According to the CBI (Confederation of British Industry), one in five businesses are less prepared for Brexit now than at the start of the year due to Covid-19. With the UK performing an awkward semi-conscious decoupling from the EU, consequences abound for the less-than-well-prepared. If you're in the recruiting/ hiring game in the UK there are a number of tactical steps you'll want to think about:
Prepare for a shortage of new EU workers
In 2019, an estimated 3,715,000 EU citizens were living in the UK, including children born in the UK. This number also includes 320,000 Irish citizens. EU workers currently make up 7% of the UK workforce. According to a survey of that community from earlier in the year, 95% of respondents felt less integrated and less “at home” after Brexit.
"Overall, the Survey evidence shows clearly that a majority of respondents feel that Government actions do not match the Government’s copy-and-paste phrases of friendship and wanting to protect the rights of EU/EEA and Swiss citizens. In fact, that message is not registering with Survey respondents. Even respondents granted a status, while relieved, did not show a sense of happiness and remained anxious, for example. Ultimately, their experience tells a story not of feeling friendship and a sense of protection, but one of the erosion of trust and disintegration."
While a large number of survey respondents indicated they would prefer citizenship, this was due to a need to feel secure. Legal and psychological factors are bound to have an impact. These relate to the uncertainty about the future rights that EU citizens currently resident might enjoy, and the more general political and social climate, with the UK no longer seen as a hospitable destination for EU migrants.