How to Create a Much More Attractive Living Environment for Talent Retaining and Attracting? The Case of Serbia

Creating an attractive living environment for retaining and attracting talent is the main strategic goal of today’s Serbia and its cities. Talent is not only significant because of its contribution to business entities (increasing competitiveness, profitability, response to rapid changes in the external environment), but also because of its impact on society. However, the question arises: how is knowledge, which is the core of human capital, generated, used and managed? The lack of suitable workforce that employers face in Serbia only further emphasizes the importance of taking further actions to improve the conditions for retaining professionals. This includes better working conditions, greater investment in training and addressing the difficulties of balancing work with health issues and caring responsibilities. Known as a global mega-trend, urbanization presents great opportunities for innovation, job creation, economic growth, sustainable development and urban design. Less prominent, but no less important, is the question of how we can ensure that future cities are just and inclusive – meaning cities that put people first, putting equality and social justice at the centre of public policy. In a just city, residents have the power and the resources to collectively shape, change, and plan their future. The fundamental goal of this work is to, by analysing the interdependence of the living environment and the spatial mobility of human capital, arrive at a new paradigm of the appropriate of strategic action by state entities that will contribute to retaining and attracting talent. Therefore, by the end of this century, to increase, and not to decrease the number of inhabitants in Serbia - as shown by UN projections, or at least to remain at the same level.