Companies which recruit internationally are facing up to many challenges, a conference on the internationalisation of recruitment has heard.

These challenges range from the impact of the world economic downturn to changes in the UK’s immigration system.

Keith Dugdale, director of global recruitment at KPMG, told the conference, hosted by GTI Recruiting Solutions in London, that the recruitment landscape had changed dramatically in recent months as the economic downturn hit the global economy.

He said that, for example, companies were now only looking at their own student populations, whereas six months ago they were scouring
the world.

However, even in the current economic climate, Dugdale said skills shortages still existed. “US organisations are still short of talent at board level,” he said.

Sophie Barrett-Brown, an immigration specialist at Laura Devine Solicitors, said: “I see applications every day where UK people
are not up to the job compared to those from abroad.”

Dugdale said it was important for employers to understand the continuing need for them to look for talent on a global scale.

Fiona Sandford, director of careers services at the London School of Economics, said there was an increasingly negative attitude in the UK about recruiting staff from abroad. “We are hearing more about British jobs for British graduates,” she said.

She added that a big question for employers was whether with more UK graduates available for fewer jobs, the recession reduced the need for them to continue their global recruitment programmes. She said she has noticed “some closing down”.

Barrett-Brown said the impact of the new points-based immigration system had been “very negative”. “Most of you will find it more difficult
to engage overseas workers,” she said. However, one improvement was that foreign students studying in the UK could obtain highly skilled migrant status more easily, she said.

Dugdale predicted that when the recession ended the global skills shortage would return.

Brian Hood, head of graduate recruitment at Citi, said that recruiting foreign nationals was a vital source of talent. Only 37% of those hired from UK universities were British, he said.