Recruiting in China

Four years ago, emulating an Australian global competition for the "Best Job in the World," a lavender farm in Guangdong province launched a national search for two gardeners for the "The Best Jobs in China".

The requirements of Tourism and Events Queensland were simple: It wanted a caretaker for a local tropical island who could speak English, swim and blog. But the Guangdong advertisers required only "beautiful" women aged 18-25 and taller than 163 centimeters to apply to work on rolling lavender fields for a weekly salary of 20,000 yuan ($3,260). Candidates were also asked to specify their vital statistics and state "which part of your body you like the most" in the online applications.

The case shows how blatant and direct discrimination can be in China's job market. To understand how prevalent it is, one just needs to take a look at a recent directive of the Ministry of Education that bans universities from hosting recruitment exercises with discriminatory terms on gender, hukou (residency permit) and academic qualifications.

This is the first time the ministry has banned job advertisements inviting applications only from graduates of elite universities on special government support programs. Such universities account for only 6 percent of the total and accommodate less than 10 percent of all college students nationwide. With a record passing out of 6.99 million graduates this summer, discrimination against those with degrees from less illustrious schools may become even worse as the number of candidates far outstrips the jobs on offer.

Despite skepticism about the effectiveness of the measure that will only be enforced on campuses, advocates of equality and justice in China hope it would be the beginning of the end of a chronic social problem that denies many people the opportunity to realize their "Chinese Dream".

Employment discrimination has deep roots in Chinese history and culture. Often poorly educated people are not aware that their basic rights are violated when employers demand discriminatory preferences for jobs. It can be too subtle for applicants to realize that a decision has been made on the basis of personal features unrelated to work.

But on many occasions, employers explicitly discriminate against jobseekers with wide-ranging criteria on age, sex, personal appearance, disease, ethnicity, birthplace, marital status and hukou. The list has been growing, with the bias for "elite" colleges being the latest addition.

Better-informed jobseekers who stand up to the mistreatment may find the costs of lawsuits prohibitively high, and the existing laws and regulations don't necessarily work in their favor.

A Chinese employment promotion law passed in 2007 prohibits differential treatment of jobseekers based on the grounds of ethnicity, gender, religious beliefs, age or physical disability. But the law is difficult to enforce, because it lacks clear standards and does not specify how to deal with violators of the law.

Earlier this year, a jobseeker in Guangdong province was awarded 601 yuan in the country's first gender discrimination case to be ruled in favor of a complainant. However, her lawyer who provided pro bono legal service said the case had to be resolved through labor authorities because the court found it hard to prove discrimination on the basis of gender and to measure the victim's loss.

Public appeal has been growing for a law that provides clear rules on violations and standards for proving job discrimination. Until that happens, the onus will largely rest on the government to promote equality and responsible employment practices. The government can work out guidelines for job ads, like the Ministry of Education's ban on discriminatory hiring activities on campuses, to let people know that discrimination is wrong and should be stopped now.

It's embarrassing to see employment discrimination pervade the lower strata of society six decades after the workers were declared the masters of the country.

The country's major job fairs for foreigners have featured increasingly more high-tech and management-oriented positions than the formerly dominant teaching posts, said a senior official with the department that oversees attracting and managing international professionals.

Between 2005 and 2008, the majority of positions offered at top job fairs for foreigners were for language teachers, but the post-financial-crisis period has seen more enterprises seeking professionals with other expertise, Zhong Yanguang, deputy director of the Information Research Center of International Talent under the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs, said on the sidelines of a job fair on Saturday.

"In the past many enterprises hired foreigners mainly to show that they have international staff, but now as more and more Chinese enterprises are eyeing the global market, they tend to employ and efficiently use those international human resources," he said.

Zhong's organization has held major job fairs for expats every year in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou since 2005.

In Beijing, most jobs at the fair tend to go to high-tech and management-oriented professionals; in Shanghai, financial talent is tops in demand; and in Guangzhou, enterprises need marketing professionals, according to Zhong.

At the Beijing job fair on Saturday, language-teaching posts accounted for less than 50 percent, which marked a major change.

Nearly 70 enterprises and organizations participated in the fair, posting more than 1,000 jobs.

China International Chamber of Commerce for the Private Sector looked for eight professionals to fill marketing and management positions provided by six private enterprises.

"Privately owned businesses, especially medium-sized ones, are thirsty for foreign professionals to help them explore the overseas market," said Qi Tao, a spokesperson for the chamber.

The CICCPS has more than 140 members, and they have participated in the job fair for five years.

At the fair, the foreign experts affairs bureau in Rizhao city, Shandong province, was organizing local enterprises to seek foreign talent.

"The city's high-tech industry is developing fast and we urgently need talent in fields such as agricultural-machinery manufacturing, biological medicine, environmental protection and seawater desalination," said Li Jianyun, who was in charge of the recruitment for the bureau at the fair.

Li's organization offered 70 positions in those fields.

Also at the fair, Hebei-based Great Wall Motor Co was looking for talent to manage overseas programs.

