Immigration and recession: HR Directors club members receive expert opinion and advice
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More than 30 HR directors attended the first Personnel Today HR Directors Club event of 2009 at the Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms in London last week.
Guests were first treated to a personal insight on the implementation of the points-based system by Bharat Pamnani, deputy director at the UK Border Agency.
Pamnani explained to a concerned audience that employers had nothing to fear from the new immigration rules.
"We won’t use a big stick over mistakes in license applications," said Pamnani. "If some applicants don’t meet certain criteria or make mistakes, we’re flexible and we’ll work with you to help you improve."
"It’s not a case of one mistake and you come off – to be removed from the register, you have to be committing serious fraudulent activities," he said.
Pamnani reassured one member who feared that he would have to license every individual workplace his business occupied in order to properly employ skilled migrants.
"You won’t have to have a license for every site in the UK," Pamnani said. "However, the reason why many employers are applying for regional licenses is because if one is caught committing fraud, the license will likely be taken away from the whole organisation, not just that hub."
Also speaking at the event was Bryan Finn, economist and founder of consultancy Business Economics. He took the guests through a tour of the current recession, and offered expert predictions on how employers could beat the competition.
"HR is currently facing internal and external pressures to excel, but it has to be cool and strategic in pointing out that this is a cycle," Finn said.
"You have to give the finance director something in the way of cost cuts; you can’t get away with saying, "not us, guv, try marketing" when asked what you can do to save money. But you have to protect your department and the business too."
The next HR Directors Club debate is 26 March, where members will discuss the challenges HR directors face with rolling out policies and processes across multiple countries in Europe and around the world.
5 Mar 2009
Author: Guy Logan
