A significant focus on immigration compliance is having an adverse effect on the potential for employers keen to recruit highly talented workers from overseas. It’s also making it more difficult for companies to retain talent following recruitment. As the US economy recovers, and indeed to make this recovery sustainable, employers need to attract a highly skilled workforce from overseas, according to Michael Turansick, Partner, Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy, LLP.
There are technical challenges that are contributing to the difficult situation, such as limitations on work permits and US visas. Global demand for talent is creating competition and this is proving challenging for Human Resources (HR) executives. Turansick posits that immigration rules in the US are unpredictable and less than transparent, and that this is making it harder to attract and retain key company personnel from abroad.
The level of global competition is becoming apparent and many countries are actively introducing new incentives to persuade high-fliers to relocate. Turansick feels that, unfortunately, the US is not one of them and its immigration policies are likely to have a severe impact on the bottom line for US companies.
He believes that what will improve the situation is if HR gets better at identifying existing opportunities for sponsoring individuals, and then takes advantage of them, especially as the number of opportunities reduces. Turansick urges companies to give a lot of thought to, and to clearly define, their immigration sponsorship potential, prioritizing a coordinated approach to ensuring they are attracting employees and taking care of their families so they can all have a good quality of life.