Fri, 29 May 2015 Investing in talent and fulfilling people’s potential could boost global gross domestic product (GDP) by 20%, according to The Human Capital Report 2015, published last week by the World Economic Forum in collaboration with Mercer.

In a preface to the report, World Economic forum founder and chief executive Klaus Schwab said that despite reported talent shortages, the pool of latent talent was “enormous.

“To unlock it, governments, business leaders, educational institutions and individuals must each understand better the global talent value chain. Business, in particular, must rethink its role as a consumer of ‘ready-made’ human capital to proactively seek out, engage and develop people’s potential.”

Schwab said that critical to this process would be data and metrics – including the Human Capital Index, developed as part of the report.

The Index, which is based on a country’s ability to nurture talent through education, skills development and deployment at all stages of the human life cycle, ranked Finland as the best economy in terms of leveraging its human capital.

Norway was in second place, followed by Switzerland, Canada, Japan, Sweden, Denmark, Netherlands, New Zealand and Belgium.

The UK came in at 19th, two places behind the US. Yemen was at the bottom of the list, in 124th place.

The Index covers 124 countries, representing between them 92% of the world’s people and 98% of its GDP.

“An ability to quantify human capital and set targets for its growth is ever more important today, as technological, geopolitical, demographic and economic forces profoundly reshape labour markets,” said Schwab.