457 visa overhaul won’t solve PR skills shortage
The government’s changes to Australia’s 457 visa program have created needless uncertainty, argues Red Agency Sydney’s Jackie Crossman, and could turn into a dangerous game of semantics.
The sudden announcement of the abolition of the 457 visa program will reverberate through the PR world on every level – individual, agency and industry, though the extent of the impact is still unclear, given uncertainties and ambiguities around the government’s lightning bolt decree.
Jackie Crossman (R) with Red Agency CEO James Wright (L)
Whether a non-Australian citizen will still be able to work as a PR in Australia on a reincarnated-visa-formerly-known-as-457 might well come down to semantics: the difference between four little words – ‘professional’ and ‘manager’; ‘agency’ and ‘in-house’.
So, what’s in a name? Potentially a career, livelihood and country of residence for some PR practitioners, given the possible fallout from the federal government’s anomalous and swift overhaul of 457 visas.
If you’re classified a ‘PR Professional’ in an ‘agency’ role, you’ll be relatively sweet – albeit reduced from four to two-year visa terms – but still with the additional opportunity to apply for permanent residency down the track, although with more hoop-jumping and box-ticking required than ever before.
If, on the other hand, you’re deemed a ‘PR Manager’ because you’re in an ‘in-house’ role, you’re essentially screwed, cut from the list of occupations eligible for a visa altogether.
That simple distinction between being a ‘professional’ agency PR or in-house insider ‘manager’ will be the difference between being a visa-carrying worker on the way to the office – or an unemployed PR on the way to the airport.
Compounding the uncertainty and ensuring it will linger into the new financial year is the note buried in the detail that from 1 July 2017, there could be “possible additional adjustments to eligible occupation lists”.
Might that see in-house PR ‘Managers’ recognised the same way as their ‘Professional’ agency cousins, able to apply for the new category visa when the government realises and rectifies the anomaly?
Or might it mean agency staff join the ‘in-housers’ in the no-visa zone in the name of consistent treatment for PRs?
Visa changes won’t fix skills shortage
At Red Agency, we always hire the best people for the role, ideally Australians because local talent brings a multitude of business benefits to an agency: a ready-made understanding of the market, the media, the culture and business and political landscapes.
Put simply, locals have a head start in building on-the-ground contacts and networks because they’re here.
But the fact is, there is a shortage of PR graduates across the board to fill roles in our industry. That means we have needed to recruit overseas talent to fill the skills gap.
Currently around 10% of our employees are sponsored on 457 visas. Three long-term employees who were previously on 457 visas now have permanent residence status or have become Australian citizens including our CEO James Wright who joined Red Agency from Grayling in the UK.
One in two candidates – 50% – interviewing for positions at Red are not Australian citizens. That’s not due to lack of local interest, but lack of local skills.
The shortage of qualified local talent needs to be addressed in the medium-to-long term, but the solution in the meantime isn’t to cut the people who are filling otherwise unfillable roles.
Our industry imports not only plug a key gap; because they generally come in at mid-to-senior level roles with three-plus years experience, they fill another valuable role too: developing the skills and expertise of local agency talent they work with coming through in entry-level roles.
Greater uncertainty means less job-hopping
Another side effect of the changes and uncertainty on the industry could well be a reduction in job-hopping by visa-carrying, agency-employed PRs.
Until now, the skills shortage has meant job opportunities were plentiful for experienced practitioners and it was not difficult for visa holders to transfer their visa to another eligible employer.
Now, with new applicants only eligible for more difficult-to-attain two-year visas, we may well see a slow-down in employee movement between agencies.
We will likely also see greater employee-agency loyalty and longevity because applicants will need their agency’s support for their more onerous permanent residency application down the track.
The winner out of that greater employee tenure with single agencies will be clients, who will reap the benefit of the intellectual capital and expertise invested in their business by PR pros who remain working on their accounts for longer.
Given the uncertainty and confusion the sudden 457 visa about-turn has created, perhaps the Turnbull government would have done well to seek the expertise of a PR pro, whether with a relevant visa or citizenship in hand, but with good counsel in their head, to deliver the transformation message with clarity, rather than create concern, confusion and uncertainty.
