Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Employment lawImmigration

Poles apart: How is Poland tackling mass migration?

by Ross Wigham 21 Nov 2006
by Ross Wigham 21 Nov 2006

Priests have long been adept at coaxing new recruits into the fold, but their talents are being used more literally in Poland, where the exodus of workers is beginning to hamper the nation’s own economic growth.


The radical plan may itself prove flawed, as not even the clergy are safe from this Westward migration, with Scotland now poaching Polish Catholic priests.


Since 2004, Britain’s workforce has been fed by a steady army of new recruits from Eastern Europe, with almost 600,000 migrants from the new accession states successfully taking up employment here.


More than a million Poles are estimated to have left their country, tempted to Britain by the promise of higher wages and an economy desperately short of numbers and skills.


UK employers, including Tesco and First Group transport, are attracted to EU migrants, particularly Poles, as they possess a strong work ethic and good language skills at a time when recruitment difficulties are at their most severe.


However, the phenomenon has now reached such proportions that employers in Poland are starting to struggle to retain their staff, and are looking at a range of new strategies to help fill the gaps.


Even the nation’s president, Lech Kaczynski, admitted that employers in Poland were now struggling to find skilled professionals, and urged some of his countrymen to return home.


Martin Oxley, chief executive officer of the British Polish Chamber of Commerce, says the demand for staff in the UK is as strong as ever. He concedes that the numbers leaving Poland have become so large that Polish employers are developing tactics to woo back some of the exiles.


“In certain sectors, Polish employers are struggling to recruit staff, but it’s more a question of retraining and redeploying people,” he says. “They’re coping with this exodus in a number of ways – mainly through large training and re-orientation programmes.”


He argues that unemployment in the country is still running at around 14.8%, which rises to as much as 40% in some rural areas, so there are plenty of candidates to fill the gaps.


James Strickland, a director at UK recruitment firm Omega Resource Group, operates an office in Poland that finds staff for British companies.


Although he dismisses the scale of the problem facing Polish businesses, he has started working for some local clients and acts on behalf of some employers trying to entice workers back to the country.


“Poland still has huge levels of unemployment, and they are still producing around 250,000 university graduates every year,” he says. “Most will return eventually and will have improved levels of skills and experience.”


However, the Polish Labour Ministry is so concerned that it has opened up the domestic jobs market to workers from all EU countries, as well as some other non-EU states, such as Ukraine and Belarus.


The Institute for Public Affairs has also mounted a major campaign to encourage workers to return, entitled Wyjazdy i Powroty, or Go and Come Back. The campaign uses a website to try and encourage workers to maintain closer links with their home country.


Earlier this year, officials from one city in the south of Poland came to Britain in a bid to lure back some of their compatriots with a poster and leaflet campaign around London.


It was designed to appeal to patriotism by urging people to forgo higher wages to help build the country’s future.


Tom Hadley, director of external relations at the Recruitment and Employment Confederation, warns that the statistics can be misleading, as they only measure the people who are coming into Britain, and not those who are leaving.


“Even though unemployment has risen again here [in the UK], there’s still a strong demand, but I do think it will stabilise eventually. There’s no legal or moral argument to prevent UK employers from continuing to recruit Poles,” he says.


Whatever the political situation, freedom of movement is one of the basic tenants of EU membership. So the merry-go-round of staff which sees Polish doctors in London and Ukrainian builders in Warsaw will continue for as long as the UK’s job market remains so tight.



Avatar
Ross Wigham

previous post
Mismanagement of the long-term sick is costing UK employers billions of pounds a year
next post
Company drivers at risk as employers fail to provide regular eye tests

1 comment

Avatar
Name 25 Sep 2014 - 10:28 am

what are the benefits for poland due to people leaving (Poland to UK migration)

Comments are closed.

You may also like

What’s next for UK immigration policy in 2024?

6 Dec 2023

Work visa changes: Who is likely to lose...

5 Dec 2023

Government hikes work visa salary threshold

4 Dec 2023

HR strategies for global employees in crisis situations

4 Dec 2023

Legal expert calls new holiday pay regulations ‘incoherent’

30 Nov 2023

MPs propose tougher curbs on immigration

27 Nov 2023

Cruise giant accused of planning ‘fire and rehire’...

24 Nov 2023

Net migration hits fresh record, as ONS revises...

23 Nov 2023

Burges Salmon takes home 2023 Employment Law Firm...

21 Nov 2023

McDonald’s: How can employers prevent sexual harassment?

21 Nov 2023

  • How to spot and tackle imposter syndrome in the workplace PROMOTED | Half of all UK adults...Read more
  • BetterMe for Business: How to Build Wellness Culture at Work PROMOTED | Ever encountered a...Read more
  • Global growth with simple HR compliance (webinar) WEBINAR | In an increasingly global marketplace...Read more
  • Talent acquisition: How AI can complement a ‘back to basics’ approach PROMOTED | Artificial intelligence is now...Read more
  • What will it mean to be an HR professional in 2024? (webinar) WEBINAR | As we approach 2024...Read more
  • HR Budget Planning for 2024: Preparing your People Strategy PROMOTED | As organisations continue to adapt...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2023

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2023 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+