Capability Brief

Talent Attraction & Retention

The capacity to attract skilled people from abroad, hold the skilled people already here and win the international contest for talent.

Definition

What Talent Attraction & Retention is, and how it is measured

The capacity to attract skilled people from abroad, hold the skilled people already here and win the international contest for talent.

Indicators

Leaders

Placeholder

These ratings stand in until the capability is rated.

Likeness, from 0 to 1, as the Atlas measures it.

Developments

Oldest first

1997
Steven Hankin of McKinsey & Company coined the term "war for talent"
Hankin's phrase named the increasingly competitive landscape for recruiting and retaining talented employees. It gave organisations and governments a shared vocabulary for treating talent as a contested, scarce resource rather than a routine personnel matter.
2001
Ed Michaels, Helen Handfield-Jones and Beth Axelrod published The War for Talent with Harvard Business Press
The book popularised the concept beyond consulting circles, arguing that competitive advantage rested not on superior human resources processes but on a mindset placing talent at the centre of organisational success. It became the standard reference for talent attraction and retention strategy.
2006
The Economist noted companies did not even know how to define talent
A 2006 article referencing the Michaels book observed that firms could not define talent, let alone manage it. The critique highlighted the conceptual weakness underlying talent attraction and retention practice.

Most recent first

2019–21
United States labour market tightened from 1.2 to 1.5 vacancies per unemployed person
Vacancies per unemployed worker stood at 1.2 in the fourth quarter of 2019 and reached 1.5 two years later. The shift documented how post-pandemic conditions sharpened an already tight competition for skilled workers.
2016
A digital business study identified inability to attract talent as a major digital threat to governments
The 2016 study found that ministries' capacity to attract and retain talent was among the most serious and most overlooked digital threats governments faced. It framed public sector talent competition as a matter of state capability rather than mere administration.
2009
Solvent firms engaged in visible talent poaching from distressed competitors
During the economic downturn, financially sound firms raided employers under hardship, as when JP Morgan was raided by a European firm in March 2009. This showed that the contest for talent intensifies rather than abates in a recession.