Postojnska jama (Postojna cave) is a multicultural destination, annually visited by guests from 156 countries. Cultural respect is an integral part of both our inner as well external operations and we wish that this could be perceived as a Slovenian competitive advantage at the country level.

We believe that our cultural mix helps us to improve our services however, people must be properly qualified and have a desire to improve the quality. In these terms, mostly due to the inflexible labour legislation, Slovenia still has a challenge to become a desired work destination for not only people coming from the markets outside Europe but also for people from EU countries.

Marjan Batagelj, CEO, Postojnska jama d.d.

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"The talent and drive of people are essential for the hotel industry and as I have personally seen the absence of highly-skilled workers in our industry, I welcome new foreign talent. Even though Slovenia is not among attractive migrant destinations, maybe we should create selective targeted immigration programmes designed to attract these highly-skilled migrants in order to gain an advantage in the new global economy. I believe migration in our industry has beneficial consequences in the form of knowledge gained and transferred from abroad. It also enhances our multi-lingualism, opens us up to new ideas and makes us less globally isolated".

Tomislav Čeh, General Manager, Union hoteli d.d.

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"In SIJ Group, we are intensively investing in modern technology and our employees, since they make the difference.

In Slovenia, we are witnessing the emmigration of the most talented young employees due to the unfavorable taxation or lack of further development opportunities. To prevent this and to stimulate a rewarding and challenging working environment within the group, we started several initiatives and internal programs, such as the Young Potentials program, which is designed to unlock their abilities, contribute to our further development and later, to provide mentorship and employee succession".

Anton Chernykh, President of the Board of Directors, SIJ Group

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The global talent migration is inevitable and opens new opportunities because not all smart people work for you! Talent is neither geographically limited nor defined. From an educational point of view, I feel obliged to 'open the stage to all players' and help them to be treated as equal. Being educated is the first condition.

I am glad that the global talent pool has grown enormously as emerging economies invest heavily in education. China, for example, is witnessing a huge growth of their high school graduation rates and we have just recently started to work more closely with them. We are preparing exchange programs with the School of Management at Zhejiang University, for example. The rapid development of China is also the result of their strategic decision to open themselves to the world and the new initiative 'Silk Road' is a good manifestation.

Another more recent example is the refugee crisis. I am sure that, in the future, we will witness more such phenomena because we are not even close to a globalised world. Professor Ghemawat, our visiting professor, made a survey in which he shows that the world is roughly 10 - 25 percent globalised. 90 percent of the world population will never leave the country where they were born! So, we are therefore still a long way from the 'realisation' of global talent migration.

Professor Danica Purg, President of IEDC Bled School of Management

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"Comtrade is a multinational and multi-location IT Group. We benefit in places outside Slovenia but global talent migration is a very real issue where we need to carefully defend against the brain drain from our core locations whilst also securing attractive workplaces to bring in new talent as required.

In the case of Slovenia and our industry, we are deeply concerned that the high taxation has created a monetary disadvantage for our employees. Take-home pay in Slovenia is around 40% of their hard-earned gross salary compared to more than 60% in other places. When considering how many software engineers graduate in Slovenia, the cost to the state and in combination with the fact that software drives every industry in the world today, it should be a key goal to retain as many of these talented IT engineers in the country to ensure Slovenia is well-equipped for future development.

Other countries see the benefits of increasing IT talent through financial taxation gains and, more importantly, as the resource for a future-oriented direction. Slovenia however, is currently experiencing a double loss with home-grown talent migrating elsewhere and therefore diminishing the local know-how and, due to the high tax burden, it is also impossible to attract IT workers."

Alexis Lope-Bello, CEO, Comtrade Group