Calling all Yorkshire and Humber Employers - Help us to help you

Professor Gabriella Alberti and her project partners Migration Yorkshire and the Migrant English Support Hub are appealing to employers in the region to participate in their project.

Professor Gabriella Alberti (Centre for Employment Relations, Innovation and Change), and her partners Migration Yorkshire and the Migrant English Support Hub are appealing to employers in the region to participate in their project, and benefit from it in turn. There is also a free training opportunity on offer. 

Get involved in the co-creation of the new Employer Engagement Platform, a new hub of information and guidance on how to recruit, develop and retain migrant workers in key sectors of the Yorkshire and the Humber region. UK regulation of migration and asylum is currently undergoing a substantial change. What often doesn't make headline news, however, is the way regulatory decisions impact beyond the individuals and onto the business and industry each of us is part of.  

Changes to hiring practices inevitably impact on businesses as they take time to learn and to implement. Whilst the knock-on cost to businesses of these changes is an area for further research, Professor Alberti and her partners are seeking to intervene proactively by working with employers across the region to hear from you about the challenges you as an employer face in  hiring, developing and retaining migrant workers, and for those insights to feed directly into The Yorkshire and Humber Employer Engagement Platform.  

The intention behind this is to enable employers to steer their way through the changing regulatory field, and to build relationships with organisations who can offer them support. In addition to the benefit to businesses jobseekers from migrant and refugee backgrounds should see a reduction in the challenges they face. 

For The Yorkshire and Humber Employer Engagement Platform to be as effective as it possibly can be, it needs to be user-driven. This is why Professor Alberti and her partners are calling for businesses across the Yorkshire and Humber region to co-create the platform with them. When asked why employers should give up valuable time for this, Professor Alberti explained the ways in which businesses will benefit from it, and why putting in the time now is time well spent. She explains businesses will benefit from:  

• Straightforward, practical guidance on hiring and supporting migrant and refugee workers, helping you navigate changing rules without needing specialist knowledge. 

• Sharing practices with real recruitment challenges, including how to reach a wider pool of candidates  

• Early access to a new regional employer platform, allowing you to test tools and resources designed specifically to support businesses employing migrant and refugee workers. 

• The ability to shape the platform directly, ensuring it reflects real employer needs and challenges. 

• Opportunities to connect with other employers and share good practice around inclusive employment and workforce development. 

• A role in strengthening the region’s labour market, contributing to a more inclusive, cohesive and economically resilient region. 

If you are interested in participating and wondering what it requires in terms of time commitment, Professor Alberti explains that the first stage is a preliminary conversation with her team, so that they can learn from you about your experience is of hiring migrant workers and what related challenges you have faced. Following this you will be invited to two workshops, the first in Spring 2026 and the second in September 2026. If you are interested in co-creating the Yorkshire and Humber Employer Engagement Platform, please send an expression of interest to either Gabriella Alberti g.alberti@leeds.ac.uk 

In addition to the participation opportunity, there is also a free online training session led by Migration Yorkshire on 28 February 2026, on the subject of 'Navigating the changing migration landscape'. To sign up please register on Eventbrite. We'd urge you to be quick as places are limited.  

Check back here in the coming months for further updates on this project.  

Gabriella Alberti is Professor of International Labour Migration. Her research interests revolve around the conditions of workers at the bottom end of the labour market, whether on non-standard contracts, engaged in gig/platform work, excluded from social protections, migrants and minorities workers facing multiple and intersectional forms of discrimination and exclusion.