Diminishing talent pool in the Caribbean can make senior hiring and recruitment decisions difficult in local businesses

The Caribbean has been losing it’s best people since the advent of the slave trade. This outward movement of its most talented people has continued through to the current day. Currently, 12% of the population of the Caribbean emigrate to OECD countries and of the 20 countries with highest emigration rates in the world, 11 are in the Caribbean. So, lots of people are leaving, but who is leaving? 

This efflux becomes progressively worse as education increases, with Caribbean countries losing 60-85% of their tertiary educated population to OECD countries. This is  costing the Caribbean 3.2% of it’s GDP. Perhaps even more shocking is that 18% of the Caribbean GDP comes from emigrants remittances i.e. money sent back in paper envelopes! So why are the people, that the government have spent the most money educating leaving?

The top talent is leaving for very simple reasons; there are better educations, better paid jobs and better working conditions in OECD countries. Most of the highly educated workforce is travelling to receive further education or work abroad, predominantly in Northern America or the United Kingdom.

This exodus of talent causes a contraction of the talent pool available in the Caribbean, which in turn can have severe effects on businesses when they wish to fill senior positions within their businesses. As there is a limited resource of talented individuals locally businesses often either hire local people who are not capable to do the job, or they bring in western managers who can’t relate to the Caribbean markets.

So, what’s the solution? Well, it appears they either have to keep the best talent before they leave which will require some serious changes and intervention by governments, or find a way of attracting talent back from the likes of North America and the UK.

One of our clients has found themselves in this position and short-term attracting talent back from the diaspora looks like the best solution, but we will have to work this through. We will let you know how it goes. Stay tuned to our news page on the Chemistry Group website for regular updates or watch out for the next blog!

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