Most Construction And Energy Industry Companies Are Making That May Result In Them Losing Their EU Migrant Workforce This Summer And How To Fix Them In 3 Easy Steps

A guide for CEOs and CFOs of construction and energy companies

This is the second in a two-part guide on the EU migrant skills shortage which is set to get much worse when all EU citizens who do not have the correct legal permission to remain in the UK will have to leave the country after 30 June 2021.

Part one of this guide focussed on the four biggest mistakes that the vast majority of construction and energy industry companies are making that may result in them losing their EU migrant workforce this summer. This part two focuses on the three steps you need to take right now to make sure you are not one of those companies.

**Once you have read both parts of the guide (if you missed Part 1 you can access it HERE), you will know the four mistakes to avoid, but we also run a free online training which shows you what you need to do in practice if you want to be able to continue to employ your EU citizen employees and contractors after 30 June 2021. The training is available on a number of upcoming dates and you can register your place HERE.**

You Should Read This Guide If:

  • You are a CEO or CFO of a construction or energy company with overall responsibility for commercial strategy, finance or HR.
  • You use EU migrant labour.
  • You are concerned about the existing labour shortage (which will be exacerbated this summer), which will make projects more difficult, expensive, time-consuming or, in the worst-case scenario, impossible to deliver.

By The End Of This Guide You Will Know:

  • How the EU migrant labour shortage will impact your business in terms of the resourcing of your workstreams.
  • The four biggest mistakes that most construction and energy industry companies are making that may result in them losing their EU migrant workforce this summer.
  • What you need to do now to make sure you can continue to employ EU migrant labour this summer.

The 3 Steps You Need to Take Now

In order to: (i) avoid making the four mistakes listed in part one of this guide, (ii) continue to employ your EU citizen workforce after 30 June 2021, and (iii) ensure it is business as usual for you with no EU labour shortage to threaten the delivery of your projects in terms of time and budget, you need to do the following now:

STEP 1: Carry out an employee audit to assess and identify the immigration status of all your current employees and contractors, as well as employees and contractors you are in the process of recruiting

Your immediate, and critical starting point is to ensure you have a thorough understanding of the immigration status of all your employees and contractors (particularly key employees and contractors), and any employees or contractors you are in the process of recruiting. You will, for example, need to know the date on which they arrived in the UK and any gaps in their residence here so that you can obtain legal advice on the route they should have already taken, or need to take now to establish their right to work in the UK. If this analysis is carried out carefully, you will be in a position to identify whether your current and future employees have the right to work in the UK post-Brexit. You will also know if any immigration documents they have already are valid, and if so, how long they are valid for.

An audit is only as good as the questions you ask. In order to have an audit you can rely on, you need to ask the right questions. If you are unsure about the questions you need to ask, then you need to take advice from a specialist.

STEP 2: Conduct a risk assessment

Following the audit above, it might be that you identify some employees or contractors who are nationals of EU states but who need to be retained for business reasons by all means possible. They may have failed to apply in time[1] under the Euro TLR scheme, or they may not yet have applied for permission to work in the UK under the EU Settlement Scheme purely due to a lack of awareness. Alternatively, they may be thinking about leaving the UK in the summer simply because they are unaware that staying is an option post-Brexit, or because it feels too difficult or overwhelming for them to do what is necessary to stay.

In order to manage these scenarios and your workforce in good time before 30 June 2021, you should conduct a risk assessment to determine how to best manage the process of your EU employees and contractors remaining in the UK legally after 30 June 2021. You will, for example, need to ascertain how many EU citizen employees and contractors are working on high-value or high-risk projects to enable you to effectively protect your business.

If you do not have the expertise to properly assess the risk, then you should speak to someone who does.

STEP 3: Take matters into your own hands by managing your EU citizen contractors and EU citizen employees' immigration applications for them

To ensure that you do not: (i) at worst, face the consequences of employing an illegal immigrant, and (ii) at best, do not risk losing your EU citizen employees or contractors to their home country this summer risking the delivery of your projects, you should consider taking matters into your own hands and manage their immigration applications for them.

The UK's Immigration Rules are very complex and specialist advice should be taken from someone who has experience with immigration applications. You can then be confident that your labour force is secure after 30 June 2021 and it will be business as usual for you.

If you do not act now and your EU citizen employees or contractors leave the country, recruiting replacements will be much more difficult (and more expensive) as the labour supply continues to contract, upwards pressure is applied to wages, and the employment market becomes progressively tighter and employee-led.

In the worst-case scenario, labour shortages may make it more difficult, expensive or even impossible for you to complete projects on time and/or to budget. A proactive stance now will pay dividends in terms of cost savings and saved management time later.

As you go through Steps 1-3 above, you should focus on and protect your business' bottom line, and the availability and cost of labour should be your key priorities. The starting point is the employee audit in Step 1, followed by the risk assessment in Step 2 and actions in Step 3; these steps will protect your bottom line by securing your workforce.

What you need to do now

Brexit will have a significant impact on the ability of EU citizens to stay in the UK after 30 June 2021, which will exacerbate the existing skills shortage.

Putting in hand the above 3 Steps now will enable you to circumvent the challenges that Brexit presents to your workforce. If these steps are not implemented, or are delayed, the result will invariably be increased management time and cost.

Footnote

1. I.e., by 31 December 2020.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.