Periodic Reporting for period 1 - TALENT (Talent Attractiveness, A Competitive Edge For European SMEs)
Reporting period: 2021-03-01 to 2022-05-31
=== 1. What is the problem/issue being addressed?
Any company needs several things to grow and develop: a market to sell its services or products, financing to invest in equipment and materials, political and economic stability for visibility, reliable infrastructure to limit breakdowns, and more and more, access to Talent. In some regions of the world, the shortage of skilled workers represents a significant constraint on companies’ growth.
In this competition for Talent, SME are facing several disadvantages: lower visibility, smaller budget dedicated to Talent hunting, often unfairly seen as places with lower possible career moves and fulfilment, and with lower impact to the economy. And SME are the types of companies that need Talent the most to face fierce and global competition, counterbalancing small market shares and low revenues with innovation and cutting-edge people.
To support SME’s efforts to attract Talent, cities and regions can come into play by providing significant support to its local SME through development agencies with innovative management, methodologies and strategies, a joint Talent Attraction Management system. By combining the visibility of a city to its own brand, a company shall achieve significantly higher reach to Talent.
Simultaneously, SME are facing situation where their Talent are having professional expectations, sometimes linked to career path, sometimes to meaningful purpose enhancement... while working for the company. This is all the more important to ensure that "in-house" Talent find the right answers to their aspirations, so that they stay and contribute positively to the company's development.
Hence, the willingness of Lyon's, Berlin's and Rotterdam's economic development and investment promotion agencies to share experience to ensure efficient achievement in Talent Attraction, Retention and Development for the benefits of local SME.
=== 2. Why is it important for society?
Talent is a key stone as talented people clearly contribute to the development of creativity, innovation and business. Growing Talent in the society is crucial for all civil spheres, from pupils to students, from workers to decision-makers, from companies to NGO, from private business to public institutions...
Hiring new people to support growth or development is a process where companies strive to identify the skills to match best with their actual and coming needs. Therefore, there is an essential need that companies and schools/universities share their vision and objectives.
For all these reasons, growing, retaining and attracting Talent is crucial for the society as a whole.
=== 3. What are the overall objectives?
Knowledge and skills are core to development. Europe does need to structure dynamics to create but also attract and retain talent in a globalized competition.
Given this background, the overall objective of the project is to design a standard process to set up a Talent strategy into a defined economic environment, to attract, retain and grow Talent for the benefits of SME. The project shall lead to the production of a Design Options Paper (DOP) presenting a Talent-focused related methodology which shall be applicable in any European economic region.
Lyon, Berlin and Rotterdam have agreed to mobilize their respective SME, Academic and Talent-related ecosystems, and have them work on the challenges and the solutions to attract, retain and grow Talent - in a collaborative way, including 3 international workshops. All the intelligence gathered during this 12-month project will be aggregated and summarized in the DOP for the benefits of any European economic player interested in the topic of Talent & SME.
Any company needs several things to grow and develop: a market to sell its services or products, financing to invest in equipment and materials, political and economic stability for visibility, reliable infrastructure to limit breakdowns, and more and more, access to Talent. In some regions of the world, the shortage of skilled workers represents a significant constraint on companies’ growth.
In this competition for Talent, SME are facing several disadvantages: lower visibility, smaller budget dedicated to Talent hunting, often unfairly seen as places with lower possible career moves and fulfilment, and with lower impact to the economy. And SME are the types of companies that need Talent the most to face fierce and global competition, counterbalancing small market shares and low revenues with innovation and cutting-edge people.
To support SME’s efforts to attract Talent, cities and regions can come into play by providing significant support to its local SME through development agencies with innovative management, methodologies and strategies, a joint Talent Attraction Management system. By combining the visibility of a city to its own brand, a company shall achieve significantly higher reach to Talent.
Simultaneously, SME are facing situation where their Talent are having professional expectations, sometimes linked to career path, sometimes to meaningful purpose enhancement... while working for the company. This is all the more important to ensure that "in-house" Talent find the right answers to their aspirations, so that they stay and contribute positively to the company's development.
Hence, the willingness of Lyon's, Berlin's and Rotterdam's economic development and investment promotion agencies to share experience to ensure efficient achievement in Talent Attraction, Retention and Development for the benefits of local SME.
=== 2. Why is it important for society?
Talent is a key stone as talented people clearly contribute to the development of creativity, innovation and business. Growing Talent in the society is crucial for all civil spheres, from pupils to students, from workers to decision-makers, from companies to NGO, from private business to public institutions...
Hiring new people to support growth or development is a process where companies strive to identify the skills to match best with their actual and coming needs. Therefore, there is an essential need that companies and schools/universities share their vision and objectives.
For all these reasons, growing, retaining and attracting Talent is crucial for the society as a whole.
=== 3. What are the overall objectives?
Knowledge and skills are core to development. Europe does need to structure dynamics to create but also attract and retain talent in a globalized competition.
Given this background, the overall objective of the project is to design a standard process to set up a Talent strategy into a defined economic environment, to attract, retain and grow Talent for the benefits of SME. The project shall lead to the production of a Design Options Paper (DOP) presenting a Talent-focused related methodology which shall be applicable in any European economic region.
Lyon, Berlin and Rotterdam have agreed to mobilize their respective SME, Academic and Talent-related ecosystems, and have them work on the challenges and the solutions to attract, retain and grow Talent - in a collaborative way, including 3 international workshops. All the intelligence gathered during this 12-month project will be aggregated and summarized in the DOP for the benefits of any European economic player interested in the topic of Talent & SME.