"We want to hire professionals from India and Thailand to manage our future projects in those two countries because we plan to set up factories there, and we need people who know local markets well," a staff member with the company said on condition of anonymity.

More than 1,500 job seekers were expected to pass through the fair by the end of Saturday, according to Zhong Yanguang.

Natalia Pozdeeva, from Russia, has been working in Beijing for four years and now works at a Russian logistics firm, but she wants to change jobs.

"I hope to find a job at a Chinese logistics company in Beijing, and the reason I want to stay in the industry is because trade between China and Russia continues to be prosperous," she said.

Pedro Hernandez, from Spain, studies computer science at the University of Alcala in Madrid.

Hernandez will graduate in July and he will end his exchange-student program in China's Shandong University in months.

"China's IT industry develops fast and there are many more job opportunities here than in Spain," he said.

The 30-year-old said he wants to find a software-development job in Beijing.

Reve Tardivel is from Cameroon, and he will complete his master's degree in economics and business management from a school in Beijing in July.

"I enjoy my life in China and I'm going to marry a Chinese next month. I also notice a lot of job opportunities here," said the 27-year-old.

Chinese integrated human resource services company 51job, Inc. (JOBS: Quote) reported Thursday a profit for the first quarter that declined 10 percent from last year, reflecting revenue decline and lower operating margins amid higher expenses. The company also provided earnings and revenue outlook for the second quarter of fiscal 2012.

"Although the late Chinese New Year holiday meaningfully delayed the recruitment peak season and affected the amount of revenues we were able to capture in the first quarter, we have observed a solid increase in hiring activity and improved sentiment among employers in 2013," President and CEO Rick Yan said in a statement.

The Shanghai, China-based company reported net income of 108.80 million yuan or $17.52 million for the first quarter, down 9.7 percent from 120.51 million yuan in the prior-year quarter. Earnings per share declined to 1.82 yuan or $0.29 from 2.03 yuan a year earlier.

On American Depository share basis, earnings increased to 3.64 yuan or $0.59 from 4.06 yuan last year.

Excluding items, adjusted net income for the quarter was 123.65 million yuan or $19.91 million, compared to 132.33 million yuan in the year-ago quarter. Adjusted earnings per share was 2.07 yuan or $0.33, compared to 2.23 yuan a year earlier.

On American Depository share basis, adjusted earnings was 4.14 yuan or $0.67, compared to 4.46 yuan last year.

Total revenues for the quarter edged down 0.1 percent to 380.38 million yuan or $61.24 million from 380.81 million yuan in the same quarter last year.

Online recruitment services revenues increased 8.3 percent, while average revenue per unique employer decreased 10.0 percent. From the year-ago quarter.

Other human resource related revenues grew 3.5 percent, while print advertising revenues dropped 48.1 percent from last year.

Operating margin contracted 430 basis points to 31.7 percent from last year as operating expenses as a percentage of net revenues increased 470 basis points, partially offset by gross margin improvement of 40 basis points.

The company noted that it discontinued the publication of 51job Weekly in Shenzhen in March 2013, but continued to maintain its facilities and all other operations in the city.

Looking ahead to the second quarter, the company projects adjusted earnings in a range of 2.20 to 2.35 yuan per share or $0.71 to $0.76 per ADS, on projected revenues between 395 million yuan and 410 million yuan, or $63.6 million and $66.0 million.

"For this year, we remain focused on expanding our customer base, deepening relationships with HR departments for cross-selling opportunities, and innovating new products to increase user engagement and effectiveness for our corporate clients and individuals alike," Yan added.

JOBS closed Thursday's regular trading session at $60.42, up $0.90 or 1.51% on a volume of 66,178 million shares. However, the stock lost a $2.42 or 4.01% in after-hours trading.

The Ministry of Environmental Protection and the world's largest brewer, Anheuser-Busch InBev, announced recently the opening of this year's recruitment of green talents in Beijing. The project aims to look for students dedicated to environmental protection and match them with green companies. Three student groups presented their green ideas involving recycling of boxes used in delivery and trading trash for vegetables. A leader of water saving in the beverage industry, the brewer said investment in green talents equals investment in the future.

After 40 days, the dockworkers have ended their strike with a settlement including a 9.8 percent wage increase. More details and an interview with a strike leader are here.

Five hundred dockworkers are facing down the richest man in Hong Kong (and, according to Forbes, eighth-richest in the world) in a strike that has entered its third week and brought transport in the world’s third-busiest port to a virtual halt.

Li Ka-shing, the billionaire behind Hongkong International Terminals (HIT), controls more than 70 percent of Hong Kong’s port container traffic and oversees a vast transnational network of enterprises including the oil and gas giant Husky.

Arrayed against this financial titan often referred to as “Superman” are dockworkers exhausted by 12-hours shifts lacking even toilet breaks, surviving in one of the world’s most expensive cities on wages that haven’t risen in 15 years, and now waging a labor battle that observers are calling pivotal.

