Italy is unattractive for young people, companies want to retain talent. The Cotec report: «Enhancing ability and merit»

The percentage of companies that expect an increase in turnover in 2024 is higher among those that adopt practices to attract and retain talent than among others (41% vs 31%). In the annual report of COTEC – Foundation for Innovation, drawn up in collaboration with the Centro Studi Tagliacarne – Unioncamere, the direct link between talents and company performance emerges. This translates into greater competitiveness which is also expressed on international markets: again in 2024, an increase in exports is expected by 36% of Talent strategy companies compared to 26% in the case of other companies.

With digital transformation, STEM graduates seem to increasingly attract the interest of businesses and public administrations. «We are working to give a new face to public administration, to make it ‘accessible’, dynamic, competent, meritocratic and, therefore, attractive. We want to attract the attention of our young people, encourage their entry into the universe of public employment and, at the same time, retain talent, guaranteeing them career paths based on merit. In this sense, I greatly appreciated that in the 2024 Report the COTEC Foundation refers to three fundamental and closely linked themes such as talent, ability and merit. Only by enhancing human capital, in all contexts, can concrete and lasting results be achieved in terms of human and professional growth of public personnel”, with these words Paolo Zangrillo, Minister for Public Administration, spoke at the Talent Management event – A challenge for businesses and public administration, promoted by COTEC – Foundation for Innovation in collaboration with Philip Morris Italia.

The flight of talent abroad represents a further significant problem: Italy is considered one of the least “attractive” European countries.

According to the OECD Talent Attractiveness indicator in the EU, Italy ranks second to last among the Member States. Salary increase, company benefits, flexibility of working hours and professional growth paths are just some of the actions that can reduce the “drain” of young Italian brains (in the decade 2012 – 2021 an overall loss of over 79 thousand young graduates).

The COTEC Report dedicated to Talent Management reports the data emerging from research conducted by Intesa Sanpaolo in collaboration with the University of Padua, which draws up the identikit of the graduated expat by identifying the most common characteristics and motivations that push to abandon the Bel Paese, including the search for greater career opportunities, development and above all corporate well-being, including an adequate work-life balance.