A growing number of Western Australian businesses are bringing their international recruitment services in-house in an effort to cut out the costs associated with hiring migration agents.
A growing number of Western Australian businesses are bringing their international recruitment services in-house in an effort to cut out the costs associated with hiring migration agents.
The process of recruiting internationally can be expensive, with some cost estimates up around $25,000 per worker.
Henderson-based shipbuilder Austal Ltd is a large user of the 457 visa and has employed a full-time human resources officer, whose primary responsibility is to liaise with the Department of Immigration and Citizenship on visa issues.
WA Business News understands that a major international oil and gas company, Baker Hughes Australia Pty Ltd, has also brought its international recruitment in-house recently.
The company would not comment on the appointment of a full-time human resources officer to manage visa issues in July last year, after previously using a migration agency.
Chevron Australia has adopted a slightly different arrangement, managing its international recruitment for WA through a corporate immigration services agency, Fragomen Australia Pty Ltd, but with an agency employee based on site at the company two days per week.
Fragomen Australia partner Mark Wright says the professional fees for recruiting an overseas employee range between $2,000 and $3,000, which cover the legal and administrative costs.
Mr Wright said recruitment could be considerably more expensive when relocation costs such as airfare, temporary accommodation and living away from home allowance were taken into account.
“The general market rule of thumb for recruiting an overseas worker into a business, as opposed to a local worker for the same role, is roughly three times,” he said.
Fragomen Australia recruits between 4,000 and 5,000 workers on a company-sponsored basis each year.
Thiess Pty Ltd WA human resources manager Trevor Dobson said the company had a national contract with a migration agency, but had brought some recruitment in-house during the past three months.
Mr Dobson said it was important to be flexible in finding the best channels for recruiting skilled workers from overseas
“We’ve been in the overseas skilled employment market for some time. As a corporate group, the best way to do this was through a migration agency,” he said.
Thiess had increased its spending on recruitment of overseas workers in the past year, Mr Dobson said, estimating that it cost on average about $10,000 to recruit an employee.
He said Thiess was increasing its use of 457 visas, with a growing number of workers with trade qualifications being recruited, rather than workers in high-level engineering roles.
“There were always a small number of high-level engineers [on 457 visas]. Now we’re finding there aren’t enough heavy duty fitters or truck drivers, and it’s changing the dynamics,” Mr Dobson said.
