BackSwitzerland 1st, India 48th in IMD World Talent Report 2014
The only Asian country to rank among the top five was Malaysia, which improved its position from the 20th place in 2005 to 5th in 2014
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Mumbai: Switzerland emerged as the top country with the ability to develop, attract and retain talent out of the 60 countries surveyed in the IMD World Talent Report 2014.
India slipped to the 48th position from the 29th position it held in 2005.
The Switzerland-based IMD, a top-ranked global business school, on Thursday released its first World Talent Report which assessed countries on their ability to invest in and develop home-grown talent, ability to retain home-grown talent and attract overseas talent and the ability to fulfil market demands with its available talent pool.
The report draws upon the IMD World Competitiveness Center’s historical database to assess how the ranking has evolved from 2005 to 2014.
The only Asian country to rank among the top five was Malaysia, which improved its position from the 20th place in 2005 to 5th in 2014. Denmark, Germany and Finland were the other countries among the top five in 2014.
“The best-ranked countries have a balanced approach between their commitment to education, investment in developing local talent, and their ability to attract overseas talent," said Arturo Bris, director of the IMD World Competitiveness Center. “Countries with smart talent strategies are also highly agile in developing policies that improve their talent pipeline."
Brazil too witnessed a sharp fall in its ranking from 28th in 2005 to 52nd in 2014.
For India, only public expenditure on education showed an increase (from 3.14% in 2005 to 3.80% in 2014), while other indicators like prioritization of employee training, female labour force, availability of competent senior managers, ability to attract highly-skilled foreign people, availability of finance skills and management education fit to the needs of the business community, all witnessed a fall since 2005.
The sharpest drop was seen in the access to skilled labour, which fell from 7.58 points in 2005 to 5.75 points in 2014. In comparison,, the availability of skilled labour in Malaysia improved from 5.77 points to 6.95 points.
Indian companies’ struggle to improve female labour participation was also reflected in the ranking, as women’s participation fell from 31.65% in 2005 to 25.30% in 2014. In comparison, Switzerland’s female labour force increased from 44.69% to 46.16%.
Malaysia’s rose from 36.06% to 37.03% in the same period.
“Fluctuations in a country’s ranking from 2005 to 2014 may stem from cyclical economic and socio-political issues that affect immigration policies and/or investment in education," Bris said.
“In some cases, such policies could reduce a country’s ability to attract overseas talent despite strong commitment to local talent development."
Countries that showed a positive balance between investing in and developing local talent, and the ability to attract and retain overseas talent, performed consistently well.
In addition, the Malaysia example shows that a strategy aimed at improving both the home-grown and overseas talent has a positive impact on the country’s performance.
The performance of India and Brazil show that imbalances across all talent competitiveness criteria are detrimental for the sustainability of an effective and dynamic talent pipeline.
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