Recruiting in China

By Frank Mulligan, Talent Software

Unlike in the past, we are awash in information here in China right now.

We know the economy is developing at 9% every year and that Foreign Direct Investment is in excess of US$50 billion per year. We know about the ’War for Talent’ and that staff turnover is now in excess of 25% for most companies in China. So getting information is easy, especially numbers that underline the narrative of a growing, developing economy. On the other hand, getting validated information at the right time is always difficult to do, and costly.

Recruiters are essentially in the business of finding, evaluating and using information about the suitability of a candidate for the positions in their company or client.

In order to achieve their goals they must separate truth from fiction, fact from rumour. And to do this they have to be able to evaluate the information they have using the current toolset of the recruiter; behavioural interviewing, psychometric assessment, Performance Profiles, background checks, Topgrading, skills tests, Work Samples, reference checks and so on.

Missing Data
Each of these methods has it’s own limitations. There are figures for the validity of each method that would suggest that there is a strong case for using them.

However, a couple of years ago we asked 40 companies in China about their hiring processes and the results were not very encouraging. Few did reference checks (<10%) and very few did backgrounds check(<1%). Some did a scripted phone screen with candidates(<3%) but most had not even considered the idea. Many knew what Behavioural Interviewing was but less than 20% said they used it in practice.

A majority of companies in our informal survery did not use any type of intelligence, skills or personality testing during the recruiting process. This was a bit surprising given that these kinds of tests have been available in China for many years. And in Chinese.

Add to that the huge costs of hiring the wrong person and you have a strong justification for using them. But companies didn’t at that time.

Since then we have seen the introduction of affordable background screening, and the arrival or more and more validated psychometric and skills tests. This has clearly increased the numbers of companies using these kinds of tools but we won’t know what the figures are until we check again.

If you want to know a little more about the validity of various assessment methods this chart might be a good start.

Selection Method - "Predictability"
Handwriting Analysis - 0%
Age - 0%
Amount of Education - 0%
Self Assessment - 3%
Projective Tests - 3%
Traditional Interviews - 4%
Grade Point Averages - 4%
Expert Recommendations - 4%
Personality Tests - 4%
Motivation - 4%
Reference Check - 6%
Biographical Data - 9%
Situational Interviews - 9%
Behavioral Event Interviews - 10%
Mental Ability Tests - 25%
Content Valid Simulations - 64%

Adapted from a meta-analysis conducted by Hunter and Hunter, Psychological Bulletin, Vol. 96, 1984. Percentages have been rounded. Predictability refers to the explained variance.