IMD World Talent Report 2023

5. Concluding remarks The results show the continuous dominance of the talent competitiveness ranking by Switzerland, at the country level. This year, Belgium and Singapore return to the top 10 of the ranking. At the regional level, Western Europe remains as the global leader of talent competitiveness. Results also show that North America is the region with the highest appeal. North America and Eastern Asia are the second most talent-ready regions. The 2023 results also highlight a trend of concern among some of the top countries in terms of graduates in sciences. For instance, Luxembourg (50th), Iceland (53rd), and the Netherlands (51st) are placed at the bottom of the ranking in the indicator that captures the percentage of those graduates. This trend may be detrimental for the sustainability of their talent competitiveness, as such graduates are at the core of technological innovation, for example.

Our findings also highlight some of the potential outcomes in terms of the changes in the work model. About 68% of the executives we surveyed believe that in-office presence is important for career development, with 27% indicating that it is detrimental. In the context of hybrid or remote work environments, therefore, prox imity bias can have negative consequences for talent development. This is so because some employees may have less visibility and interaction with their managers and colleagues than others. In turn, such conditions can lead to limited opportunities for further training and thus for career advancement. Companies experiencing such a trend may not be able to attract and/or retain talent, potentially affecting their productivity and innovation. In the long run, this trend may affect the effectiveness of the overall talent pipe. The current drive to return to the in-office model among some organizations is likely to exacerbate this situation. Finding solutions for such issues therefore becomes all the more crucial.

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