Switzerland has once again ranked first in the World Talent Ranking, an annual rundown of the ability of countries to attract, develop, and retain top-performing staff. Published on Monday by the IMD Business School in Lausanne, the report analyses over 60 countries according to various criteria important to professional workers, and finds that Switzerland comes out top overall for the fifth year in a row. Of the three main baskets, the alpine nation comes out first in both the ‘appeal’ and ‘readiness’ categories, which track factors such as quality of life, taxation, security, education of the workforce, and competence of management. Predictably, the country did badly on the cost-of-living indicator – coming 60th – but not to the extent that its overall attractiveness was compromised. In the ‘investment and development’ basket, Switzerland ranked fifth, a slide that the authors said largely reflected “the country’s public expenditure on education” and “the quality of ...