During the project duration March 2021 – July 2022
The Consortium's partnering cities (Lyon, Berlin and Rotterdam)
- have gathered locally the economic actors involved, interested and concerned by the Talent challenge
- have informed their respective stakeholders of the initiative and the project
- have setup a TALENT Project-dedicated website, gathering a meeting platform, a discussion room, an intelligence center, a doc. sharing space
- have run the 3 Workshop (WP2) – 2 online respectively coordinated by Invest in Lyon and Berlin Partner, 1 as physical meeting organized by Rotterdam Partners
- have finalized and presented their conclusions about the best practices, lesson learned and potential development to investigate during an e-meeting on June 23
- have communicated on the Workshop and on the project more globally on local, national and European levels, through Media&Press with Press Releases, social media, websites, newsletters, both from the Consortium and with European partners (including EURADA, EEN)
- have drafted and communicated with 'Takeaway' documents summarizing and listing all the ideas shared during the workshops
- have followed-up with the participants on the Workshop in terms of satisfaction, connections established, areas for partnerships
The next steps to be carried out as Consortium
- Submit the Design Option Paper by end of July 2022
- Foster connection and match representatives from different initiatives in the 3 cities with one another
- Present the conclusions & findings to an International European IPA Meeting in Helsinki in September 2022
- Imagine a scheme where a Talent Tour between Lyon, Berlin and Rotterdam can be initiated for the benefits of SME and Talent, with the relevant actors in the 3 cities as the IPA may not be the best leading entities locally to carry out this project
The Consortium's partnering cities (Lyon, Berlin and Rotterdam)
- have gathered locally the economic actors involved, interested and concerned by the Talent challenge
- have informed their respective stakeholders of the initiative and the project
- have setup a TALENT Project-dedicated website, gathering a meeting platform, a discussion room, an intelligence center, a doc. sharing space
- have run the 3 Workshop (WP2) – 2 online respectively coordinated by Invest in Lyon and Berlin Partner, 1 as physical meeting organized by Rotterdam Partners
- have finalized and presented their conclusions about the best practices, lesson learned and potential development to investigate during an e-meeting on June 23
- have communicated on the Workshop and on the project more globally on local, national and European levels, through Media&Press with Press Releases, social media, websites, newsletters, both from the Consortium and with European partners (including EURADA, EEN)
- have drafted and communicated with 'Takeaway' documents summarizing and listing all the ideas shared during the workshops
- have followed-up with the participants on the Workshop in terms of satisfaction, connections established, areas for partnerships
The next steps to be carried out as Consortium
- Submit the Design Option Paper by end of July 2022
- Foster connection and match representatives from different initiatives in the 3 cities with one another
- Present the conclusions & findings to an International European IPA Meeting in Helsinki in September 2022
- Imagine a scheme where a Talent Tour between Lyon, Berlin and Rotterdam can be initiated for the benefits of SME and Talent, with the relevant actors in the 3 cities as the IPA may not be the best leading entities locally to carry out this project
Results achieved during the project period
- Connecting 3 cities and their economic ecosystems addressing the Talent Access challenge
- Setting up initiatives inspired by Consortium's other parties, e.g.
1. Recruiting a Talent Officer at Rotterdam Partners, inspired by Berlin Partner
2. Foreseeing to create a dedicated Expat Center after visiting the Expat Center run by Rotterdam Partners
3. Imaging a mutualized Talent Job Portal for specific profiles by Invest in Lyon, inspired by Berlin Partners
-The SME communities' leaders were involved in the project from Day 1, and the Consortium expects that all SME members will take the time to benefit from its findings to
1. Onboard public authorities with them to make this Access-to-Talent challenge a top priority for all economic actors
2. Better connect with Higher Education institutions, exploring possibilities to design synergies aside the usual internship paths
3. Consider changes in their organization and management to address Talent's expectations, motivations and drivers
4. Seek IPA's support to develop schemes, collective and collaborative initiatives to facilitate joint actions with all concerned and involved actors
With access to Talent, by attracting or by developing them internally within their companies, SME will undoubtedly be able to compete on equal terms with other businesses, and then participate strongly to the economic development of the area where they have their facilities established.
Regarding the societal implications, they seem rather obvious if we consider that SME are the largest employers in the 3 cities and in many other cities. So, by providing tools to SME so that they are competitive, develop activities in the local areas, the domino effects on the local environment is certainly positive by providing jobs, activities, fostering surrounding activities to support SME activities.
- Connecting 3 cities and their economic ecosystems addressing the Talent Access challenge
- Setting up initiatives inspired by Consortium's other parties, e.g.
1. Recruiting a Talent Officer at Rotterdam Partners, inspired by Berlin Partner
2. Foreseeing to create a dedicated Expat Center after visiting the Expat Center run by Rotterdam Partners
3. Imaging a mutualized Talent Job Portal for specific profiles by Invest in Lyon, inspired by Berlin Partners
-The SME communities' leaders were involved in the project from Day 1, and the Consortium expects that all SME members will take the time to benefit from its findings to
1. Onboard public authorities with them to make this Access-to-Talent challenge a top priority for all economic actors
2. Better connect with Higher Education institutions, exploring possibilities to design synergies aside the usual internship paths
3. Consider changes in their organization and management to address Talent's expectations, motivations and drivers
4. Seek IPA's support to develop schemes, collective and collaborative initiatives to facilitate joint actions with all concerned and involved actors
With access to Talent, by attracting or by developing them internally within their companies, SME will undoubtedly be able to compete on equal terms with other businesses, and then participate strongly to the economic development of the area where they have their facilities established.
Regarding the societal implications, they seem rather obvious if we consider that SME are the largest employers in the 3 cities and in many other cities. So, by providing tools to SME so that they are competitive, develop activities in the local areas, the domino effects on the local environment is certainly positive by providing jobs, activities, fostering surrounding activities to support SME activities.