How businesses are managing the impacts of the 457 visa changes
Businesses across Australia have identified skill shortages to be one of their biggest risk factors going forward following the 457 visa changes on 1 July 2017.
MYOB Chief Executive, Tim Reed believes the Government’s changes to 457 visas has now made it significantly more difficult to attract the right skills and talent to grow the business. “It’s tough, it’s very, very tough. Particularly for software engineers or design-based capabilities, we’re probably 100 people down on our target headcount at this moment in time and that’s simply because we can’t find enough people,” he said.
Nicolas Aidoud, Head of the Australian and New Zealand arm of global IT consultancy Capgemini, also shared Tim Reed’s concerns. He said, “The bottleneck is resources – it’s not just about smart technology it’s also about smart people.”
Some businesses such as MYOB have recognised that a mind shift is needed to manage the impact of the visa changes. Mr Reed regularly visits girl schools to promote the importance of maths and science and urges other businesses to collectively support STEM skills programs in schools. Encouraging local skills development is important to be able to source skills locally in the future, however it does remain a long-term solution to a current talent shortage problem.
Like MYOB, Capgemini continues to invest in recruiting graduates, however with plenty of projects on its books, the business is struggling to locally source enough people with the skills and often-times years of experience required to compete with other global tech providers. To manage the impact, Nicolas Aidoud said he was directing his head office in Paris to create a business program to address the risk of skill shortages. “We are going to set up a specific program to bring people into Australia and we will look to make it simpler to accommodate for the changes to the 457 visa program,” he said.
We do expect that the challenges for businesses will continue into 2018, especially with current lengthy time-frames of five to ten months for government processing of 457 visas as well as the increase in costs associated with the introduction of the Temporary Skills Shortage (TSS) Visa in March 2018.
Immigracious assists businesses with strategies they can adopt to manage the impact of the 457 visa changes. An experienced migration agent can help your businesses forecast its skill needs for future business requirements and get expert advice on all visa options available to your business, rather than solely the 457 visa option. You can speak to a migration agent by calling 08 6263 4406 or alternatively email hello@immigracious.com.au
Source:
Immigracious Migration Agents
The Australian Business Review
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