The UK’s points-based immigration, which came into effect on January 2021, is not incentivising enough employers to invest more in the recruitment and training of UK workers as intended, according to research from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) and YouGov.

The research showed that two years on from the implementation of the new rules, 15% of employers have used the system to sponsor migrant workers, despite 57% of employers having hard-to-fill vacancies.

According to the CIPD, it is the minority of mainly large employers that have sponsored migrant workers since January 2021 that are most likely to be taking a range of actions to tackle hard-to-fill vacancies.

The research showed that in response to their organisations’ hard-to-fill vacancies, employers that have sponsored migrant workers since 2021 are more likely than other employers to have: Hired apprentices (34% vs 23%); Hired UK graduates (28% vs 14%); and introduced or increased investment in automation (23% vs 12%).

Meanwhile, employers who have sponsored migrant workers are also more likely than those who have not to report that in the last three years they have: recruited black, asian or minority ethnic people (75% vs 52%); recruited people with a history of long-term unemployment (29% vs 13%; and recruited people with a disability or long-term health condition (57% vs 31%).

The CIPD’s research also found that 54% of employers that have used the new system believe it is effective in helping address skill and labour shortages, compared to a third (34%) that feel it is ineffective. Overall, it finds the new system has been used effectively to address rising skills shortages in certain sectors, including health, social care and IT.

The report also highlighted areas where the immigration system could be improved. Users of the system cited drawbacks with the internal administration time required to hire through the sponsorship system (48%). Employers were also concerned about the costs of hiring through the system (44%) and the overall time involved in hiring through this route (42%).

The CIPD is calling for a major revamp of skills policy and industrial strategy, to encourage and enable more employers to recruit, train and retain a wider range of workers.

Ben Willmott, head of public policy for the CIPD, said, “An anticipated benefit of changes to immigration policy was that it would encourage employers to invest more in local workers, but in too many instances this doesn’t appear to be happening as intended.

“If the government wants to support the employment and training of UK-born workers, it needs to work more closely with employers to address failing policies such as the Apprenticeship Levy,” Willmott added.