How to Succeed in Attracting Talent | Place Brand Insights July 2023

Greetings

Welcome to the third edition of our redesigned Place Brand Insights newsletter. This time we focus on talent attraction and what cities and regions can do to retain talent to enhance their economic development, location attractiveness, and competitiveness.

Plus:

• Our expert panel insights on public and private place brand developers - the benefits of working together and what each side can bring to the table.
• Our updated interview with Gwen Zuring, who oversees the branding of Brabant Region in the Netherlands.
• Psssst. Brabant is one of the very few regions nominated by experts that we will showcase in our inaugural Place Brand Leaders Yearbook, which we will publish later this year. Watch this space!

It's all about talent

Attracting top talent is crucial for cities and regions aiming to foster innovation and drive economic growth. So, how do successful regions do it? Let's look at a couple of examples from interviews that we published over the last few years:

???? Tampere, Southern Finland

Nuppu Suvanto of the International House Tampere (IHT), illustrates how Tampere attracts overseas students and skilled workers to find employment and boost innovation. She also discusses how the IHT assists local businesses with talent attraction and supports new residents to make their transition comfortable for individuals and their families. Spoiler alert: talent retention is key, as is focusing on the partners and families of the talent you want to attract.

???? Greater Zurich Area, Switzerland

In our interview, Sonja Wollkopf Walt - CEO of Greater Zurich Area - shares what makes the region attractive for skilled talent. And she discusses the challenges and trends influencing the region's talent attraction strategies. Not to underestimate nowadays: a location’s environmental sustainability and climate performance. The highly skilled can choose where they want to live and being in a place that cares and does its bit for livability and innovation is something highly valued.

???? Copenhagen, Denmark

Morten King-Grubert , in charge of talent attraction at the Nordic place management consultancy Future Place Leadership, some while back shared his experience building a talent attraction strategy for Copenhagen, while also taking a deep dive into future trends and pitfalls to avoid in hiring or retaining talent. Especially relevant now: what place branders can learn from employer branding in attracting Gen Z talent?

???? High Coast, Sweden

Eva Jilkén , formerly Project Manager at Leader H?ga Kusten, explains how social media was leveraged for campaigns like Landsbyggare to highlight the charm of living a rural life away from the hustle and bustle of a city. With the right infrastructure, the picturesque High Coast of Sweden now attracts new residents interested to settle and let their creativity thrive. Eva has since moved on but the insights shared in her interview are as good as ever. Worth checking out.

???? Lund, Southern Sweden?

And we caught up with Lisa Andersson , Talent Attraction Developer at Lunds Municipality, to find out how International Citizen Hub Lund (ICHL) attracts international talent to Lund, and the benefits of attracting and retaining talent through a specialized organization like ICHL. Managing talent attraction and retention via a dedicated organization makes all the sense, and this is a good example to follow.

?? How to Measure the Success of Talent Attraction Initiatives

Talent attraction has been a frequent topic for our expert panel, and this summary of the panel session on how to measure success and maximize impact is a must read.

Who is Who

Every couple of weeks we publish new interview portraits with individuals who are making waves in place branding: leaders and changemakers who shape our understanding and practice of this fascinating and growing field.

Recently, we updated our interview with Gwen Zuring , Manager of Brabant Branding at?Provincie Noord-Brabant, Netherlands. We first published the interview in 2019 and it is good to see that despite the progress they have experienced, the core strategy has not changed since then.

In the interview, Gwen illustrates what?Brand Brabant stands for, the role national and local authorities play in Brabant’s regional brand strategy, challenges in regional branding, how to measure the success and effectiveness of your regional branding initiatives, and?trends and challenges with regard to regional branding in Europe. Full on - we consider it a must-read for regional development managers.

Latest from the Panel

Our latest collection of expert insights explores the link between private and public place branding organizations, and how each can enhance the potential of cities and region. The focus is on design thinking, and redevelopment of existing spaces like commercial centers to boost economic activity and foster connections. Check out our latest panel insights here.

Sneak Preview...

We are right now turbo-working on the inaugural Place Brand Leaders Yearbook, which will be available later this year. The yearbook will contain showcases of locations - large and small - that have been nominated by our global expert panel for this specific purpose.

Expect a collection of some of the most innovative and successful place brand developments right now. We are super excited to share this with you soon and grateful to our industry partners who make it possible, most notably Brand Finance as the lead sponsor.

(Get in touch for partner/sponsor opportunities, we still have a few spots left).

Thank you for reading,

Florian

Publisher, The Place Brand Observer

Switzerland