IMD World Talent Ranking 2022

Figure 3: Appeal factor (scores 0-100) in 2019 – 2022. Source: IMD (2022)

4. Rises and falls in the talent mobility landscape

Figure 3 showcases the performances in the Appeal factor of the 63 economies under study in 2019 (before the pandemic started) and in 2022. Economies above the 45-degree line improved their performances in the Appeal factor in the three years. More specifically, the closer an economy is to the top-left corner of the chart, the larger its improvement has been between 2019 and 2022 values. The opposite is also true; countries closer to the bottom-right corner of the chart are those that experienced the largest decline in performance in Appeal during the same time frame. The size of the bubble captures the level of GDP per capita at purchasing power parity (PPP). The chart suggests that most of the economies under study experienced a decline in Appeal between pre and post pandemic. This supports our narrative that COVID-19 deeply impacted economies’ ability to attract and retain highly skilled workers. Furthermore, the chart shows that countries that have improved their Appeal in the early post-pandemic era are not those with the highest income levels. Saudi Arabia is the country that improved the most its Appeal between 2019 and 2022. Across different Appeal levels, we observe that several Central & Eastern European economies (Czech Republic, Croatia, Slovak Republic) as well as Mongolia also improved. Conversely, economies such as the US, Canada, the UAE, Denmark,

The COVID-19 pandemic had and keeps having a lasting impact on the talent competitiveness of the economies tracked in this report. Results from the 2021 edition of the WTR emphasized the fact that talent competitiveness in a post-pandemic context would greatly depend upon on the level of motivation of the workforce. The boosting of that motivation goes beyond economic incentives such as remuneration and is increasingly linked to a country’s quality of life, the impact of organizational leadership in cementing the motivation among members of the workforce, the competence and the international experience of business leaders. Another element that significantly contributes to worker motivation in highly talent-competitive economies includes retraining oppor tunities for members of staff. The aforementioned elements continue to be the main drivers of talent competitiveness in 2022, as well. Building on these results, however, our findings this year show how these trends, paired with country-spe cific socio-economic developments that are explained below, are shaping the landscape of the highly ranked economies. In this context, it is particularly interesting to look at the shifts happening in the Appeal factor, which measures the ability to retain homegrown talent while complementing the needs of the economy by drawing from the international talent pool.

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