters in this country will suffer under these new visa regulations. We will not attract the best global talent (because they can’t bloody stay and the career focused ones won’t come). And the majority those that do come will treat it as an extended holiday. There will be an increase in hangover related sickies… our deplorable retention rate will get worse… candidate and client care will suffer. Why? Because it’s basically a working holiday…

Look. I know there are obvious benefits to the new visa scheme. Investment in local talent for one. But the recruitment industry in Australia needs career global Recruiters to continue developing. And now that opportunity is gone… dead.

Thoughts?

Craig Watson