One in four UK businesses hiring overseas to tackle talent shortage according to new report
1,485 global decision makers that are currently hiring remote workers were surveyed online and 27% of UK-based business leaders admitted to having hired overseas or are in the process of doing it. 63% of them noted that they still rely on local talent.
Skill shortage in the UK was identified as one of the main reasons recruiters are crossing the border but a bigger number of business owners said they were doing it to diversify their teams and see what talent these new markets have to offer.
Moreover, according to the report, business leaders are not hiring from just anywhere. Instead, they seem to prefer the already tested and proven tech markets like New York, Paris and Berlin over emerging markets like Ahmedabad, Budapest, and Mexico.
This would explain a report by Gartner that showed Mexico had more untapped talent than London and New York. The report dubbed ‘Emerging IT Talent Hubs in 2022’ gives scores to talent hubs based on talent supply and talent demand and showed that Mexico has great talent but less demand compared to the more known tech hubs.
Only 7% of the respondents in the online survey believed Mexico to have ‘Considerable talent.’
20% of the respondents are still confident London has the needed talent and so they continue to hire from within the city.
That said, hiring remotely has not been without its challenges. First, there is the problem of coordinating a decentralized team. Language barrier was also another concern raised by the recruiters as well as challenges working across different time zones.
However speaking on the issue, Job van der Voot, CEO and co-founder of an HR solutions company Remote says the challenges outweigh the benefits.
“When I think about the colossal opportunity to hire great talent around the world, the challenges businesses are facing and blockers to hiring the best talent seem small,” the CEO said.
“The research shows that for businesses to meet their tech talent needs, they need to go a step further and look beyond their own market. Tech talent hasn’t disappeared, it’s just distributed around the world, and companies need to overcome the challenges to access it.”
He recommended that businesses divide their workday into shifts to allow employees to work when it’s most convenient.
To overcome the language barrier Job recommend using communication channels that give the other person time to translate the message into their language.
The UK government is also at the forefront of bringing global talent to the country. One notable step it took was to revise the eligibility for the Global Talent Visa (GTV) with particular emphasis on candidates with research grants, approved international prizes, or an individual fellowship.
The government also introduced the Innovator visa to attract individuals with specific plans for setting up an innovative business in the country.
