The UK is providing good job opportunities for talented Australian HR professionals, especially if the have specialist skills in reward & recognition, HRIS and business partnering, according to British executive search and HR consultancy Digby Morgan.
The UK is providing good job opportunities for talented Australian HR professionals, especially if the have specialist skills in reward and recognition, HRIS and business partnering, according to British executive search and HR consultancy Digby Morgan.
“There are a lot of Australian HR professionals based in London at the moment, and they’re very well represented in the HR community,” said managing director of Digby Morgan, John Maxted.
“We find the calibre of people coming over from Australia to be very high, and they’ve been very quick to find opportunities often in the interim market where there’s a shortage of skills.”
Maxted said most Australian HR professionals tended to work in the financial and professional services fields, and many skills gathered locally could easily transfer to positions in the UK and Continental Europe.
One of the advantages enjoyed by Australians seeking work in the UK has been the law, according to Alistair Cook, director of Digby Morgan.
“It’s been far easier for people to come from Australia to the UK and initially work on a temporary contract of some description so they can learn the ropes,” he said.
“Oddly enough many of those who do that end up being offered longer term projects or permanent jobs. The interim market has been an entry point for many of them.”
When seeking employment in the UK, Maxted said many Australians are also at an advantage because of access to ancestral visas.
“If they can find a distant grandmother or grandfather, for example, it’s much easier. Clearly people in the UK don’t have that advantage.”
Maxted and Cook, who spoke at a recent Staff & Executive Resources network group breakfast, said that it was easier for Australians to transfer with their employer, rather than seek work off their own bat.
They added that Australians were an attractive employment proposition to many British employers, due the trail blazed by many HR professionals from down under already.
“The attitude and work ethic of Australians is exceptional. There is an openness to recruiting people from Australia and New Zealand,” Cook said.
“Australians have an attitude where they tend to be more solution providers as opposed to problem announcers – that works well in HR generally, but there’s a preponderance of that in Australia.”
Maxted said that because many Australia HR professionals in the UK understood that they were there on a two-year visa for example, British employers also saw them as more likely to stay for a set period, rather than someone local who may stay for a year.
Cook said that about 80 per cent of Australian HR professionals work in the larger financial centres of the UK, such as London, Manchester and Edinburgh.
Digby Morgan has a business partnership with HR Partners, which allows the firm to provide Australasian HR professionals for permanent and interim assignments in the UK and Europe.
Coming soon: an in-depth look at opportunities for Australian HR professionals in the UK.
