Employers are being urged to review their recruitment strategies following updates to the UK's Shortage Occupation List in October.
The Shortage Occupation List (SOL) specifies roles deemed by the Government to be in short supply within the UK resident labour market. Roles on the list benefit from relaxed immigration requirements, allowing employers to hire talent from overseas to meet their talent needs.
Why the Shortage Occupation List matters
Under current UK immigration rules, employers looking to hire skilled non-EEA workers under the Tier 2 visa route have to meet a number of strict requirements in respect of the role, duties and salary level. The employer must also show that they have first tried to recruit for the position from the domestic labour market.
Roles that feature on the SOL however benefit from a number of exemptions to the requirements, designed to make it easier, quicker and less costly for employers to hire shortage occupation workers.
This means employers recruiting for roles on the SOL do not have to show they have tried to recruit from the UK labour market before offering the role to a non-EU national, and also benefit from lower visa fees and priority allocation in the event the visa cap limit is reached. Tier 2 visa holders in shortage occupations are also exempt from the minimum income threshold for settlement.
Why this is good news for tech companies
Following a review of the the list, government advisers the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) made wide-ranging recommendations for changes to bring the list of shortage roles in line with the economy's needs.
The Home Office accepted the recommendations in large part, including the addition of occupations in health, information technology and other STEM fields.
In some cases, Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) codes already on the shortage occupation list have been expanded to include all types of roles within the code.
For digital and IT occupations, the following roles now feature on the Shortage Occupation List:
- All IT business analysts, architects and systems designer roles SOC code 2135
- All Programme and software development roles SOC code 2136
- All web design and development professional roles SOC code 2137
- All Information technology and communications professionals not elsewhere classified SOC code 2139
- All graphic designer roles SOC code 3421
Given the fierce nature of competition for tech talent, employers are being encouraged to review their recruitment strategies to take advantage of the changes that in practice, are making it considerably less onerous for employers to bring much-needed talent into the UK.
A review of your current international recruitment practices will also be timely in preparation for the reform of the UK immigration rules, which Johnson's Government has timetabled for implementation by January 2021.