The horticultural farming sector has always had varying seasonal worker demand. Until now, they’ve predominantly sought fruit, vegetable and flower pickers from Ukraine and Russia. However, due to post-COVID-19/Brexit difficulties and the Russia/Ukraine war, seasonal work visas are increasingly being granted to migrant workers from Central Asian countries like Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.
Seasonal Worker Visa
What was previously the Temporary Work Visa—Seasonal Worker T5 has now been changed to the Seasonal Work Visa. This allows migrant workers to take up agricultural work for a maximum of 6 months, given they meet certain criteria. Find out more about specific requirements here.
The UK Department of Agriculture and Food has extended the Seasonal Work Visa program until 2024. This will accommodate 30,000 migrant workers, with a possibility of raising this to 40,000 depending on needs. It’s certainly a development for recruitment agencies to take note of as it shows a growing demand and opportunity for placements.
Recruitment Agencies Must Meet New Demands
In operating seasonally, horticultural companies cannot afford delays, compliance breaches or lack of labour supply. And with tougher immigration measures in place post-Brexit, compliance stakes are especially high.
Pre-Brexit, horticultural worker demand was filled by EU migrants. Compared to current procedures, this was much simpler without the need for visas. However, with the end of freedom of movement, hirers may now face anything from a £20,000 fine per illegal worker to a 5-year prison sentence for oversights within the new system.
Complications in worker processing can cause severe productivity and profit losses due to the seasonal nature of the horticultural industry. In providing a reliable, compliant, and quality service, recruitment agencies must ensure efficiency from the ground up, starting with a sufficient temporary workforce management system.
Leaving Behind Insufficient Worker Processing Methods
Given the urgency of horticultural clients’ needs, the manual, disconnected and time-consuming methods of the past simply won’t cut it any longer. In ‘making-do’ with a combination of systems like HR databases, Excel and email/telephone communication, vital compliance details can be missed, processing can consume huge amounts of time, and admin costs can inflate.
This leaves your clients waiting longer, paying out more and potentially facing Right to Work liability.
Updated VMS is a MUST
In taking on a system like VMS, which is built specifically for temp workforce management, you can process more candidates with improved efficiency, compliance, and ease. With cloud-based, automated, and real-time functionality, you can take on higher numbers of candidates and clients.
Without arduous and repetitive manual admin, you can focus on building relationships with your client and talent pool and nurture longevity for your recruitment agency.
Features That Can Help:
- Specialised Compliance Modules: An optimal VMS will provide a solid framework for maintaining compliance with specific legislation. This should require minimal knowledge and training, with intuitive navigation and relevant prompts. A cloud-based service allows your provider to make regular updates, ensuring your VMS consistency reflects any reforms as they happen.
- Single Sign-In: A cloud-based system allows your whole labour supply chain to access the same online database via a single sign-in. This vastly increases visibility and allows quicker error identification and resolution.
- Automation: Automation can reduce the need for repetitive admin and the human error it comes with. Data needs only entering once: as soon as it is input, all labour supply chain parties are updated via automatic notification. This is a powerful tool for compliance, as many risks accumulate from manual input errors, obscured within low-visibility system stacks.
- Real-time Data: A cloud-based VMS means all updates are made available in real time. These can be viewed on any device, and with immediate notifications, you needn’t waste any time moving on to the next step when progress is made.
Given the urgency for a consistent labour supply currently in horticulture, it’s essential that vacancies are progressed into placements as soon as the right candidate appears. With real-time data, you needn’t leave clients waiting due to long-winded manual admin.
New Opportunities
Though current workforce trends present a challenge for horticultural companies, there is a valuable opportunity for recruitment agencies to meet demands and gain new clients. In ensuring a solid strategic foundation with VMS, recruitment agencies can increase efficiency and deliver a high-quality and compliant labour supply at pace.
With this, they can infiltrate a new industry vertical, increase their talent pool and nurture long-term client relationships.