Report: What Talent Wants
While the European labour market has so far shown great resilience in the face of geopolitical and inflationary pressures, longer-term challenges leading to systemic talent shortages persist across nearly all sectors.
Job vacancies in the EU reached the highest levels on record in 2022 and remain well above pre-pandemic levels. A perfect storm of aging populations, declining birth rates, and economic transformation led by AI and the green economy have narrowed the employment pool in industries both new and old. All the while, governments are still playing catch-up in procedural and political terms.
The challenge is clear, but the solutions are less so. Who is responsible for initiating such change? It’s a common question in communities the world over, with private sector-led initiatives taking charge while public sector consortiums are taking centre stage elsewhere.
Regardless of who is leading initiatives, to be successful we must better understand the individual worker and how they make decisions about where to work.
This inaugural report by C Studios, What Talent Wants: Capturing What Europe’s Workforce Seeks in Jobs & Locations, aims to address those topics by providing firsthand insight into the emotional motivations, behaviours, and preferences among talent across Europe.
Get insights from more than 650 European talents about what “quality of life” means to them, what they prioritize in a job search and what influences where they move.
More than 650 people across Europe between the ages of 21 and 65 years of age were questioned via an online survey, which was conducted during the month of May 2023.
Respondents had to meet two primary qualifications – first, that they had personally relocated at least 100 kilometres from their previous residence in the past three years and, second, that they were currently employed or actively looking for employment.
Participants were sought from select countries around Europe to provide geographic diversity and varied perspectives, even if not every country was represented. The locations were selected based on a tendency for large international populations, since one ingredient in meeting the talent crisis is cross-border recruitment.
The breakout of respondents by geography includes the Benelux countries of Belgium and the Netherlands, France, Germany, the Scandinavian countries of Denmark and Sweden, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
The queries in What Talent Wants largely mirror those posed in a U.S.-based study “Talent Wars,” conducted by our sister agency, Development Counsellors International (DCI), a leading place marketing agency headquartered in New York City. Comparisons to be made across world regions are included in this inaugural study.
Insights include:
Leading triggers inspiring European talents to make a location change.
Leading lifestyle factors when considering relocation.
Leading career- or job-related factors when considering relocation.
Willingness of European talents to undergo additional training to change career trajectory.
Preferences around remote, hybrid and on-site work.
How talents form perceptions of places.
Top digital channels for finding information about careers and locations.
Comparisons with talents from the U.S. market based on DCI’s 2023 Talent Wars report.
To help inform your talent attraction and retention activities, download your copy of What Talent Wants: Capturing What Europe’s Workforce Seeks in Jobs & Locations.
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