Where Australia sits in the Global Talent map

How does Australia fares against the rest of the world in terms of nurturing and attracting talent?

The Global Talent Index, produced by the Economist Intelligence Unit  in collaboration with Heidrick and Struggles, ranks countries according to the availability of talent, and predicted the likely supply scenario in five years time.

Australia’s score on the global talent index is as follows:
Workforce demographics (how many people of working age, 20-59 years old are available) – Rank 27 
Quality of education – Rank 7
Quality of universities and business school – Rank 5
Quality of the environment to nurture talent – Rank 7
Mobility and openness of the labour market – Rank 5
Stock and flow of foreign direct investment – Rank 8
Proclivity to attracting talent – Rank 6

Overall Australia’s situation is fairly positive with a ranking of No 7 in the world, and No 1 in the Asia-Pacific region. However, come 2012, Australia is predicted to relinquished its No1 ranking to Singapore, and also drop to No 8 globally.

A few thoughts

• Why settle for No 8 in the world, why not No 1? Author Richard Florida is his book the flight of the creative class ranked Australian cities like Sydney and Melbourne as major talent hot spots for the creative class.  How can we, as a nation, aim to be #1 destination for talent? OECD is not too positive.
• Borders are vanishing in a world becoming increasingly flat, how should talent strategies adapt? See a good post by Jan Ackerman VP Oracle recruitment.
• Does geography matters in a world of broadband. Would it matter if half your workforce are located in a different country? Such a situation is nearer than you think.
• What would you do differently if you are to compete for talent on a global stage? Would you change your current talent acquisition strategy? Would it make you work harder to win talent?
• Do you know where your talent will come from, five years from now? Shouldn’t you know?

When the ‘future’ is concerned, nothing is certain. Perhaps, the only certainty is, come 2012, the way we track, source, engage and hire talent promises to be very different from how it is done today.

Planning ahead now might avert future talent supply problems. Shell pioneered Scenario Planning to prepare for the future. Perhaps, now is the time for talent scenario planning.