The September Jobs and Skills Summit painted a critical picture of the Australian skills shortage, with employers now bearing the brunt of the country's tough migration laws during the height of Covid-19. The situation has become so dire, in fact, that Australia is thought to be suffering the world’s worst skills shortage, behind only Canada. This equates to a loss of half a million workers, which has shrunk the Australian economy by an estimated $80 billion.

Among the top most in-demand jobs predicted over the next five years are construction managers, civil engineers, early childhood teachers, nurses, ICT business and systems analysts, and software programmers.

This skills shortage is being driven by a myriad of factors, however most are in agreement that it is the lack of migration that is the main cause. Research by Deloitte Access Economics shows that while there are signs overseas migration is slowly starting to rebuild, it’s still at a “fraction” of its pre-COVID level.

As a result, migration was the government’s focus at the Jobs and Skills Summit, with agreed upon instant actions to include; lifting the skilled migration limit to 195,000 places for this financial year, providing $36.1 million to accelerate visa processing and resolving the visa backlog, and providing two more years of stay for recent graduates with select degrees in areas of proven skills shortages.

Backed by these incentives and the government’s renewed support in migration, securing international professionals who have skills not readily available in Australia may be a positive move for employers struggling to fill jobs.

How to use international professionals to navigate the skills shortage

One of the major factors stopping Australian employers from engaging international talent is the complexity of the process, which includes everything from visa paperwork and police checks to English language tests. All of this takes time and resources that many employers simply don’t have, alongside additional levels of risk if not carried out correctly.

Dennis Anderson, Bayside Group Senior International Recruitment Consultant, says it is for this reason that many Australian organisations choose to on-hire international professionals through a company such as Bayside Group.

“Most organisations don’t want to get involved in the intricacies of sponsoring people themselves and applying for and maintaining a Standard Business Sponsorship, as the rules are stringent,” he explains. “For example, labour market testing needs to be performed to demonstrate that the necessary skills can’t be found in Australia. Once this has been established, then there’s numerous steps in the actual sponsorship of an international professional, once the individual has been identified.”

“This could include comprehensive health checks, police checks, English language tests, a diary of where and when they’ve travelled over the last 10 years. It’s exceptionally involved, and a lot of employers understand why it’s so beneficial to outsource this component.”

Adding to this, even once the individual has been secured and onboarded, there are ongoing compliance risks in relation to meeting immigration requirements. For example, if an international employee’s job changes while working in Australia and immigration is not notified, this could result in the organisation being sanctioned from sponsoring employees again for a certain number of years.

How Bayside Group can assist

Bayside Group has a long history of helping employers’ weather economic downturns and skills shortages through the provision of on-hired international talent. In fact, Bayside Group is one of the few 482-sponsors approved by the Department of Home Affairs (DHA), and has sponsored over 600 international professionals to work for Australian employers through our 482 Visa Sponsorship Services.

With compliance at the heart of all its operations, Bayside Group mitigates the risks involved with direct hire of international professionals, while streamlining the complex and time-consuming sponsorship process for employers.

Whether you have identified talent from overseas, or simply need talent that you can’t currently find in Australia, Bayside Group can assist with the recruitment, mobilisation, engagement and ongoing management of international professionals.

Find out more about our 482 Visa sponsorship services and request a call back here, or contact us here.