Despite having reasonably flexible labour markets and decent foreign direct investment inflows, South Africa is struggling to attract talent, according to a survey released on Wednesday by executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles, in partnership with the Economist Intelligence Unit.
The survey, titled the Global Talent Index analysed 30 countries from various regions around the world on seven variables, Moneyweb reported on Wednesday.
South Africa is at 24 overall, above Egypt, Turkey, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and Iran.
After five years of strong global economic growth, shortages of skilled people in the areas of financial services, healthcare, construction and management have become a major constraint for businesses.
According to Heidrick & Struggles (H&S): ”Talent is the new oil, and demand far outstrips supply.”
Talent, defined as people with skills, education and competence who can contribute to a growing and robust economy, is scarce, and the advantage lies with the talented, not with the organisations and businesses seeking to hire the talented.
Thus, competition among companies and countries can be fierce.
Businesses and economies desperately need skilled, talented people to keep their operations running, to identify and exploit opportunities, to manage productivity and efficiency, and to improve economic growth.
In a bid to improve their talent bases, countries like the United Kingdom have spruced up their immigration system to lure talented people, while others, like China, are turning out hundreds of thousands of graduates every year.
South Africa needs to boost economic growth beyond the 6%-a-year range in order to create enough new jobs to absorb the huge numbers of unemployed (and often unskilled) people. – Sapa