United Kingdom Case Study

Situation

Our client reached out to GMP with a request to support them in understanding whether they were compliant in their foreign worker population. This was a UK company with affiliate offices all over the world. They were concerned that their UK office specifically did not have the proper knowledge to track their foreign worker population and wanted to better understand the immigration options available to them for future hires.

Need

GMP offered to do a mock audit of their record keeping and an informal training on “Immigration 101” in the UK. They needed multiple members of their HR team to be provided in depth guidance and wanted to deep dive together into their files. While we can support with a compliance audit virtually, we offered an in-person service as this best met their needs.

Implication

The risks of an employer being out of compliance, in any country, are that at any point in time they could be visited/audited by the relevant immigration agency. If they are found lacking in their compliance of foreign workers: e.g. record keeping, basic knowledge of the status of their foreign workers, etc., they could be fined and the applicable company license/ability to sponsor foreign workers could be revoked. In the UK, the Home Office is the responsible immigration agency that would audit an employer.

Benefits & Challenges

The client was benefited in the long-term by learning what data points they should be tracking and best practices they should be following. The risk to an employer if found in non-compliance can range from fines to revocation of the sponsor license and even to forced termination of the foreign workers. It is often a challenge for employers to be sufficiently knowledgeable on immigration compliance. Mock audits can standardize hiring protocols and compliance checks on foreign workers.

Key Points & Analysis

GMP showed the employer what information they should be tracking for their foreign worker population, and the risks to them if they did not. The record keeping of this client was not quite to standard and if audited by the Home Office they could have been found lacking. This half day mock audit pales in comparison to the potential ramifications they could have faced from the government audit.