Unsponsored visa routes can open up graduate recruitment

In the last couple of weeks we’ve been running a series of programmes on graduate recruitment from an immigration perspective. So, highlighting issues such as the tension between immigration and discrimination laws as a consequence of the abolition of the resident labour market test post-Brexit. Also, why at this time of year it’s important to keep in touch with students who may be about to fly off on their holidays unaware of the rules around renewing or switching their visas, which could cause problems for them and for you if you’re wanting to employ them in September. 

To complete the series we’re finishing with a look ahead to planning for graduate recruitment in 2024 and look at some of the options you may not have considered. We think there is a lack of awareness around the schemes that aren't simply the normal ones we see for students and graduates because they are relatively new or because their parameters have shifted in recent years. However, because many of these routes are not sponsored they do offer a lot of flexibility to employers. So, an opportunity to recruit with less of an administrative burden, and less of an overall cost of the business.

So, let’s hear more on this. Earlier I spoke to immigration specialists Shara Pledger and Alex Wright who are advising on this now. I asked Shara to explain the background to this:  

Shara Pledger: “What we've seen with a lot of employers across all different types of sectors is that this year has really been problematic when it comes to graduate recruitment. It has not so much been about finding the talent which had initially, I think, really been a concern for a lot of people as we've come through Brexit and we’ve seen those transitional provisions end. So, the talent pool is still there but now it's a question of how do people make the best use of that pool and, when they’ve found that talent, how do they retain them? So, when we've looked at some of the other routes, you'll have seen that there are options for being able to recruit people for limited periods of time but all of that is really just sort of kicking sponsorship down the road, it’s not getting away from that as an option entirely. So, when we come to look at graduate recruitment, certainly from 2024 onwards, having a slightly more organised and strategized approach is going to be the benefit, I think, to employers everywhere.”

Joe Glavina: “We have this inherent problem in the absence of the resident labour market test which is the discrimination risk when it comes to making recruitment decisions. We talked about it in last week’s programme. What’s the answer to it, Shara?” 

Shara Pledger: “Yes, I think talking about reducing discrimination is a really good starting point because if you are going to make any kind of hiring decision that looks at somebody's immigration status, you will not be able to avoid discrimination based on somebody's race or nationality and, obviously, that would be the end goal, that's ideal, not having any discrimination at all. Really, it's very difficult to be able to say this is what the solution is because it will very much depend on what a particular organisation wants to do and why they want to do it. There may well be really valid reasons as to why it's not appropriate to sponsor in a particular role, or at a particular level, for example, but that does need to be a very detailed, thorough assessment because if the outcome is that an organisation is going to take decisions that will look to either exclude entirely a group of people, or reduce the number of applications from a particular type of people, then that needs to be backed up, it needs to be evidenced as to why that's a necessary thing to do. Really, the best advice that you can give to employers at the moment is to say, consider this issue now and how it might affect you into 2024. How big a problem is this for example? Is it the case that organisations are receiving 90% of their applications from those who might need sponsorship or is it a really tiny minority and there just needs to be a slightly more nuanced approach in order to deal with those people properly? I think what the issue has been in 2023 is that people didn't know that this would be a problem and so we're now coming to the end of a graduate recruitment process where people are being made offers, offers might have gone out and even been accepted, and it's only now that the business has started to think well, actually, in a year's time, or in two years’ time, how do we retain these people? What will we do? What's our company approach towards this? We need to flip that round on its head, we need to have these conversations earlier, there needs to be a strategy in place.”

Joe Glavina: “There might be good commercial reasons for simply accepting the discrimination risk, Shara, and cracking on regardless. So, if a business did make that choice, what’s the worst-case scenario?”

