United Arab Emirates continues to lead the Middle East for ability to grow, attract and retain talent

• SecondGlobal Talent Competitiveness Index ranks leading economies on their ability to attract and retain talent
• United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia ranked in top 35 for ability to grow, attract and retain talent
• Switzerland and Singapore top global rankings
• Importance of employable skills and vocational education

Abu Dhabi, Fontainebleau (France), Singapore,January 20, 2015 –INSEAD, the leading international business school, today released the 2014 edition of its annual Global Talent Competitiveness Index (GTCI). The study whichmeasuresa 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 rankedthe United Arab Emirates22nd globally and number one in the Middle East, ahead of Qatar (25th) and Saudi Arabia (32nd). “These three countries combine a high degree of external openness (UAE ranks 3rd in the world, Qatar 4th and KSA 9th) 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”underlined Bruno Lanvin, Executive Director of Global Indices at INSEAD, and co-author of the report.

The United Arab Emirates (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 aclear drive towards becoming a ‘knowledge economy’, the government has taken steps to attract foreign talent and expertise. This is evidenced by the performancein areas of External Openness (3rd) with top ranks on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and Technology Transfer (2nd).

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.’

Evans also noted that “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 entirespectrum of skills required in high-performance enterprises and organisations.”

The UAE ranks 31st in Labour and Vocational skills (LV) 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.

Commenting on this year’s study, Ilian Mihov, Dean of INSEAD, said:“We live in a world where talent has become the core currency of competitiveness - for businesses and national economies alike. Yet there is an all-too-frequent mismatch between education systems and the needs of labour markets. Businesses and governments need new kinds of leaders and entrepreneurs, equipped with the skills that will help their firms and countries to thrive in the global knowledge economy. To help them making the right decisions in an increasingly complex environment, we need the kind of indicators and metrics that GTCI offers.”

Global Talent Competitiveness Index rankings (MENA countries)
Country Overall Rank 2014 Overall Rank 2013     
United Arab Emirates         22      19
Qatar         25      34
Saudi Arabia         32      42
Lebanon         57      48
Egypt, Arab Rep.         80      89
Morocco         85      90
Algeria         91      103
Yemen         93                             -
Kuwait - 60
Jordan - 62

Paul Evans, The Shell Chaired Professor of Human Resources and Organisational Development, Emeritus, at INSEAD, and co-editor of the report, noted: “Perhaps 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 percent of Swiss school children go on to select what’s known as the apprenticeship track, combining practical work experience with traditional theoretical learning.” He added: “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.”

GTCI Input Sub-Index rankings
Country Enablers Rank
(Regulatory, Market & Business Landscape) Attract Rank
(External & Internal Openness) Grow Rank
(Formal Education, Lifelong Learning & Access to Growth Opportunities) Retain Rank
(Sustainability & Lifestyle) Labour &Vocational Rank
(Employable Skills & Labour Productivity) Global Knowledge Rank (Higher Skills,Competencies & Talent Impact)
United Arab Emirates 11 4 24 32 31 52
Qatar 12 3 25 41 30 59
Saudi Arabia 27 34 42 26 43 35
Lebanon 72 74 40 56 61 47
Egypt, Arab Rep. 86 92 88 43 62 67
Morocco 82 83 89 74 82 88
Algeria 92 90 92 67 91 87

The twenty 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. However, beyond this ‘top-level’ correlation of talent competitiveness with wealth, the GTCI study reveals six key factors affecting talent competitiveness across countries of different GDP per capita and development levels:

1. Openness is key to talent competitiveness: openness to trade, investment, immigration and new ideas, embracing globalisation while leveraging human resources.
2. Fiscally stable countries need talent competitiveness for sustainable development: mineral or oil rich countries, or those with context-specific competitive advantage, should foster talent competitiveness to ensure sustainable prosperity.
3. Talent growth can be internal or external: some countries like the US and in Europe successfully focus on developing talent within their own borders, while others such as China attract foreign talent or send their elites abroad for further education.
4. Countries must consider employability or risk high unemployment: ‘talent for growth’ means meeting the actual needs of a national economy. Switzerland, Singapore and the Nordic countries customise their education systems towards appropriate levels of ‘employable skills’.
5. Education systems need to reconsider traditional learning: talent development in the 21st century must go beyond traditional formal education and develop vocational skills.
6. Technology is changing the meaning of ‘employable skills’: technological changes will affect new segments of the labour market, impacting the 250 million ‘knowledge workers’ globally today.
The top of the GTCI rankings is heavily dominated by European countries. The top ten includes only two non-European countries, namely Singapore (2) and the United States (9).

GTCI top 10
1 Switzerland  6 Sweden 
2 Singapore  7 United Kingdom 
3 Luxembourg  8 Denmark 
4 United States  9 Australia 
5 Canada  10 Ireland 

GTCI 2014 champions include a significant number of small high-income economies. Bruno Lanvin, added: “It’s really quite striking that among the top three countries – Switzerland, Singapore and Luxembourg – two are landlocked and one is an island. Faced with specific geographical challenges and a quasi-absence of natural resources, these countries have had no choice but to be open economies, a critical ingredient to being talent competitive.” He added that “The top countries on this year’s GTCI have played the game of globalisation and played it well.” 

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).

GTCI covers national and organisational parameters and generates insights to inspire action. Based on feedback and analysis following the release of GTCI 2013, this year’s index includes 65 variables (up from 45 last year). It covers 93 national economies, across all groups of income and levels of development, and has four pillars on the input side - Enable, Attract, Grow and Retain – focusing on actions for policymakers and business leaders, and (2) two output pillars, benchmarking national performance in  Labour/Vocational and Global Knowledge skills, respectively.