Switzerland, the best in the world for attracting talent

5 years ago - Published in Breaking views

Switzerland once again clinched the top spot in a global survey on fostering and attracting talent, in a top 10 list that includes Canada but not the U.S., and no Asian nations.

The country retained its title for the fifth consecutive year on the World Talent Ranking report published by IMD Business School, a result of its strong emphasis on skills training and education. Denmark and Norway were ranked second and third respectively in the poll, which was dominated by European countries.

While the U.S. didn’t make it to the top 10, it climbed four places to rank 12th. The U.K. slid two spots to 23. Canada was the only non-European country to feature among the top 10.

Switzerland once again clinched the top spot in a global survey on fostering and attracting talent, in a top 10 list that includes Canada but not the U.S., and no Asian nations.

The country retained its title for the fifth consecutive year on the World Talent Ranking report published by IMD Business School, a result of its strong emphasis on skills training and education. While Switzerland has topped the global ranking for the fifth year in a row, it is followed by Denmark, Norway, Austria and the Netherlands in the top-five.

At 6th place, Canada is the only non-European nation in the top-ten, which also includes Finland (7th), Sweden (8th), Luxembourg (9th), and Germany (10th).

The Slovak Republic (59th), Colombia (60th), Mexico (61st), Mongolia (62nd), and Venezuela (63rd) are the last countries in the ranking.

While the U.S. didn’t make it to the top 10, it climbed four places to rank 12th. The U.K. slid two spots to 23.

“Economies placed in the top 10 of the ranking generally share high levels of investment in public education and a high quality of life, which allow them both to develop local human capital and to attract highly-skilled professionals from abroad,” said Arturo Bris, director of the IMD World Competitiveness Center.

Singapore was the highest-ranking Asian economy on the index, coming in at 13th place and outranking Hong Kong, which dropped six places this year to 18th. Both economies continued to excel in attracting professionals from abroad but lagged in terms of investment in education, the report noted.

China was ranked 39th because of its difficulties in attracting foreign skilled workers and because its public spending on education remains below the average of advanced economies, the report said.

“Economies placed in the top-10 of the ranking generally share high levels of investments in public education and a high quality of life, which allow them both to develop local human capital and to attract highly-skilled professionals from abroad.

The IMD said it used “hard data and responses to the IMD Executive Opinion Survey” to produce the ranking. This annual survey compiles input from over 6,000 executives based in 63 different economies, it added.