Milken Institute vs World Economic Forum: A Look Behind the Scenes

Julian Herzog
6 min readOct 12, 2022

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Social and economic initiatives have never been more prevalent. Green initiatives and research programs are the new normal, but what about the resources working behind the scenes? The Milken Institute and World Economic Forum are two companies that focus on building sustainable solutions in the business realm, political front, and communities worldwide.

Founded in 1991 in the United States, Milken Institute has grown to reach thousands of individuals and communities through its research programs. Similarly, the World Economic Forum saw its inception in Switzerland in 1971 and focuses on international organization of business and political movements. Both of these companies wouldn’t have seen the startling success if it wasn’t for the top resource working behind the scenes: Their employees.

Analyzing the employment and education specifics of the personnel at each of these companies will give us insight into the talent they look to attract. This is useful for everyone, from individuals looking for an employment opportunity, to businesses considering working with these companies. The data we will use is provided by Osterus, a powerful software tool that combines hundreds of data points to create meaningful statistics that will be used for comparison.

Let’s first start by looking at the work experience at each of these companies. Both Milken Institute and World Economic Forum have most employees with only 1 year of experience with 15% and 14%, respectively. The next highest category is the 20+ year category with 12% and 12% for Milken Institute and World Economic Forum, respectively.

The percentage of employees between these two categories begins diminishing as the years go on. The large group of employees in the 1-year category indicates that the company went through an extensive hiring process in the past year, which is expected with employee turnover rates at record highs across all industries. Additionally, the steady number of employees that have been with these companies for over 20 years tells us that each of these companies has experienced professionals driving the business forward.

The work experience total is also insightful. The top category in the work experience distribution is the 20+ year category with 47% and 41% for Milken Institute and World Economic Forum, respectively. The lowest category is the 1-year category, showing 0% for Milken Institute and 0.17% for World Economic Forum.

The data explains that both companies look for experienced professionals when hiring for positions. Even though the work experience in the current company distribution showed a significant number of employees as being with the company for only 1 year, these individuals had very rich experience elsewhere prior to joining them. Both companies can attribute a portion of their success to the expanded knowledge base that their employees retain. From innovative growth strategies to strong controls over everyday operations, employees with high levels of experience greatly contribute to the success of these businesses.

The education of employees also allows us to get an inside view of what working at these companies entails. Milken Institute and World Economic Forum both retained educated employees with 67% and 51% holding bachelor’s degrees, 27% and 38% holding master’s degrees, and 5.5% and 10% having doctoral degrees, respectively.

This tells us that a large portion of employees have some type of formal education. Additionally, we see that these companies are looking to hire educated employees with the job requirements often requiring an educational background on a variety of different topics. The education degree per gender is very similar with most categories having a small difference, indicating equality in the hiring process.

Looking at the number of employees in each job title reinforces the education requirement to work at these companies. C suite, board member, partner, consultant, and founder are the top categories in job titles with a range of 5% to 18% of employees found here. Due to the high level of technical and business topics that individuals in these roles would experience, it makes sense that education is a priority.

The other categories, including finance, investor, business development, corporate affairs, professor, marketing, and software development, would most likely rely on an educational background to adequately complete job tasks. The complexity of the social research and innovation sector calls on the need for extensive knowledge, which most likely is attainable through a college degree.

Back to education, language plays a major role in business activities at Milken Institute and World Economic Forum because operations are worldwide. Investors at Milken Institute and World Economic Forum speak on average 6 and 5 different languages, respectively. The c suite, other occupations, and board members also speak between 3 and 5 languages on average.

The language diversity within these companies is vital to effectively conduct international business and help communities worldwide. The expansive language abilities further support an emphasis on higher education for employees within these companies. Moreover, since Milken Institute and World Economic Forum have locations across the globe, multiple languages are required to talk to team members in different offices.

So, what’s the consensus on these companies? Osterus recently released a new loyalty score that presents a high-level assessment of the company’s overall workforce based on the current employee tenure rate, the boomerang ratio, the employee tenure ratio, the current employee tenure ratio, the employee ratio, and the employment type ratio. The higher the score, the more sentiment and loyalty toward the company.

We can see that the Milken Institute has a low score while the World Economic Forum has a medium score. This tells us that both companies have areas of improvement to boost employee loyalty and sentiment. The employee ratio, employment type ratio, and employee tenure ratio all have low metrics, indicating vital areas to pay attention to. Eventually, we would like to see these benchmarks increase as the company begins to shift its culture, workplace standards, and benefits.

Overall, both Milken Institute and World Economic Forum retain highly educated employees. The recent hiring effort presents a perfect opportunity to further build loyalty and sentiment within the company. The data provided by Osterus is just the start of the insights that employment data provides us. From perceiving company culture to summarizing what it might be like to work at these companies, the possibilities are endless. For more information, reach out to contact us directly or on LinkedIn.

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