The government should help UK business retain top overseas digital talent after graduation, according to Julie Markey, head of HR at dedicated online firm Ocado.

Markey told Recruiter: “The changing immigration landscape is adding additional complexities to our recruitment challenge. UK universities have always attracted large numbers of the best students the world has to offer. It appears that evolving government policies, in particular with regard to post study work visas, may make it much harder for us to employ such students after graduation.

“We strongly believe that the government should be enabling us to retain top overseas talent in this country. We would also urge the UK government to invest greater resources into R&D activity. We see this as a critical factor in attracting a greater proportion of our brightest students onto science-based university courses, and in retaining the best academic talent in university teaching staff.”

For more on recruitment into the digital sector, see our inaugural digital sector focus in the new issue of Recruiter, out Wednesday.