South Koreans are among the least motivated workers in the world, which might be linked to the “brain drain” that hampers the nation’s competitiveness, according to a report by a Swiss business institute.

The World Talent Report 2015 by the Institute for Management Development said South Korea came in at 54th among 61 economies across the world in terms of its employees’ motivation at work.

Asia’s fourth-largest economy also saw a serious outflow of local talents, landing at 18th among the surveyed economies in terms of human capital flight. 



According to a 2014 survey by the state-run Institute for International Trade of 320 local candidates and graduates for masters and doctorate degrees, 73.1 percent of them responded they would be willing to look for employment abroad, with 90 percent of them saying they would certainly take a job abroad if it were offered.

Half of them cited their desire to acquire advanced knowledge and technology behind the decision, while 48.6 percent of them responded seeking higher salary and 37 percent pointed to the unstable job situation here. The majority took issue with the closed, stiff office culture and long work hours in Korea’s research and business environment.

South Korea’s business environment appeared to be less friendly to foreign talents, sitting in the 37th spot in terms of drawing highly skilled foreign workers to the country. The data showed that the country’s senior managers lacked international experience and its employees had insufficient foreign language skills.

According to 2013 government statistics, the number of Korean students overseas stood at 144,000, 2.5 times more than the number of foreign students in Korea.

The least affected country by the brain drain was Norway, which was followed by Switzerland, Finland, Sweden and the United States.

The Switzerland-based management institute conducted a survey of business executives from 61 economies, including both the China mainland and its special administrative region Hong Kong, asking them about their perception of competitiveness in each nation.

In the overall ranking, South Korea stood at 31st this year, up nine notches from a year earlier, and its highest in a decade.

Among the three main factors in the ranking, the country placed 32nd in both investment development and its appeal to highly skilled workers worldwide, while snatching 31st place in terms of readiness to accept talents.

Looking into details, the country received high scores in terms of personal income tax (13th), growth rate in the labor force (ninth), health infrastructure (16th) and 15-year-olds’ academic performance in PISA tests (fourth). But it fared poorly in female labor force participation (47th), pupil-teacher ratios in primary and secondary education (26th and 28th, respectively), cost of living (56th) and quality of life (40th).

Switzerland topped the list for nine years straight, with northern European countries ― Denmark, Luxembourg, Norway and the Netherlands ― rounding out the top five.

The United States came in at 14th, with Japan’s ranking at 26th and China at 40th. Singapore was the highest ranked Asian country, taking the 10th spot. 


By Ock Hyun-ju
(laeticia.ock@heraldcorp.com)