Recent research suggests that talent attraction is no longer simply about offering jobs or promoting an appealing lifestyle. Talents weigh the whole place: opportunity, trust, services, relationships and the prospect of building a life.
By Olga Rauhut Kompaniets, TPBO’s Associate Editor, Academic Research.
Talent attraction is becoming a test of how well a place works
Over the past decade, research on talent attraction and place branding has moved beyond jobs, salaries and urban excitement. Earlier work stressed competitiveness and amenities; more recent studies examine the entire relocation experience, from career opportunities and housing to public services, family needs and institutional credibility.
The shift is from the creative city to the talent ecosystem. Culture, openness and vitality still matter, but they sit within a larger system that must help people arrive, settle and remain.
The direct literature linking place branding and talent attraction is still relatively small. Yet evidence from migration studies, employer branding, regional development, remote work, university internationalisation and workforce retention now points in the same direction: talent attraction is less a promotional exercise than a test of how well a place works.
Reputation has to be earned
Talents increasingly judge places by what they represent as well as what they offer. Sustainability, fairness, openness and institutional trust have become part of the talent proposition.
But values attract only when they are visible in everyday life. A city cannot promote inclusion while newcomers remain outside professional networks. A region cannot claim a green reputation if housing, transport and development decisions tell another story.
For place brands, consistency is the asset. The promise and the lived experience must reinforce one another.
The ecosystem is the offer
Talents rarely assess one job alone. They consider the depth of the labour market, opportunities to progress, employment for a partner and the resilience of the local economy. The question behind the vacancy is simple: what happens if this role does not work out?
That calculation matters most in smaller cities and peripheral regions, where a move can feel professionally and personally risky. A strong employer helps; a credible cluster of employers, institutions and peers is more persuasive.
Talent attraction therefore depends on cooperation among organisations that may otherwise compete. Employers, universities, public authorities, migration services, housing providers and professional networks all shape the same decision. The place brand can give them a shared proposition, and a shared standard of delivery.
Arrival is only the start
People may move for work, but they stay for life. Too many strategies stop at recruitment. The real test begins when a newcomer tries to find a home, navigate public services, understand local norms, establish friendships or secure work for a partner.
Quality of life should therefore be treated as an operating system, not a gallery of pleasant images. The relevant question is not whether a place is broadly liveable, but whether it works for the specific people it hopes to attract.
For place brands, onboarding is therefore part of the experience they are promising.
Remote, but not rootless
Remote and hybrid work have widened the map of possible locations, but they have not made geography irrelevant. A fully remote employee, a hybrid commuter, a freelancer and a digital nomad face different legal, financial and professional realities.
Broadband and coworking spaces are useful. So are affordable homes, reliable transport, strong institutions, lively neighbourhoods and access to professional communities. The places gaining most from remote work often already offer these foundations.
The lesson is precision: places need to decide which form of mobility they are targeting, then build an offer that fits it.
Belonging does the retaining
Attraction may bring people to a place, but longer-term retention depends increasingly on social relationships and attachment to the place itself.
Research increasingly points to cultural contact, social relationships and place attachment as drivers of longer stays. Many places still invest heavily in recruitment and lightly in integration. Newcomers may connect with other arrivals without ever becoming connected to the place itself.
Universities are central here. International students already know the city and its institutions, yet they are often treated as temporary consumers of education. Linking study with local employers, internships, language learning, cultural participation and post-study careers can turn student attraction into long-term talent retention.
Measure the journey
Visibility, media coverage and campaign reach remain useful, but they do not show whether people move, or stay.
Talent attraction should be measured as a journey: awareness, consideration, application, acceptance, relocation, settlement, retention and recommendation.
Where do candidates drop out? Is the barrier salary, housing, bureaucracy, partner employment or the place itself? How many accepted offers become completed moves? How many newcomers remain after two or five years?
These measures reveal whether the problem is communication or delivery. They also make place branding strategy more accountable to the people it seeks to attract.
What research still needs to answer
Much of the evidence still concerns intentions, what people say they might do, rather than completed moves and long-term outcomes. More longitudinal work is needed to follow talent from first contact with a place through settlement and retention.
Research also needs to take households more seriously. Partners, children and caring responsibilities can determine a move, yet mobility is often studied as an individual choice.
Sharper comparisons are needed too. Researchers, nurses, entrepreneurs and skilled tradespeople do not respond to the same offer, and smaller places face different constraints from global capitals.
Finally, talent attraction must be judged by the value it creates locally. Success can raise pressure on housing and services or widen inequalities between newcomers and existing residents. A strategy is not complete simply because qualified people arrive; it must also strengthen the place they join.
Takeaways for place brand researchers and practitioners
Taken together, recent research points to a broader understanding of what talent attraction involves. The focus is moving from the attractiveness of a job or lifestyle towards the experience of choosing, reaching and settling in a place.
For practitioners, this means looking beyond visibility and recruitment. Housing, public services, partner employment, professional networks and social integration all shape the talent proposition. The same applies to remote work: different forms of mobility create different expectations and require different conditions.
For researchers, important questions remain open. More longitudinal evidence is needed to understand what happens after relocation, while households, different talent groups and the effects on existing residents deserve greater attention.
The emerging lesson is that talent attraction is no longer simply about making a place look appealing from a distance. It is about reducing the risks of moving, improving the experience of arriving and creating convincing reasons to remain. The research broadly reinforces the direction identified in TPBO’s wider analysis of talent attraction in 2026, while also highlighting how much remains to be understood about what happens after relocation.
This research review draws on peer-reviewed work published in 2025 and early 2026, read alongside the broader evolution of talent attraction and place branding research. For the latest academic findings and scholarly perspectives on place branding theory and practice, explore TPBO’s Research Updates.
For the wider picture on talent attraction in 2026, see The State of Talent Attraction 2026: From Campaigns to Infrastructure.
This research review is also part of TPBO’s forthcoming Talent Attraction Leaders Europe & North America special edition.
