Which countries do it best to attract talent? 2021 ranking

Knowing how to retain and attract talent is a priority for the most advanced companies. This is what Jason Wingard, President at Temple University and expert of our think tank Future Trends Forum shared with us us when he visited us in Madrid a few months ago. In a digital and hyper-connected economy, the governments of the different countries are not immune to this trend. Through policies, regulations, grants, and incentives, everyone strives to attract the best talent. 

How do you know which countries do it best and why? 

Since 2012, the Global Talent Competitiveness Index (GTCI) has become a world benchmark in the field of talent strategies, and is widely cited by companies, governments and analysts interested in identifying the different aspects of the future of work. 

The GTCI provides a composite vision of the competitiveness of talent, this year 2021, to 134 countries and whose edition has just seen the light. It is an annual benchmarking tool that ranks countries and major cities based on their ability to develop, attract, and retain talent. 

The creator of the index is Bruno Lanvin, CEO of Global Indices at INSEAD and co-founder, together with our Foundation’s trustee, Soumitra Dutta, of the Global Information Technology Report and the Global Innovation Index, about whose 2021 edition we recently had a very interesting interview. 

Main conclusions of the GTCI 

The 2021 edition, under the title Competitiveness of talent in times of COVID, addresses the COVID-19 pandemic and how it has affected the global landscape of talent competitiveness at the level of countries, cities and organizations: 

• This year’s report shows stability at the top of the ranking. Switzerland (1) leads the group for the eighth time, with impressive performance in almost every aspect of talent competitiveness. It is followed by Singapore (2), once again excelling in many areas except in its ability to retain talent. The United States (3) leads the world in talent growth, especially when measuring lifelong learning. 

• Time series analyzes from previous years suggest that the gap between the most competitive countries in talent and the rest is widening due to the pandemic. 
• Europe dominates the talent competitiveness index. A total of 17 European countries were in the top 25. Spain is in 29th position. 
• As the global health crisis caused by the pandemic has redefined the way people and businesses work, the countries that gain the greatest advantage over the rest are those that have: 

• invested in a digitally literate workforce, 
• accelerated the adoption of online tools and 

• found novel ways to attract talent. 

• The recovery packages implemented by the different countries will be of significant importance in shaping the labor markets and competitiveness with regard to talent by 2022. 
• Growing talent – mainly through education – attracting talent – from abroad – and retaining talent are the keys to competitiveness in this area. 
• The GTCI also shows that money and taxes are far from the most important factors: talent is attracted to talent. 

Attraction of talent by cities 

GTCI also draws up a ranking of cities in the world on their ability to retain and attract talent. 

Cities that have proven capabilities in fields such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and other cutting-edge technology trends – such as fintech, healthtech, and medtech – lead the talent rankings, led by San Francisco, Boston, and Singapore. Near them, some European cities such as Luxembourg, Geneva, Dublin and Zurich. 

Quality of life continues to be a great asset to compete in attracting talent, where medium-sized cities such as Geneva, Copenhagen and Dublin benefit from their high scores in areas such as environment and safety. 

The Spanish cities present in this year’s ranking are Barcelona (in position 36 out of 155), Madrid (43), Bilbao (74) and Zaragoza (86). 

The report highlights two initiatives carried out in Spain: 

• The Barcelona Never Stops project, which aims to regenerate the economic and social fabric of the city, and 
• The Bilbao Aurrera plan, with a budget of 15 million euros to address social cohesion, economic recovery and employment. 

Spain: challenges and opportunities   

The 29th position in the ranking is not bad, although it is far from the best European countries. It improves the position of Italy (35), but is far from the top positions held by Switzerland (1), Denmark (4), Sweden (5) or the Netherlands (6). 

We must aspire to get closer to Germany (10) and France (19). 

Spain has to improve in two areas: 

1. In attracting foreign talent, where it occupies position 43 and  

2. In professional and technical skills, where it occupies position 57 in the ranking. 

In our report The future of work, we collect, among many other things, the proposals of our experts so that Spain can be more competitive when it comes to having and attracting talent. 

As Soumitra Dutta told us in a recent interview, Spain could approach countries like Germany or France, investing heavily in three areas: 

1. Universities, with training programs more focused on the most demanded profiles now and in the future 

2. R&D 

3. Creation of ecosystems and clusters that connect universities, companies and entrepreneurs 

Focusing on: 

• High technology 
• Biology and biotechnology