Shara Pledger: “Yes, there's obviously a risk in relation to a claim being brought against an organisation. I’m sure most people watching will be aware that it's not just your established employees that can raise claims in relation to discrimination. Of course, people that are applying for opportunities with an organisation also have that possibility. So, that really would be the worst-case scenario, that an actual claim is brought against an organisation that they have been unfairly treated as a result of the company's approach to hiring when it comes to somebody's immigration status. Beyond that, I think raising reputational damage is a really, really good and relevant topic to bring up. This is not what anybody wants, nobody wants their business to be associated with the idea that they are intentionally acting in a way which is treating people differently for any reason, not just in the relation to their immigration status. So, this is why we're very, very keen for organisations to start now to consider, well, actually, how are we going to approach this? And really, why? That's what we're very keen to discuss with our clients and with other organisations. Why do they want to take the steps that they want to take and what are the impacts of those steps because, as you say, there may be really cogent commercial reasons that an organisation needs to behave in a particular way and it could well be that that then starts to sort of cross what are quite blurred lines between immigration law and discrimination law, employment law as well. That needs to then be a commercial decision, it needs to be a risk-based decision, of what is the best thing to do in this circumstance and people can only really come to a properly informed position by taking that advice at an early stage. So, that's why we're really keen that people will start to think about what 2024 might bring for them now, rather than having this conversation next summer.”

Joe Glavina: “Alex if I can come to you on some of the routes available to bring emerging talent into the UK. What are the options you’re flagging with your clients?”

Alex Wright: “I think everyone's aware of student visas and graduate visas but there are loads of other different talent streams you can potentially look at to bring in emerging talent. A really popular one is the Youth Mobility Scheme where nationals from certain countries can come to the UK for up to two years. Some countries, that's an open amount, some countries that is limited under a ballot system. For most countries that’s age 18 to 30 but New Zealand has very recently increased its age limit to 35. So, we've got this sort of ongoing reciprocal arrangement whereby people from certain countries -generally where we've got a Commonwealth history - can just come to the UK, do what they'd like for a couple of years, and see where it takes them.”

Joe Glavina: “Another route is Graduate Authorised Exchange which you talked about a couple of weeks ago, Alex. A reminder, in a nutshell, how does it work?” 

Alex Wright: “Graduate Authorised Exchange is a really helpful route that allows people to come to the UK for brief internships based on various sectors or regions. So, there are loads of different providers of GAE schemes throughout the UK. Some of them are run by specific employers, some of them are run by specific industries, and some of them are run by specific regions, and the intent is to get young people into specialised roles where they can come to the UK, do what is effectively an internship-style role, and try something out for a while, and they've generally been quite positive. We've seen more and more businesses, particularly businesses with numerous sites in the EU post-Brexit, using GAE is an alternative to bring young people in, to come and do placements in the UK, to try out an industry and see how they find it.”

Joe Glavina “Finally Alex, can we talk about the High Potential Individual visa because I remember when the government first announced it they said it would help attract the "brightest and best" talent to the UK and it sounds good. How does that one work?” 

Alex Wright: “High Potential Individual is a pretty new route. It's for people who are graduating from some of the top universities in the UK. So, it's for 50 of the top global universities and, likewise, that allows their graduates to come to the UK for a period of maximum two years. They don't need to be sponsored, they don't need to have an employer, they can just come to the UK and see what takes them, what they fancy doing. So, the idea is to make it sort of easy for people who are what the Home Office has defined as particularly bright graduates, to come to the UK. There are some criticisms of the HPI scheme – it’s very much biased towards Western universities, particularly those in Europe and the USA. So, there are some concerns that it's not a particularly effective route, particularly for very bright people from the global south, but for a limited range of young people it is certainly a useful route to look at rather than necessarily waiting for a job offer to come to the UK.”

You may be interested in watching the three earlier programmes in this series. They are: ‘Government Authorised Exchange useful to bring emerging talent to the UK’, ‘Tension between immigration and discrimination laws in graduate recruitment’ and : ‘Hiring students this summer? Check visa requirements, warn lawyers’. All three are available for viewing now from the Out-Law website.

LINKS
- Link to HRNews programme: ‘Government Authorised Exchange useful to bring emerging talent to the UK’
- Link to HRNews programme: ‘Tension between immigration and discrimination laws in graduate recruitment’
- Link to HRNews programme: ‘Hiring students this summer? Check visa requirements, warn lawyers’