Jackie Crossman is the principal of Red Agency Sydney
topics
457 visa
immigration
Jackie Crossman
James Wright
Malcolm Turnbull
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skills shortage
“there is a shortage of PR graduates across the board to fill roles in our industry”
This is totally untrue. Get in touch with the universities who are generating the graduates and ask them how many of their recent graduates are still looking for work in PR since graduation. You’ll find there is a wealth of graduates waiting for their first formal PR role, but have had to work in other industries to make a living, because there are very few entry-level roles that do not require 5 years experience.
I consider myself lucky, I already had 5+ years experience in a PR role from volunteering at a not for profit; without that experience, I would still be working in a call center, trying desperately to break into the industry that I am qualified to work in.
The issue is not to generate more graduates to try to fill the roles, it is to provide actual entry-level opportunities and develop the skills of graduates we currently have waiting for opportunities. This fluff from Red Agency just shows that the agency side of PR is unwilling to take time to develop local talent, and would rather find an easier solution with foreign workers than developing local talent properly.
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PR Agency’s are well known for their ‘use’ of internships. Yet the industry says they cant find locals? They do find young interns. Putting some proper mentoring and training & development in place at Agency level might in future produce that loyal competent ‘local’ FTE. The problems mostly lie with a general lack of leadership at Agency level. There is nothing wrong with employing a mature 18 yr old fresh from High School and training them up to become managers and leaders of the industry (studies are available to be completed after hours).
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Only people from other countries know about PR. Only Kiwis can run banks and only Irishmen can run our airlines. Get with the program.
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Whilst I don’t recruit for the PR sector, I do recruit for the Media sector and I thought I would add in my two cents…….I’d say 75% of my clients see sponsoring through 457 as either a total non-starter, or “a major pain” that they would prefer to avoid if possible. It costs more time, more money and lots more effort than hiring a locally qualified candidate. Therefore I highly doubt any company wants to hire overseas talent to the deliberate detriment of Aussies. It would be perverse to make your life harder and your business costs rise, unless there is an extremely compelling reason. ‘Better’ talent from overseas is a possible explanation (sometimes) but in my experience, it’s almost always due to not having any/enough locally qualified candidates.
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Spot. Bloody. On.
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‘The industry’ loves to hire experienced staff on 457’s because they can pay them peanuts and work them like slaves. This is the elephant in the room and it is very, very true.
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It’s almost like a PR agency knows how to get their message into the media effectively.
Nice work Red Agency!
I don’t believe the spin though.
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Pathetic.
Invest in your people, in industry development and in bringing fresh, diverse talent from other fields into the Agency.
Publishers, writers, social strategists, journo’s, media execs, copywriters. The wider you throw the net, the more interesting skill sets you will find.
The answer is not hiring more Brits on visas. That’s just plain lazy.
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Where I work we have a couple of 457s and a couple of Australian workers including myself.
The basic three choices are this (and these are actual scenarios that have come up):
– In countries like Morocco you must employ almost exclusively Moroccans, open up an office in Morocco and pay tax to Morocco, and heaving train them.
Well wouldn’t you know it that just doesn’t make financial sense; we’re a small consultancy we can’t just throw cash at a big unknown office in a speculative market.
– In countries like Australia there are stringent requirements that workers must be skilled, and must pay taxes on profits made here. There are heavy incentives to facilitate retraining, but more importantly having these talented people around you learn from them by osmosis, and they have the confidence to start a branch in Australia. (Hence why West Australia has some excellect software startups and lots of locally grown mining innovation)
– Or it’s just not worth dealing with the hassle of setting up business there; just sell equipment, software, support contracts remotely to these brain-drain countries, and host training sessions outside the country where it’s cheapest. Import prefabbed materials, and make sure as much as possible is run in the cloud in other countries. Only do what is necessary within the country to import and export goods
There are some balances and tradeoffs but you can’t go to extremes here..
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There is an excess of graduates but the agencies would much rather pay foreigners pittance to do the same job. The amount of unpaid internships out there is staggering and doing nothing to help the reputation of the industry.
