A global shortage of talent.

[Dave A]

If I understand this correctly, there is something of a global shortage of talent. And South Africa isn't doing that good a job of attracting the talent it needs.

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.
full story from M&G here

Surprise!

I thought it was rather abundantly clear that we've been a nett exporter of talent (and nearly realised talent) for some time now. We've even had ministerial requests for that talent to leave. Now it seems we've been exporting a scarce resource. Real bright!

At some point, somewhere, somebody in the corridors of power is going to wake up and kick themselves. Surely.

[Chatmaster]

It is really fascinating picking up with all my old school mates atm on Facebook. The amount of them that are overseas, lawyers, auditors etc. I also hear allot of them that are still here discussing there options of leaving, regularly. I am not planning on leaving soon but there are several reasons I cannot argue with people that do consider doing so. The country certainly are entangled in some serious racial divide. It seems to me like the majority of the citizens have moved on and has generally non racial approach to life, however the opposite seems to be true from government and political leaders from the ANC and definitely COSATU's perspective. I am very confident that the young people of today, that will be the leaders of tomorrow will have a less racial view on things, but the question remains, will they be leaders in a country destroyed and corrupted by racist political leaders?

Racism will continue driving talented people from this great country, anyway that is my opinion...