Keith Robinson, Commercial Director for Totaljobs.com looks at how Britain can plug the skills gap using talent from Eastern European and assesses the impact this will have on the UK’s labour market.
Tesco recently announced its recruitment plans to hire staff from Eastern Europe for its distribution centres and to drive its delivery vans. This comes nine months after eight Eastern European countries joined the EU allowing them working rights in the UK. Research at the time from the totaljobs.com global network showed that 69% of Eastern European job seekers were eager to work in the UK. These forecasts have proved to be true with 133,000 jobseekers coming over to the UK since last May.
It is a common misconception that the UK will be inundated with jobseekers from Eastern Europe looking for work, competing for jobs with those from Britain.
In reality there are skills shortages in the UK, in many areas – including trade work, agriculture, hospitality and healthcare. Jobseekers from Eastern Europe are not ‘stealing’ jobs from UK workers but instead are helping to plug the skills gap that businesses are currently experiencing.
From the 133,000 jobseekers to date, 28% are applying for hospitality positions, 14 % for roles in agriculture and 8% for jobs in manufacturing.
EU expansion and the resulting influx of workers into the country is in the interests of UK businesses, as it will help those key sectors that are currently the under-skilled.
It is commonly believed that talent creates wealth, attracting those that have it from Eastern Europe can only therefore benefit our econcomy.
Healthcare and information technology are two sectors where skill shortages exist. There are simply not enough graduates entering these professions to plug the number of vacancies.
An untapped pool of talent including highly trained nurses and IT professionals, exist in Eastern Europe.
To a certain extent, a degree of double standards exists with regard to British attitudes towards employing people from these countries. Attending university is seen as the norm by many businesses in modern Britain and the UK’s ‘work ethic’ has resulted in people striving for professional careers.
This has led to a reduction in the number of people entering into manual trade. However, manual skills are an integral part of modern Britain and the expertise that the Eastern European workers will bring with them is necessary to make Britain truly multi-skilled.
The Confederation of British Industries has revealed that there are not enough skilled trade workers in the UK. Apprenticeships are not as readily available now as they were years ago as trade work is sub-contracted out to third parties in the UK, and companies are not able to take on apprenticeships due to a lack of finance.
Eastern European countries have an overflow of qualified trade workers and these workers are able to bring their skills over to the UK.
There are also skill shortages in the farming industry. Many UK workers are not able to work in agriculture due to the seasonal nature of this work. Harvesting of crops is not something that needs to be done year round and many British workers need the reliability of a permanent job.
In contrast, Eastern European workers are more flexible and willing to combine jobs. The skills shortage in agriculture is currently so severe that it could have a dramatic effect on the future of farming.
Employers need to realise that globalisation is a fact of life, and workforces are becoming increasingly multi-cultural. As a consequence, employee diversity is becoming of utmost importance and will help drive businesses forward.
Companies must realise the potential of this new candidate base, and the skills they offer, and actively find the best ways of attracting them.
British businesses should capitalise on the expansion of the EU to fill skills gaps and boost our economy, creating new opportunities for companies and jobseekers alike in the long term.
