The UAE ranks as the number one economy in the Middle East in attracting and retaining talent, according to the Second Global Talent Competitiveness Index released on Tuesday.
From the Gulf, Qatar and Saudi Arabia also find a place among the top 35 economies in terms of talent competitiveness of its human capital, says the study released by INSEAD, a leading international business school.
The study, which measures a nation’s competitiveness based on the quality of talent it can produce, attract and retain, was produced in collaboration with the Human Capital Leadership Institute of Singapore (HCLI) and Adecco, and focuses on the topic ‘Growing talent for today and tomorrow’.
The index, which ranked Switzerland as number one, placed the UAE 22nd globally, ahead of Qatar (25th) and Saudi Arabia (32nd).
Indicating an acute shortage of skilled workforce, India has been ranked 78th globally in terms of talent competitiveness of its human capital.
In the list of 93 countries, Switzerland is followed by Singapore, Luxembourg, Denmark, United States and Canada in the top five. Sweden and the UK are ranked sixth and seventh respectively, with Denmark (eighth), Australia (ninth) and Ireland (10th) making it to the top 10.
Bruno Lanvin, executive director of Global Indices at INSEAD, and co-author of the report, said the three GCC countries combined a high degree of external openness (UAE ranks third in the world, Qatar fourth and Saudi Arabia ninth) with a high level of performance on ‘talent and business enablers’.
“All three countries share the same approach by which their respective governments have given priority to making life easier for business and more attractive for external talents. This is proving a successful combination,” said Lanvin.
The UAE ranks particularly high on the ‘Attract’ pillar (external openness and internal openness), reflecting the government’s efforts to diversify its resource-based economy. As part of its drive towards becoming a ‘knowledge economy’, the government has taken steps to attract foreign talent and expertise. This is evidenced by the performance in areas of external openness (third) with top ranks on foreign direct investment (FDI) and technology transfer (second), said the study.
Paul Evans, The Shell Chaired Professor of Human Resources and Organisational Development, Emeritus, at INSEAD, and co-editor of the report, said that in the UAE, the regulatory environment has played a key role in allowing success in growing and attracting talent.
“Efforts to provide life-long learning opportunities to employees are bearing fruit. In the longer run, small economies like those of the UAE can benefit from the experience of other small economies such as Switzerland, where the development of vocational skills have long been a priority. Economic diversification will require less dependency on external talent. This applies to the entire spectrum of skills required in high-performance enterprises and organisations,” Evans said.
The UAE ranks 31st in labour and vocational skills — which could indicate a time lag between various policies, resources and efforts implemented to foster talent competitiveness, and the quality of talent produced as a result of these measures.
Many of the other economies in the ‘top 20’ have strong immigration traditions, including the United States (4), Canada (5), Sweden (6), the United Kingdom (7), and Australia (9).
“These high performing countries also have long prioritised education, as is the case for the other Scandinavian countries, all in the top 15: Denmark (8), Norway (11), and Finland (13),” said the study.
GTCI covers national and organisational parameters and generates insights to inspire action.
Evans pointed out that one of the most interesting findings this year is the renewed importance of vocational education. “It’s not just higher education that is important today — vocational learning needs to be integrated into secondary education. In Switzerland, thinking about becoming employable starts off in schools at an early age. At age 15, over 70 per cent of Swiss school children go on to select what’s known as the apprenticeship track, combining practical work experience with traditional theoretical learning.”
He said within the current Swiss government, half of the ministers have come out of the vocational stream. “For future talent competitiveness, countries have to take vocational education — that is, employability — much more seriously.”
The 20 top-scoring countries in the GTCI 2014 are all high-income countries. This is hardly surprising, since rich countries tend to have better universities and a greater ability to attract foreign talents through higher quality of life and remuneration, making them more talent competitive.
