Switzerland, the most attractive country for Top Talent

7 years ago - Published in Finance, Fundamental Analysis

Switzerland has once again taken the top spot in the World Talent Ranking, an annual rundown of the ability of countries to attract, develop, and retain top-performing staff.
Published on Monday by the IMD Business School in Lausanne, the report analyses over 60 countries according to various criteria important to professional workers, and finds that Switzerland comes out top overall for the fifth year in a row.

As well as topping the ranking overall, Switzerland led the pack in the ‘appeal’ and ‘readiness’ categories. Its performance in the former was largely due to the quality of life and salaries that Switzerland offers, allowing it to remain attractive to highly-skilled staff despite its high cost of living. The country’s high level of university education and management education contributed to its pole position in ‘readiness’.

Globally, Europe continues to dominate the rankings, with Switzerland, Denmark, and Belgium being the most competitive countries. Austria, Finland, the Netherlands, Norway, Germany, Sweden and Luxembourg made up the top 10.
The US came in 16th, while Great Britain dropped to 21st place, largely due to worsening appeal and a low score on education investment. China came in 40th, while Venezuela propped up the rankings.
According to a press release, the top countries all share similar characteristics of attraction: “they invest significantly in their outstanding education systems, they offer a superior quality of life, and they offer substantial opportunities for career advancement throughout the entire professional life span.”

”The outstanding education systems in Europe sets them apart from the rest of the pack. This allows them to develop local talent and at the same time attract foreign, highly- skilled professionals, which many European businesses rely upon to perform,” the report said. The annual IMD World Talent Ranking covered 63 countries and assessed the methods the countries adopted to attract and retain talent. 

The rankings are based on a country’s performance in three main categories — investment and development, appeal, and readiness. The three categories assess how countries perform in areas including education, apprenticeships, workplace training, language skills, cost of living, quality of life, remuneration and tax rates.