EDITORIAL — Talent laggard
Whether it’s developing, retaining or attracting talent, the Philippines continues to slide in its international ranking. In the 2023 Global Talent Competitiveness Index, the Philippines ranked 84th out of 134 economies – a four-point fall from 80th out of 133 in the 2022 index.
French business school Institut Europeen d’Administration des Affaires or INSEAD has been drawing up the index since 2013, in collaboration with the Descartes Institute for the Future and the Human Capital Leadership Institute. Assessing the Philippines’ rankings in the past decade, INSEAD described the country as a “talent laggard,” with its average score of 39.23 lower than the 47.77 general average. From 2013 to 2018, the country’s average rank was 56th; this went down to an average of 63rd from 2019 to 2023. Out of 15 countries in East and Southeast Asia as well as Oceania, the Philippines placed 13th.
Economies are assessed based on six pillars: how they enable, attract, grow and retain talent, as as well as the quality of vocational and technical skills and global knowledge skills. The Philippines had the highest score in growing talent and the lowest in attracting. Its second worst score was in retaining talent – not surprising in an economy that is one of the largest exporters of its human resource.
With the continuing exodus of workers and the inability to attract talent, skills shortages are being felt in many industries across the country, from health care to education, agribusiness, manufacturing, digital technology, utilities and construction. The skills and brain drain can be offset by education, but this sector is in dire need of a dramatic upgrade.
The countries that rank high in the talent index are also among the most prosperous. Switzerland, Singapore and the United States were ranked as the three most talent-competitive countries. Rounding out the top 10 were Denmark, the Netherlands, Finland, Norway, Australia, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
A co-author of the index said the Philippines could improve its ranking by doing more to attract job-generating foreign direct investments, improving digital skills and building on its “fairly strong” business schools and other
