Do What It Takes to Get the Best

There are more languages spoken in London than in any other city. With all the foreign-born folks living, working, and studying there, you would think they’d have their immigration issues worked out pretty well.

But you would be wrong.

Earlier this year the Designing Leaders team visited London, where we talked to over four dozen Creatives from all over the world. Some were there for school, others came for work. Some are single, some live with a significant other from home, others have a British spouse. All of them — every one — was concerned about visas and other immigration issues. These concerns existed before the Brexit vote, but for obvious reasons they have intensified since then, since many people who previously didn’t have to worry about visas now face an uncertain future.

Immigration is a big issue in many countries throughout the world. The US has certainly had its own internal political arguments over both legal and illegal immigration over the last few years, with the debates heating up even more during the last 8 months. Asian countries are also facing concerns over the issue, especially as they become more developed and some start to worry about the effect of “outsiders” on the local economy and culture.

Singapore’s government, for example, faces a challenge: a pubic demand for fewer foreigners “taking our jobs” even though the native population continues to shrink and unemployment hovers around 2.2% overall (and 3.2% for residents). The emergence of the ASEAN Economic Community is supposed to ease the flow of labor around the region, but that still seems to be more of a dream than a true policy goal. Whether through quotas, recruiting rules, high visa fees, or exhaustive paperwork, many countries make it difficult to hire foreigners, and that may limit your willingness to recruit beyond your borders.

The argument for barriers and limits is as simple as it is misguided: take care of citizens before worrying about immigrants, and make it hard for people to come and stay and potentially take jobs away from locals. The problem with that is that such a protectionist policy makes it harder for employers to get the best talent. The talent pool is essentially shrunk in the short-term because you can’t easily bring in or retain foreign employees.

There’s a long-term impact from that, too: if your government isolates your citizens from competition, that reduces the incentive for educational systems to improve or for individuals to upskill themselves or adopt a more proactive attitude toward their work and their career. All of this hurts the performance of your business, and when you are competing in a regional or global market, you can lose out to companies beyond your borders, which hurts your national economy and everyone in it. Barriers to immigration can end up hurting the country as a whole over the long run, and they can certainly hurt your business.

Some countries in Asia are bucking the protectionist trend. Japan and Korea, notorious for their limits on foreigners in the past, recognize the challenges of shrinking populations and are encouraging companies to bring in more foreigners. The Philippines, hoping to capitalize on recent economic growth, has “brain gain” programs that not only try to get overseas Filipinos to come back home with their experiences and skills from abroad, but that also include a special visa category for retired diplomats, military personnel, professors, and others who can bring special skills and work in the local economy despite their “retired” status. These are not cases of employers hiring foreigners because they will work for less than locals (which is a bad strategy over the long run), but instead, employers are trying to fill gaps that occur because of demographics and education.

When you hire employees, you want the best, and perhaps nationality should not enter into it. The skills and attitudes you need may be best provided by someone outside your borders. You cannot change public policy in the short term (though it’s something you might advocate for over time) but you CAN change your approach to such issues. Basically, whether your country’s immigration laws are easy to navigate or seem like a swamp, you should be ready to do whatever it takes to get the best people.

• Be familiar with the requirements for foreign employees and be ready to facilitate the visa process.
• Know what new options exist for hiring, and how you can take advantage of them.
• Accept the fact that it may cost you time and money to get that visa, and realize it’s your government’s fault, NOT your employees’, so don’t take it out on them.

Whatever you do, once you hire them, don’t use the work visa as a threat looming over them (we see this way too much in service industries — “work extra hours or we fire you and you have to go home”).

In a knowledge-based economy your most important resource is talented people. Don’t miss out on the best just because the paperwork can be a pain.