International Organization for Migration (IOM)

Improving Access to Labour market Information for migrants and employers
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with employees of those organizations have suggested that their activity is limited
mainly to lobbying for the eradication of restrictions concerning the possibility to
hire migrant workers, while at the same time they do not think they should be
responsible for informing employers about new procedures or for the creation of
formal recruitment channels, considering those as government’s responsibilities
(Chapter 8).
The involvement of employers in the design of the labour migration system is key
to ensure that labour migration regulations and targets are responsive to the actual
shortages. At the same time it also brings an important contribution to awareness
raising among employers. In the United Kingdom, individual employers and employers’
organizations are regularly consulted by the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC)
for its periodical update of the list of shortage occupations in which recruitment of
migrant workers from abroad under tier 2 is allowed (Chapter 10).
Information channels to identify potential migration candidates to
fill domestic labour and skill shortages
Employers may use a mix of different methods to advertise their job vacancies and
identify the migration candidates with the appropriate skills matching their labour
needs. These may include:
• personal and professional networks (including referrals from current employees,
business partners or competitors);
• employing private recruitment agencies and intermediaries;
• advertising job offers in the media, through the company’s website or through
job banks;
• participating in job fairs;
• referring to the national public employment service or to the list of job-seekers
compiled by the national consulates abroad.
Each recruitment channel has its own associated costs and benefits in terms of
coverage of potential recruits and effectiveness in identifying and selecting suitable
recruits. In turn these translate into direct costs of recruitment and indirect costs in
terms of delays and errors in recruitment.
The study has shown that, in the current practice, big firms tend to use a wider range
of information channels for employment matching, compared with SMEs, which in
most cases almost exclusively rely on informal networks and referrals. This is again
related, at least in part, to the higher resources and assets of bigger firms compared
with smaller ones and to the economies of scale that the former may realize when
investing in formal recruitment strategies.
Thus, in most countries studied, big employers have more frequent recourse to
formal private intermediation channels, such as private recruitment agencies, for
employment matching compared with SMEs. International staffing agencies often