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:

• EU nationals have had the right to live and work in the UK without a visa. For those working in the UK prior to the end of this year nothing will change until June 2021. If someone expects to remain in the UK after June next year, they should apply for pre-settled or settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS).
• Employers should go through the government's Brexit tool. The likely advice it gives after completing the business section is: "Check if you’ll need a license to employ workers from the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein". If you don't have a license already, from January 2021 your UK business will need one to be able to employ EEA workers arriving in the UK for work, even for short periods.
• If you want to hire new staff from overseas after January 1, 2021, you will need to be a Home Office approved sponsor, applying with the correct documentation and paying the fee. Plan to have appropriate resources and systems in place to manage and monitor employees.
• Once you’re a sponsor and you identify an overseas candidate, it’s likely that you will be sponsoring them through the new Skilled Worker route under which workers will need to gain points using a system designed to assess their skills and salary level. All applicants will additionally need to pass the relevant UK criminality checks and will have to demonstrate intermediate English language ability.
• You will pay a fee to assign a Certificate of Sponsorship to the migrant (£199) and an Immigration Skills Charge of £1000 per migrant per year of sponsorship, small business discounted rates will apply. The candidate will also need to pay for the visa itself (up to £1,480) and the Immigration Health Surcharge (£624 per year from October).
• The Resident Labour Market Test will be removed, which means that employers will no longer need to advertise the vacant role to the national workforce.
• There will be no limit on the number of Skilled Worker visas which may be granted under the new system.
• There’s likely to be a significant influx of applications at the start of 2021, so get ahead of the crowd to avoid delays which may affect recruitment or retention of key staff into 2021.

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.