Dublin ranked as top 10 city globally for attracting talent
Image: Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock

Dublin ranked as top 10 city globally for attracting talent

20 Feb 2018

Ireland’s capital fares well in the latest valuation by the Global Talent Competitiveness Index as Dublin is ranked among the top 10 cities for attracting and retaining talent.

Ireland, and Dublin in particular, is in an interesting position when it comes to attracting talent.

On the one hand, the UK’s historic Brexit result has been viewed by many as a potential boon to the Irish economy. The argument made is that many companies will elect to relocate their operations to Ireland from the UK due to it being a primarily English-speaking eurozone nation and therefore attractive to multinationals.

A recent report by LinkedIn into professional migration patterns between the UK and Ireland supports this optimistic view.

On the other hand, the accommodation crisis currently gripping Ireland has done some damage to the country’s image, and that risks spoiling the potential gains from both Brexit and Ireland’s position as a global tech hub.

It seems that the ballooning rents in Ireland haven’t deterred the people behind the Global Talent Competitiveness Index (GTCI), however. In this year’s edition of its index, Dublin has been declared a top city for attracting and retaining talent worldwide.

The GTCI was developed by INSEAD, The Adecco Group and Tata Communications. It aims to provide a benchmark tool for governments, cities, businesses and not-for-profits to help design their talent strategies. The report was first launched in 2013.

According to the report, the commonalities among the champions of the GTCI are as follows:

  • education systems build on employability
  • flexible regulatory and business landscape
  • employment policies combining flexibility and social protection
  • external and internal openness

Switzerland rose to the top of the country ranking for talent competitiveness, its financial centre having also been awarded the top spot for cities.

The top five cities were all located in Europe: Zurich, Stockholm, Oslo, Copenhagen and Helsinki. This was followed by Washington DC and then Dublin in seventh place.

The top cities, so the report explains, have managed to combine quality of life, education opportunities and a global view of business with development opportunities.

The GTCI was quick to point out that talent isn’t sufficient to compete in the increasingly bewildering global economy in which disruption has become the new normal.

‘Diversity trumps talent’ is the maxim that the survey leads with, aligning with recent findings from a survey of HR professionals, which indicates that diversity is a top emerging trend in recruitment.

Yet even the top performers in the index haven’t necessarily cracked the diversity problem. Switzerland, for example, is criticised for not having enough female graduates or women in leadership.

That is not to say that diversity is easy to achieve, but the report extols the benefits of achieving it. At the other side of the diversity issue lies the potential for greater revenues and more customers for businesses.

Meanwhile, the US has a great talent pool, but the report lists its lack of tolerance for minorities as something that mars the nation.

Click to enlarge. Infographic: gtcistudy.com

 

Click to enlarge. Infographic: gtcistudy.com

Eva Short
By Eva Short

Eva Short was a journalist at Silicon Republic, specialising in the areas of tech, data privacy, business, cybersecurity, AI, automation and future of work, among others.

Loading now, one moment please! Loading