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I’m calling BS on this one. Have 5 years experience in PR and a further 10 years experience as a Radio and TV Journalist and TV Production worker. I also have a Masters in PR and a Bachelor in Film and TV but somehow still have been unable to get a job in PR or Comms anywhere for the past 2 years. Stop looking overseas when you have willing and able talent right here in Australia!
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Blubbery and bull dust! Reality is there is no skill shortage in any area as the skills are easily gained. I am curious why the false flags?
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Hiring local vs. foreign should not be a set-in-stone policy.
It’s about individuals, their CV’s and what they can bring to an agency.
Yes, Aussie talent is great but foreign PR pros bring fresh new perspectives and experiences that are new to the market. Also keep in mind that the Aussie media landscape is not that complicated. Especially for PR’s used to dealing with global accounts or bigger markets.
Ultimately, the agency is a business and should be allowed to deliver what it feels is best for their clients. If there is hot shit talent from another country wanting to work for your agency it would be silly to turn them down.
These new visa requirements, as Jackie says, are a great opportunity to make sure that the international PR employee and the agency have an agreed long term plan before signing the contract rather then 5 minutes before a big pitch.
But that’s just my opinion as a non-Aussie communications pro with +15 years experience that loves the idea of living and working in Australia.
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I know it’s tempting to assume there is some big conspiracy going on to the detriment of locals……..but there isn’t.
As I said before, as a recruiter I am involved with this stuff all the time; almost none of my clients want to go down the 457 route and most do not. No exceptions. Some do, some of the time and it can be quite random seemingly about when they do.
It costs more money. It takes lots of time. You have to jump through loads of hoops. You have to deal with public sector bureaucrats…….. There really is no way that hiring people from overseas is easier, cheaper, quicker etc. So as before, why would any employer do it ‘unless’ they really felt they needed to ?
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Experience doesn’t equal expertise. Radio, TV and film wouldn’t be that useful or well regarded for PR and comms compared to marketing and business focused.
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Spot on Mark.
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Most people who are looking to work in Australia, from overseas have some get up and go in them. (They have taken a risk to leave their mother land to have a stab at working abroad.) That aside, the level of smarts needs to hit a high, however without the right attitude the smarts alone will not cut it. For every good PR person with a masters degree there are others, just as able, without a masters. Attitude will get them further, (with or without a degree), every time.
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Do you think Google became one of the best companies in the world by only hiring Americans? Or Facebook or Apple for that matter?
No, they are world leaders because they will fly the best talent from any country because they want to be the best, and you only get the best by hiring the best. I know someone personally who was flown from Melbourne to California because Facebook found out about his programming skills and were even willing to keep a job open for him while he did his Phd at Oxford.
I am currently working with an amazing talent from the UK, she is not great at her job because she’s from the UK – she’s just amazing at her job because talent is not determined by nationality.
My colleague deserves a place at our company over any Aussie who is simply not as good as she is – the best talent creates the best companies that in turn makes our economy better and stronger.
This political scapegoating over less than 1% of our workforce will not make any difference to the Australians who cannot get a job.
Graduates, it is not the 457 visa holders who are making it difficult for you to get a job in PR. You can blame the recent GFC that shrunk graduate positions and the government that allowed universities to deregulate course places, so the amount of students accepted no longer reflected the gaps in the market – you won’t hear universities wanting that change of course because of all the extra money they’re making from graduates – that is the true rort.
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So actually understanding how Australian media works and know what stories they want and so forth is useless? I have actually worked in PR in this country and definitely know this isn’t true. Hopefully I don’t come across you in HR somewhere.
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Maybe if you put your name to your opinions you’ll get a job offer. Seems like your expertise and experience is sound, but how would one know who the person behind these credentials is?
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10% on 457 visas at Red Agency means 90% local workers. Does not appear to be much of a shortage in finding local staff!
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Another issue is that international experience – both Australians working overseas, as well as foreign PR professionals coming here – is critical in today’s market.
The perspective, insight, contacts etc someone makes from working in another country cannot be matched by a local-only hire.
We need an continuing exchange of people and ideas.
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