Recruiting in China

08/06/2007
By Frank Mulligan - Recruit China

From the beginning of July to the end of August is generally a bit of a lull for hiring in China. Senior managers are away on holidays and budgets have yet to be developed.

If you have recently introduced some form of online hiring, the efficiencies it generates may leave you at a loss what to do with the extra time on your hands. Even if you haven¡¯t introduced online hiring you will still have free time on your hands. Perhaps it¡¯s time to undertake some preparatory tasks for the rush in September!.

1.. Do a survey of all top employees and ask them why they accepted the job when they were hired. Also ask them what they think the top selling points of the firm currently are. Add this information into your Talent Management System and itemise the reasons one by one. With this data from this task you will be in a better position to sell your company to China¡¯s professionals when you begin hiring again. Lulls always end.

2.. Do a survey of all candidates who rejected an offer in the past year to find out what the deciding factors were that led them to turn down your offer. Again try to systematise this by organising their reasons into broad areas that can generate metrics.

3.. Develop an online mail newsletter that will keep potential candidates interested in your company and aware of current hot opportunities. Send it out once every three months to opt-in candidates only.

4.. Review hires generated in the past year by collecting on-the-job performance data and manager satisfaction information. Compare this data with your notes during the interview process.

5.. Get into the important operations and sales meetings to learn which roles in the organization will be mission critical, i.e. where a vacancy or delay in recruitment would cause critical organizational failures, such as delaying time to market or compromising product quality.

6.. Search through your online Talent Pool (if you have one) and request additional information from candidates who have not filled out their profile fully.

7.. Isolate the key candidates in your online Talent Pool and separate them out from the others. Devise a system to increase the communications from your company with these selected professionals.

8.. Remember that recruiting is marketing, and build a clear, concise document that illustrates your Recruitment Brand. Use it in all future recruiting. In the ideal world, build this document into your Careers@ section of your website.

9.. Spend time with your line managers to see what behaviours they want more of, and less of.

10.. Develop scripts for phone interviews and build them into your Applicant Tracking Systems(ATS).

In the end there are many tasks that recruiters in China can undertake today to help make their jobs a little easier and to be more productive when the hiring season starts again.

Let¡¯s keep the slow out of the slow season!.