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Switzerland most attractive country for specialists and global talent

Switzerland most attractive country for specialists and global talent

Tokyo (SCCIJ) – Switzerland has been ranked again the most attractive country for specialists, followed by Singapore and the United States of America, according to the Global Talent Competitiveness Index 2021. Switzerland also topped the IMD World Talent Ranking in Lausanne for the sixth consecutive year for 2021, mainly due to strongly supporting its domestic workforce and highly appealing to international talent.

Switzerland most attractive country for specialists and global talent

Switzerland came out of the top of the Global Talent Competitiveness Index again (Photo source: Pixabay CC0).

Impressive performance

Published by INSEAD and the Portulans Institute, this year’s Global Talent Competitiveness rankings see European countries dominating the top positions with 17 of them in the top 25. Outstanding non-European countries that make it into the top 25 are Australia (11th), Canada (13th), New Zealand (15th), Japan (20th), Israel (21st), and the United Arab Emirates (25th). China (37th) breaks into the top 40, its highest position ever.

The most talent-competitive country is Switzerland, as has been the case ever since the first GTCI was launched in 2013. The country stands out in that it has impressive performances in virtually all aspects of talent competitiveness. It is the highest-ranked country in three of the six pillars – Enable, Retain, and Vocational and Technical Skills – and is among the top 5 in the other three: Grow (3rd), Attract (4th), and Global Knowledge Skills (5th).

Support for women needed

Switzerland equally impresses at a more disaggregated level, making it into the top 10 in 12 of 14 sub-pillars and the global leader in three of them: Market Landscape, Business, and Labor Landscape, and Sustainability. Mid-Level Skills (11th) and Internal Openness (12th) are the two sub-pillars where it ranks outside the top 10, but only just. The area where Switzerland could improve the most is gender equality, like supporting more women to gain high-skilled jobs.

Felipe Monteiro, Academic Director of the Global Talent Competitiveness Index (GTCI) and INSEAD Senior Affiliate Professor of Strategy, states: “Top-ranked Switzerland and Singapore are speeding up transitions to a sustainable, future-proof economy. Switzerland is strengthening its position as a leader in sustainable finance.”

Attracting world talent

Switzerland also remains in the leading position of the new IMD World Talent Competitiveness Ranking due to its sustained performance in all relevant factors. It is 1st in Investment & Development and Appeal, taking 3rd position in Readiness. At the indicator level, the country’s performance is strongly supported by public expenditure in education, the implementation of apprenticeships, the prioritization of employee training, and the overall effectiveness of the health system.

Switzerland remains attractive for overseas highly skilled personnel and experiences weak brain drain effects (i.e. brain drain does not hinder the country’s competitiveness). The combination of high quality of life and work environment with highly available opportunities to further develop work-related skills contribute to high levels of worker motivation. The readiness of the country to meet talent demands is underlined by the effectiveness of its education system (e.g., university education and student mobility) and the type of skills and competencies it offers (e.g., skilled workforce, finance skills, and senior managers with international skills) as a result of that effectiveness.

The Global Talent Competitiveness Index 2021 is available here and the IMD World Talent Ranking 2021 can be found here.

Text: SCCIJ based on material from both reports

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