WE ARE TURNING AWAY SOME OF THE BEST TALENT FROM AROUND THE WORLD – HOW CAN WE STAY SIGNIFICANT ON THE GLOBAL BUSINESS STAGE?
Abigail Stevens FREC
Assisting Companies to recruit the best accountants in the world and accountants to move to their dream location, with a purpose of Improving Lives.
I have assisted firms across the globe to recruit professional accountancy and finance personnel for the last 22 years. It has always been accepted that there is a worldwide shortage of recently qualified accountants with 3 to 5 years experience and professional qualifications such as the CA or ACCA. Governments throughout the globe add these people to skills shortage lists and award them high points because it is known you need them to run businesses, in many cases their role exists because they are there to ensure compliance of government rules and standards set by the government. Since December 2017, the UK has been turning down thousands of Tier 2 (experienced professional, employer sponsored) visa applications. They have moved the points to mean that anyone earning a salary under ￡50,000 would not be allocated a visa. This has effected over 600,000 professionals including much needed Accountancy, IT, Health Care and Scientific professionals that help keep our country ahead on the international market. This can not be sustainable.
Lets start from the beginning… Why do large international corporate / PLC’s recruit from overseas? They wouldn’t if they didn’t need to. International Recruitment naturally comes with costs, time delays and risk the individual does not settle. However, in certain sectors there is a skill gap and it is essential to find the talent to fill the roles. Our visa system already requires market testing, advertising jobs and searching to fill them, for at least 28 days before a visa application can be made. It then goes on to allocate points for qualifications and other criteria, ensuring only those in demand, who’s English language is at a proficient level and have no major health issues are granted a visa. The firms are only recruiting talent that fit this criteria because there are not enough people in the UK with the right qualification and experience.
Negative Outcomes of the Visa Cap ? Health System Suffering under the strain An already stretched health system is suffering. More than a third of the tier-2 work visas issued by the Home Office go to medical and other staff recruited to work in the NHS. Migration experts expect that among the first group to be turned away will be doctors and other healthcare staff, software developers and scientists.*
? UK Business Profits Reduced and Staff Working longer hours Existing Staff are having to work Longer Hours to make up for planned additional support, by way of new members of their team from overseas, being able to join. The only way around this, companies are getting to the stage where they will have to turn down work. This includes export work that brings money into our economy.
? Top Talent no Longer Considering the UK is a place to move to for a Career. Think Global Recruitment is being told by applicants they do not want to move to the UK because the visa system will not work for them and they feel the UK is not interested in welcoming international talent to move here. Brexit already damaged our reputation on the international arena, this now pushes that further.
? Inbound companies may move away or Choose not to set up –if a company is setting up a business, in the UK they will take into consideration if can they hire enough skilled people to run it.
? We are educating future talent and loosing it – Education is a large export income for the UK. Will the mature students with experience bother coming here for our MBA’s if they can not secure a job after and if they do, are we then just educating them to take their learning to another country?
Why salary should not be the gauge on who gets approved Every organisation is built like a pyramid. There are less jobs higher up and if you look at the largest skill shortage, it isn’t at the top (except perhaps if you are looking at culturally diverse), it is around the 4 to 6 years experience. This is where higher numbers are required to carry out hands on work with relevant skills and experience. The skill shortage seems to be more in the regional cities and large towns, which is where salaries are lower. So technically someone applying for London, where there is less shortage, is more likely to get their visa approved then someone with the same qualification and experience applying to live in smaller city, where there is a larger shortage. More than 80% of the UK's Accountants earn under ￡60,000 per year, where only 30% earn under ￡30,000. Similar ratios exist for Finance and Investment Analysts, Architects, Surveyors. Health and Social Services Managers/Directors, and Legal professionals show 70% under ￡60,000 and 20% under ￡30,000. With a worrying 90% of Teachers under ￡60,000 and 30 to 40% under ￡30,000. So guess we will not be bringing in any of these much needed professionals whilst this cap is in place.
Positive Outcomes of the Visa Cap To be honest I can not see any to this that are commercially viable or do not increase our taxes considerably. Lets hope the new Home Office team will make serious changes to sort our talent shortage.
Abigail Stevens, International Recruiter
portfolio landlord. And a sorter of problems. Accredited landlord for Dundee. LAS accredited
6 年Once out the EU will be much better, deport the trash, stop being dictated to and bring in who we want...simple.
Accountant (FCA) with global experience developing and implementing financial procedures and systems. [email protected]; [email protected]
6 年It's much wider than that, I'm FCA but left the UK after they denied my adopted son a visa. Needless to say, my advice is very clear when anyone asks about investing or even visiting the UK. I now only visit for family & to get other visas. As other countries develop, the damage being done to the UK is irreversible, no doubt there will be plenty of apologies & hand-wringing after 20 years or so as other countries become stronger and start reciprocating more & more. I'm saying 20 years, as a parallel with the way bank deregulation took about 20 years (some of them good for some) to turn into a financial crisis that's ongoing (just look at UK debt levels which aren't set to improve any time soon).