Is the Uk becoming and recruitment consultant exporter

Monday Sep 10

Over the two years recruitmentcareers.co.uk has been offering advertising solutions to recruitment agencies within the UK, the vast majority of adverts has been for recruitment consultant jobs within the UK, and indeed within this most seem to be within the south east.

In recent months there seems to be a growing trend of companies operating overseas looking to recruit experienced recruitment consultants from the UK market and entice them to move abroad. The most popular locations at present are Dubai and Australia. Contrary to my first thought on this, it appears to be a very successful strategy as many recruitment consultants are taking the bait.

My initial scepticism stems from a number of thoughts. Firstly, I my gut feeling is that people's close family and friends should always outweigh a nice beach over anything longer than the short term. Secondly, one is introducing many uncertainties to one's future, would coming back be just as easy if it doesn't suit after a year, what will happen to house prices in the UK, how will the job market be and how will they view someone coming from overseas. How would you conduct interviews to return from 12000 miles away?

There is a perception in the case of Australia that 'everything' is better, the weather, the standard of living and environment with it's white sandy beaches are all strong pulls. Dubia also carries a mystique that would lure the best of us with it's hot sun, tall shiny galls buildings in the middle of a desert coupled with images of affluent living.

I guess there are a few factors at work here. The cost of air travel has reduced considerably in recent years and in line with this the culture of young people travelling to see the world has exploded. World travel has become accessible to all and is a particular hit with students and new graduates. In addition one can't ignore factors at home. Recent figures on emigration have shown sharp increases in people leaving to live abroad, many of the reasons given in this research shows a deterioration in factors such as crime, education and health, all core issues for our political system.

I would suggest there's nothing that can be done within recruitment to prevent this talent drain, the solution to this, if there is one, lies in the hands of our politicians. There are now a handful of specialist recruiters in each market offering opportunities to workers in different markets in various corners of the globe. What doesn't yet appear to exist is an agency to help experienced workers return home, once they have tasted the greener grass and found it perhaps isn't as green as they thought, any takers?