Winners and losers in the war for talent

Which countries do the best job of creating attractive environments for talent attraction and retention?

There is new information just published related to which countries do the best job of attracting, developing and retaining the talent needed to support companies. The prestigious annual IMD World Talent Ranking assesses and compares how 63 different economies perform in both domestic and the international talent pool. The study looks at three factors which comprise of 30 criteria elements. The three factors, each weighted to the same degree of impact are:

1. Investment and development
2. Appeal
3. Readiness

A wide range of areas within each category are considered and these include education, apprenticeships, workplace training, language skills, cost of living, quality of life, remuneration and tax rates.

We were not surprised that Europe continues to dominate the 2017 list, with 11 out of the 15 most talent competitive economies. The results overall are quite similar to last year. Switzerland, Denmark and Belgium remain the most competitive countries in the 2017 IMD World Talent Ranking. In fact, the top 10 are all European countries. Switzerland was the only country to garner number one in more than one category, having ranked first in appeal factor and readiness factor.

Canada is the shining star in the Americas region, coming in at number 11 overall (up one place over last year). The USA was second in the region and 16th overall (down three places from last year). Argentina came in third in the region, but 50th overall.

Tops in the APAC region: 

1. Hong Kong (12th overall, down three places)
2. Singapore (13th overall, up two places)
3. New Zealand (15th overall, down one place)
4. Australia (19th overall, down three places)
5. Taiwan (23rd overall, same as last year)

However, per this Bloomberg article, the report contained bad news for Japan, which came in at 31st overall which is the same as last year, and ranked last among APAC countries in appeal. In fact, Japan was 51st of the 63 nations considered with regard to "appeal."  In trying to compete in the global economy and with an aging and shrinking population, Japan had made immigration changes to claim to offer the world's fastest path to permanent residency, which was considered a very aggressive move for a country notoriously averse to immigration. The concern being that if this trend continues for Japan, will their local workforce be enough to keep them in the global economy race, particularly related to IT and post-secondary talent?

Check out this video launching the 2017 IMD World Competiveness Rankings.