BPS World has today published a report on the internationalisation of talent as young professionals become global in their search for work.  The report estimates that by 2020 40% of the world’s graduates will come from China and India. This internationalisation presents new challenges for employers, who now have to compete globally for the people they need. Planet Talent – The essential guide to global recruitment has been written to help them.

Simon Conington, MD and founder of BPS World who carried out the research explained: “We are going through a huge transformation in the labour market. The most developed countries in the world are trying to manage a reduction in the skilled workforce as the baby-boomers near retirement.  At the same time the global labour supply has exploded as the emerging economies really start to take off. Professionals have more choice than ever before and are choosing to work outside their native countries. Highly educated millennials are flooding every market.”

The report explains the huge implications of these changes for businesses. Employers in the UK and across Europe seeking engineers, IT professionals and technicians face stiff competition from the emerging economies for the best people. Shortages mean international talent has become crucial to the UK’s economic well-being and the country’s ability to deliver on major infrastructure projects, such as those announced in the recent budget statement.

Attracting top talent from overseas presents recruiters with huge challenges, from culture differences to immigration and employment laws. It also requires strategic vision and raises numerous practical issues.  Employers need to know, for example, how to screen candidates for their ability to relocate internationally. However many HR teams are only set up for local recruitment. One way companies are solving this problem is by working with global recruitment specialists, like BPS World, to manage the whole process for them.

Daniel Emerson, EMEA Head of Talent Acquisition for Concur, a provider of spend management solutions commented; “This is a huge issue and it is no surprise that many companies, even large companies, struggle to manage it internally. This guide is the first time, to my knowledge, that the challenges have been set out.  It also provides an essential check list for any organisation trying to manage this for themselves.”