The pandemic taught Britain’s technology executives that business can still happen even if everyone’s working from home. That lesson is providing a source of relief as the nation’s year-end departure from the European Union looms.
A range of senior members of the industry say that having to fabricate remote workforces almost overnight in response to the coronavirus has transformed how they’ll approach recruitment after Brexit. A rough consensus on this is emerging: executives will be kept local to headquarters, but most other roles will not.
This approach may lessen the need for work visas, something that could be a huge benefit to an industry where almost a fifth of its workers are born outside of Britain. Though remote working has limits, the prospect of being able to attract and keep a scattered workforce suggests the tech industry, and perhaps other service businesses such as recruiting, are in a stronger position to survive Brexit than they may have expected before the spread of COVID-19.