"Catalunya produces much better olive oil than Italy, but, even so, everyone buys Italian oil, at a much higher price, simply because in Catalunya we don't know how to sell it." With this metaphor, Xavier Jarque, Chief Revenue Officer of the consultancy Marlex Group, has launched a direct challenge to the Catalan business fabric during the new session of the Eixample Talks cycle. Jarque was no longer talking about agriculture and products, but about talent and professionals. "In Catalunya we have extraordinary business projects, full of potential, but we still lack the ability to transmit them and to captivate the professionals who can make them grow."
The paradox is evident: while Barcelona projects itself to the world as a pole of attraction for international talent, many professionals trained in the city leave abroad in search of new opportunities. The challenge is no longer just to attract talent, but to retain it and commit it to projects that inspire it.
"The lack of available talent is one of the great challenges that small and medium-sized companies must overcome to face the challenges of the future, from the ecological transition to digitalization or the progressive incorporation of artificial intelligence," stressed Sílvia Miró, director of the Labor Area of Pimec, during the inaugural presentation that introduced the first session of the Eixample Talks cycle of the year. Organized by The New Barcelona Post and Pimec, the session was held in collaboration with the Generalitat, the Port of Barcelona, the Barcelona Metropolitan Area (AMB) and Mustmedia Group.
Commitment and fulfillment: the transformation of the professional profile
This scenario has forced companies to rethink how to attract and retain talent. In a constantly transforming labor market, it has been necessary to develop a dual strategy: adapt training offers to the new needs of the labor market and, at the same time, promote within organizations a pedagogy that allows motivating and attracting the new generation of professionals.
"If a profession is perceived as exhausting, rigid, or masculinized, it will hardly connect with new generations," Font also emphasized. Beyond a discourse that seduces professionals, the director of the Consorci per a la Formació Contínua de Catalunya highlighted the importance of offering "optimal conditions: competitive salaries, flexibility, and healthy environments."
During the interview, the paradigm shift is clear: moving from curriculum scrutiny to a sincere conversation, where the candidate's human competencies are detected and the company's purpose, project, and legacy are explained. "Only then can people be made to fall in love with your project and join it."
Self-management and critical thinking: the era of human competencies
This same perspective, focused on purpose and soft skills —or human competencies—, reflects an underlying trend: the current labor market increasingly values these skills above a strictly technical profile. Digital transformation has not reduced the importance of human skills; on the contrary, it has reinforced it. "The labor market is moving away from focusing on specific profiles to seeking human competencies," Carme Pagès pointed out during the inaugural presentation.
Although knowledge in AI is an increasingly sought-after skill by companies, not only technical profiles are the most in-demand. The Catalan labor market also presents a great deficit of professionals with training in trades. Jarque explained it bluntly: "If you bring 100 electromechanics today, tomorrow they will have jobs with salaries of more than 35,000 euros annually. Tomorrow. Not in a month."
Training throughout the entire professional career
In this context, continuous training is essential. Both professionals in traditional trades and those who want to join emerging technological sectors must remain in constant learning throughout their careers."We don't know how the labor market will evolve in the next 30 years, but we can affirm that it will change and that professionals will have to adapt", highlighted Jarque. Training, therefore, becomes a key tool to enhance this adaptability."Linear progress: studying, entering the job market, and retiring in the same position, has become obsolete. Now training is no longer understood as a straight line but as a continuous cycle," Alcoba recalled, emphasizing that the ability to adapt and update skills is today an indispensable requirement for any professional. For companies, offering promotion and training to their employees can also be a way to retain and enhance existing talent.
Font defends the virtuous triangle "guidance, training, and accreditation" promoted by the Consorci per la Formació Contínua de Catalunya. First, helping the person identify what they really need —because without guidance, training can be ineffective—; then, offering them the appropriate training; and, finally, certifying the acquired competencies.
On the other hand, Font emphasizes the need for institutional agility. "It is necessary for the administration and universities to be much more agile in creating and implementing new degrees that respond to immediate needs." Alcoba went a step further: the academic world does not need to wait for demand from a specific sector or profile; if it creates supply, this can, in turn, generate demand.
If a territory decisively commits to generating talent in a specific field, it will end up attracting companies from that sector. "Sometimes you don't have to wait for demand to build the train line; you build it and demand arrives," Alcoba exemplified. Generating talent may mean some professionals initially leave, but at the same time, it positions the territory as a reference hub in that sector.
According to the three speakers, this strategy is only viable with solid public-private partnerships that guarantee the training, retention, and promotion of professionals. It is necessary to coordinate efforts to give visibility and boost the 'liquid gold' projects of the territory, such as Catalan olive oil: local initiatives with quality and global ambition. "We should not only look at Apple in the United States, because here there are projects of the same caliber," Jarque claimed. The talent is there; the challenge is to create the conditions for it to emerge, connect with opportunities, and stay. This challenge requires collective conviction: believing in it and, above all, knowing how to communicate that great projects are also developed in the Catalan fabric and that working in local companies can have a global impact.