Insights & Outlook: Sweden needs to invest in talent attraction

Many of the conversations today, between politicians and the business community, are about the importance of investing in development and research to emerge stronger from the crisis. Sustainability and digitalisation are highlighted as key areas throughout, and the need for us to succeed in securing the skills we need by developing and expanding our talent pool. For Sweden as a manufacturing and export-dependent country, the discussion that global value chains are now expected to become more regionalized is highly relevant. It creates an opportunity to attract new investments and establishments to our region. But competition is fierce and access to skills is one of the most important factors for success. Perhaps this is why talent attraction often becomes a part of investment promotion, not least at the national level. We who work with talent attraction, however, start from the opposite perspective; In order to succeed in attracting expertise, successful investment promotion is one of many important factors. Talent attraction and investment promotion should therefore be seen as two separate areas but with a pronounced and close collaboration, both strategically and operationally, as the synergies are great. What is needed now is investments from the government in talent attraction that include both national and regional actors. It would benefit Sweden's attractiveness for both foreign investment and expertise.

Retaining the international expertise that is already here today is also an important issue and in this regard we still lack measures to curb the negative effects that have arisen due to Covid-19. This involves, for example, extending the three months period that an international talent has to find a new job after dismissal before being deported. As well as enabling those who are here on a work permit to change both employer and profession without having to apply for a new work permit. These are measures that several countries in Europe have already introduced, and in this way they have created significantly better conditions for retaining the skills that they worked so hard to attract in the current circumstances.

At the beginning of the summer, Move to Gothenburg conducted a survey among employers in the region that recruit international skills. Although the uncertainty was great and 40% stated that it is likely that staff will be laid off, there were also many positive tones. As many as 57% recruited at present and a further 24% stated that they plan to recruit within 4 months. Since then, people with work permits have been exempted from the entry ban and we now see that international competence has started to come to Sweden again, so far to a lesser extent than before. I look forward to an exciting autumn where Move to Gothenburg will continue to improve the conditions for both employers and international talent and shift up the work of attracting and receiving international expertise. In our newsletter you can read about our planned activities. It will also be an autumn where we will make a couple of big news announcements. So stay tuned!

Niklas Delersjö

Head of Move To Gothenburg