Dubai: The UAE has been ranked as the most competitive country in the Middle East for retaining talent, according to a report released on Monday.

The 2018 Global Talent Competitiveness Index (GTCI) report found that Switzerland is still the best in the world for talent competitiveness, followed by Singapore and the US.

In general, however, European countries continue to dominate the GTCI rankings, with 15 in the top 25.

Among the non-European countries that ranked highly this year, are Australia in 11th, New Zealand in 12th, Canada in 15th, and the UAE at 17th.

This year’s edition also revealed that the top ten countries have several key characteristics in common and share one major feature: they all have a well-developed educational system providing the social and collaboration skills needed for employability in today’s labour market.

On further examination, there are several other characteristics in common between the top-ranking countries. These include: A flexible regulatory and business landscape; employment policies which combine flexibility and social protection; and external and internal openness.

In addition to the talent competitiveness ranking, this year’s report investigated the theme of ‘Diversity for competitiveness’. Three types of diversity were distinguished: cognitive, identity and preference (or value). The theme of diversity (defined in the report as collaboration between people with different personalities, knowledge sets, experiences and perspectives problem solving) was chosen because it plays a critical role in linking talent policies to innovation strategies.

Paying attention to demographic diversity nurtures a sustainable and innovative future and helps organisations to retain and develop talent. Nevertheless, the report highlights that there is a cost to diversity: people are often ill-equipped to collaborate with others who are different from themselves.

The report, published today by INSEAD, the Business School for the World, in partnership with the Adecco Group and Tata Communications, is an annual benchmark measuring how countries and cities grow, attract and retain talent.

This year’s leader in the Global Cities Talent Competitiveness Index is Zurich. Eight out of the top 10 ranking cities are located in Europe, whilst two are in the US.

The report states: “The impact of dense and efficient information networks is particularly important when it comes to attracting and retaining talent, as shown by the performance of ‘smart cities’ such as Singapore, Dubai, [or] Abu Dhabi.”