International Organization for Migration (IOM)

Improving Access to Labour market Information for migrants and employers
202
is, not specifically third-country migrants) 124 indicates that the most important factor
of ‘critical importance’ to employers is a good personality and attitude, mentioned by
64 per cent of employers in the survey (Shury et al., 2011). It should be noted that these
are subjective criteria, which may lead to discrimination in recruitment and selection
according to employers’ cultural (and other) preferences. The evidence from the survey
suggests that small employers place greater emphasis on personality (and also on
previous experience) than larger employers. This reflects the importance of worker ‘fit’
and integration into a small organization; this is an issue that employers using agencies
will highlight to them in specifying their requirements for workers.
The amount of effort put by employers into the identification, selection and
recruitment process will depend upon the extent of the differences between workers
(and hence the costs of making a poor ‘match’ between the individual worker and the
requirements of the job), the costs of carrying out the recruitment activity and search
and, finally, the hiring standards that are set (namely how choosy the employer is).
The more resources that are devoted to this search process, the greater the initial
costs but the greater the potential benefits are likely to be.
It is important to note that use of the Internet in recruitment (see the next section for
further details), means that more potential migrants than was previously the case can
find out about employment opportunities and what attributes and skills employers
might be looking for. Hence employers may be faced with unsolicited applications
from third-country nationals (and from other potential recruits) (Dench et al., 2006).
United Kingdom labour migration policy is in the main not based on bilateral
agreements with particular source countries (Devitt, 2012). That said, in 2004,
the United Kingdom government instituted a Code of Practice for the Active
Recruitment of Healthcare Professionals, which is to be followed by the National
Health Service (NHS). The Code applies specifically to the recruitment of
professional health-care workers, limiting recruitment by the NHS unless approved
by the source country. While the code improved the recruitment practices of
overseas health-care professionals, it is not comprehensive – it is voluntary for the
private sector and does not prohibit direct recruitment of health-care professionals
(Salt et al., 2011).
Channels/methods used by employers to recruit third-country migrants
There are many different methods by which employers’ can find potential recruits
(whether migrants from third countries, elsewhere or United Kingdom/EEA
nationals). These include formal methods such as use of Jobcentres (that is the Public
Employment Service in Great Britain), private employment agencies (as highlighted
in the previous section), advertising in professional journals and newspapers,
advertising on company or other websites, as well as informal methods such as
124 No disaggregation specifically by migrant workers is available from this source. Nor is there any other
data source (or comprehensive survey) providing detailed comparative information on recruitment of
migrant workers.