Europe has a talent challenge. Demographic change, labour shortages and growing demand for skills are pushing countries and regions to look beyond their existing labour pools. Governments, regions and municipalities are investing in international talent attraction, Talent Intelligence, employer branding and increasingly sophisticated approaches to understanding where talent is, what motivates people to move, and how places can compete for scarce skills.
But there is another side to the equation that deserves much more attention:
What happens when the talents arrive — but local employers are not ready to employ them?
The missing side of Talent Intelligence
Talent Intelligence helps us understand where talent is located, which skills are becoming scarce, what competing regions are doing, and what international professionals value when choosing where to live and work.
All of this is important. But ultimately, talent attraction only creates value when there is an organisation on the other side ready to recruit, onboard, develop and retain that talent.
How ready are our employers to employ and retain international talents? Do they know how to reach them? Can they assess skills and qualifications acquired in different contexts? Are their recruitment processes accessible to people who do not speak the local language? Are managers comfortable leading culturally diverse teams?
Sandra uses the term Employer-ability to describe this combination of willingness and ability: the readiness of employers to recruit, onboard and retain international talent.
Employer-ability puts the employer on the same analytical map as the talent. Instead of asking only “How do we attract more international talents?”, we also need to ask:
“How do we make more employers ready to employ them?”
And readiness does not end when someone is hired. Employers may know how to recruit internationally and still struggle with differences in communication, feedback, leadership, decision-making or workplace expectations.
As Alena explains, Cultural Intelligence (CQ) can be an important part of that readiness: the ability to relate to and work effectively with people who may have different cultural backgrounds, perspectives and ways of working.
Why micro and small enterprises need a different approach
When discussing international recruitment, we often talk about “SMEs” as though they were a relatively uniform group. They are not.
According to Eurostat data, 93.6% of Europe’s enterprises are micro-enterprises with fewer than 10 employees.
This matters because the conditions for employing international talent can be fundamentally different in a six-person company compared with a 150-person organisation.
A larger company may have an HR department, recruitment specialists, established onboarding processes and previous experience employing people from different countries. A micro-enterprise may have none of these. The owner or managing director may handle recruitment themselves, without dedicated HR expertise to assess qualifications, navigate recruitment practices or support the team.
This does not mean that small employers are unwilling to employ international talent. It means that the conditions under which willingness can turn into action are fundamentally different.
For a micro-enterprise, international recruitment may feel like taking on an entirely new organisational capability: assessing an unfamiliar qualification, conducting an interview across language and cultural differences, explaining workplace expectations and helping the existing team adapt.
Often, these are not problems that require a sophisticated international recruitment strategy. They require practical knowledge, confidence and the right tools at the right moment.
Making Cultural Intelligence practical
Cultural Intelligence does not have to mean a complex training programme. For a small employer, it can start with practical questions that help people notice their own assumptions and consider what may be different for someone coming from another context.
Much of everyday work is based on expectations that nobody explicitly explains: How much should I challenge my manager? When is it okay to say no? What does “take initiative” mean here? How direct should I be?
For example, if a manager describes an employee as “too quiet”, “too direct” or “not taking enough initiative”, how much of that judgement is based on actual performance — and how much on the manager’s own idea of appropriate behaviour?
A simple starting point is:
Notice → Question → Adapt.
Notice what feels different. Question your first interpretation. Then consider what you could adapt in your own communication or behaviour.
The goal is not to make people fit the existing culture. It is to create an environment where different perspectives can contribute and enrich it.
From Talent Intelligence to Employer Intelligence
If Talent Intelligence helps us understand the supply of talent, we also need Employer Intelligence to understand the capacity and readiness of the organisations expected to employ that talent.
Which employers are already ready? Which could become ready with targeted support? What are their actual barriers — language, recruitment practices, managerial confidence, unfamiliarity with international qualifications, concerns about retention, or simply the perceived complexity of doing something new?
Understanding these differences can help regions and municipalities move from generic employer support towards more targeted interventions.
This is not about expecting every local business to become an international recruitment specialist. It is about lowering the threshold for employers to take the next step.
Preparing the receiving side of the talent ecosystem
For regions and municipalities working to address talent shortages, this requires us to look at talent attraction from both sides.
A region can have an excellent international talent strategy, a strong reputation and effective attraction campaigns. But if too few local employers are prepared to recruit and retain international professionals, part of that investment will never translate into sustainable employment.
Employer-ability needs to become part of the talent ecosystem conversation — and different employers will need different kinds of support.
Large organisations may need to refine sophisticated international recruitment and retention strategies. Medium-sized companies may need to build internal capabilities. For many micro and small enterprises, the starting point may simply be developing the confidence, knowledge and practical capabilities required to make international recruitment feel possible.
The opportunity is therefore not only to attract more international talent, but to strengthen the capacity of the organisations that receive it.
Europe’s talent challenge is not only about attracting more people. It is also about making more employers ready to employ them.
Sandra Slotte
Sandra Slotte is a Senior Consultant at Future Place Leadership. She specialises in international talent and employer-ability. Her expertise is helping organisations, public actors, and local ecosystems build the capacity to recruit, onboard, and retain global talent. She is also a Doctoral Candidate on this topic within internationalisation of higher education.
Alena Ipanova
Alena Ipanova is the owner and CEO of Synergizer Consulting. She is an Intercultural Leadership Trainer & Coach helping leaders and teams work better across cultures, mindsets and expectations. Alena works with organisations to build Cultural Intelligence, Psychological Safety and stronger collaboration.
