5 Insights for IPAs Early in Their Talent Attraction Journey

According to research from our sister agency, OCO Global, in its 2023 Innovation Report, nearly half of investment promotion agencies (IPAs) have incorporated dedicated talent initiatives into their organizational strategy.

IPAs like Copenhagen Capacity and IN Amsterdam have been at the forefront of talent attraction initiatives for more than a decade, but for many governments, this is new territory.

Below we outline five insights to help IPAs and their partners that are considering getting involved or have already taken that first step. These come from annual research into talent preferences from the U.S. market (courtesy of our other sister agency, DCI) as well as our own What Talent Wants report here in Europe, as well as experiences managing talent-focused marketing programmes on many levels.

Talent attraction will support your business attraction

We’ve heard from a number of IPAs that they’re worried about the optics that a talent attraction programme will generate. “We’ve been talking for years about being a talent hub. If we now admit that we need more people, won’t companies think we were lying?”

Our view: they’ll think more poorly of your region and organisation if you are not engaged in proactive talent attraction efforts.

The reason is because no dynamic economy right now is without this pain. Skills shortages are everywhere, so the question is more about what you’re doing to address the challenge.

How can you use this to your advantage? We had a U.S. client whose project team during business recruitment was using the talent resources and narrative around how they were supporting companies more than they were using their own economic development resources.

IPAs are place marketers, not job placement professionals

Many IPAs just getting started with talent think they need to be the ones securing job placements for their employers. That’s aspirational, but it isn’t where you can add the most value. Companies know very well how to sell their own companies and career opportunities better than anyone. It’s best that we let them continue to do that.

Where they struggle? Selling the location of a job, because they’re not place marketers. That’s where IPAs fill the gap (and managing a location’s digital reputation is one place to start).

Yes, destination marketing resources from tourism boards are needed also and are often readily available, but the talent relocation decision journey requires more than just “what is there to do in a location?” From What Talent Wants, 75% of European talents said a dedicated talent attraction website would’ve been helpful in their most recent relocation (scoring a 7 or higher on a 10-point scale).

Providing resources like a talent-focused website, job search tool, soft-landing pack and residency-focused information is critical. (See how it worked for Northern Virginia.)

Think more like a consumer marketing team

When IPAs or other government organisations take on talent attraction programmes, it requires a mindset adjustment.

We’ve seen too often that talent initiatives take a similar form to previous business attraction efforts. The focus remains narrowly on “transactional” talent attraction without a consideration of the larger picture, such as creating demand, making your city or country a destination to be pursued, and helping to remove the multitude of barriers of international relocation that impact the ability to complete the journey.

This is a recipe for poor results because the talent audience works differently. It’s important to adopt the consumer perspective and think beyond the immediate mandate of attracting talents.

How is this done? An IPA mandate might be collecting qualified candidates for employers, but successful programmes will benefit from thinking beyond that alone. How can your organisation win the entire customer journey, from selling the “why” of your location early on to providing the practical living information people need to know before deciding to take a job?

We love the Netherlands relocation app, which breaks down the steps of relocation one by one. Work in Estonia also does a wonderful job breaking down the process based on time anticipated in the market, both for EU and non-EU citizens. Both examples remove impediments in the journey, facilitating a smoother experience that will have long-term benefits.

Having confirmed relocations from an attraction effort is important, but will 300 confirmed candidates help meet the demand of 250,000 job openings? We must think bigger as place marketers if we’re to solve such a significant challenge.

Build the initiative with your employers, not just for them

If you’re an IPA without a close relationship with your region’s top employers, that has to change fast. To meet their needs, fill skill gaps and report successes that create a snowball effect for future efforts, their involvement is paramount.

And they should be fully on board with this, as any talent attraction efforts are a direct benefit for them because you’ll be helping to plug skills gaps.

We love the phrase, “aim small, miss small,” meaning if you’re more targeted to start, you’ll end up closer to the intended end point than if you aimed more broadly. To aim small, you need to know exactly where your employers are struggling, where skills training is heading and what pre-requisites they have for candidates.

In short, they know the nuances of their advanced industries better than anyone, so they have to be active participants to help you attract more qualified candidates to the region.

Mid-career professionals are in demand…and a hard target

When the topic is talent attraction, there’s a natural assumption that 20-somethings are the desired target, but that’s often not the case.

In discussions with employers over the years, many have talent pipelines with technical schools and universities that solve that need, but the biggest challenge they have is finding mid-career professionals – about 8-10 years of experience and above.

These individuals have sharpened skillsets, more managerial experience, aren’t as actively looking for jobs and don’t require the intensive training that entry level employees do. They can also be harder to integrate into a company culture, so finding a strong fit with staying power isn’t easy.

One other layer that is important for IPAs to consider in building out their resources is that these individuals can often be married (e.g. trailing partners) with families (e.g. children that need an international school). Don’t forget that the attraction programmes need to be constructed with them in mind also (per our earlier advice about thinking through the full consumer journey), not just the primary candidate.

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There’s a lot to think through when designing an effective talent campaign and the above list is far from exhaustive. Just like recruiting companies, there is more than meets the eye on the surface for talents as well. As more investment promotion agencies get into the talent game, we believe strongly they’re just as well equipped to play this role as they are with FDI attraction.

Need a partner to get started?

C Studios can help with tailored counsel for investment promotion agencies, governments and their partners on Work/Study initiatives.

Contact us for more information.