The confrontation appears to have tapped a vein of indignation against the “greed economy” and its glaring inequalities, bringing the workers broad public support.

Strikes are rare in Hong Kong, and strikes that gain this much solidarity are unprecedented in recent memory. The dockworkers represent a new level of action among the fastest growing segment of workers: subcontracted, not yet unionized, hyper-exploited.

Fifteen days into the strike, union spokespeople say not more than 20 dockers have returned to work while 120,000 containers sit untouched, ships experience delays of up to 60 hours, and daily losses of half a million U.S. dollars mount.

On the other side of the fulcrum, thousands of Hong Kong citizens have rallied to “occupy” the Kwai Tsing Port, bringing vast quantities of food, water, and funds ($800,000 so far) to ease the strain on strikers.

Solidarity Sick-Out, Boycott

The dockers are holding firm in their demand for recognition of their newly formed Hong Kong Dockworkers Union, humane working hours, safety measures, and wage hikes of 15-20 percent. Under immense public pressure, Hong Kong’s pro-business government has had to intervene to make management negotiate.

A court injunction initially limiting strikers’ access to the docks was later amended, providing the right for 80 to picket at a time. But the sustained presence of hundreds of strikers and supporters camping out on surrounding streets has disrupted all normal flow of work, and a sympathy “sick-out” earlier in the week by port truck drivers reinforced the strike.

Meanwhile an activist student group, Left 21, has begun organizing a boycott of Li Kai-shing’s mega-supermarket chain Park and Shop, and the president of the International Federation of Transport Workers, the global organization of transport unions, traveled to Hong Kong for a solidarity event. The AFL-CIO’s Solidarity Center is donating $5,000.

While support floods in from students, other unionists, and citizens, buoying up the strikers, the solid commitment of the dockworkers themselves is driving this piece of history. The workers organized despite differences in craft and employer (at least four major contractors supply staffing to the Kwai Tsing Port), divisions between subcontracted workers and permanent port employees, lack of formal recognition of their union, and no precedent of collective bargaining.

The dockers have no illusions about the concentrated wealth and power of their ultimate boss Li Ka-shing, but they realize that they have in their hands something no one else controls: the ability to withhold their labor.

Repercussions on the Mainland

The colonial history of Hong Kong left little in the way of labor rights, and unions are rather weak, operating with limited legal rights to bargain or represent workers. Still, both of Hong Kong’s two major union federations are playing roles in this strike.

The larger, the HKFTU, has ties to mainland China’s official labor federation, the ACFTU, and is considered pro-business and politically conservative. In this strike its lack of legitimacy among workers was further weakened by revelations that one of its leaders holds a management position in Global Stevedoring Service, one of the contractors that employ dockworkers.

HKFTU tried to funnel management’s offer of a 5 percent wage increase to a subgroup of workers, but was shamed and now seems to have retreated entirely.

The smaller federation, the HKCTU, is considered a pillar in the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong, and has taken the lead in supporting the strike: raising funds, organizing logistics, doing PR and outreach, making demands on politicians.

The conflicts between the two Hong Kong labor federations point to implications of this strike for mainland China. Though total reintegration of Hong Kong into China is still 35 years in the future, the two economies are already thoroughly enmeshed. Because of the strike, some portion of Hong Kong ship traffic will almost certainly be re-routed to the southern mainland ports at Shenzhen or Guangzhou, where labor conditions are way below those in Hong Kong.

A strike of crane operators at the Shenzhen port several years ago was met with swift government intervention and rapid agreement to workers’ demands, in an incident believed to show the government’s determination to prevent a spread of worker militancy—not through repression but through accommodation.

Given that there are already tens of thousands of wildcat strikes annually on the mainland, rising on 30 years of wage repression and an absence of union representation, the potential for this spark of Hong Kong labor militancy to jump the straits and ignite a prairie fire on the mainland may be on the minds of China’s leaders.

Ellen David Friedman is a retired union organizer, on the Policy Committee of Labor Notes, and a Visiting Scholar at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou. Support the strike fund here.

Italian explorer Marco Polo spent 17 years working in the court of Kublai Khan's China, but today most foreigners seeking to live and work in the country aren't looking for the same time-invested cultural exchange.

"It's the place to make money," explained Aynura Askerova, a Russian who has lived in the southern Chinese metropolis of Guangzhou for four years.

Work as a fashion model has taken Askerova across China and the rest of Asia, but "now it's time to find a real career," she said last month, in an overly-illuminated hotel conference room in the city's China Marriott Hotel.

Like hundreds of other visitors from across the world, the graduate in software development from Kazan State University was there for the Jobs Fair for Foreigners; one of three annual events organized by the Chinese government, where expats get a rare chance to meet prospective employers face-to-face.

The events have been a honeypot for job-seeking expats, particularly since the global economic crisis of 2008. While economic growth in China has slowed in the last year, the 7% to 8% predicted growth is positively booming compared to Europe and the United States, leading many to believe their prospects there might be better than at home.

However the perception that expats, particularly from western countries, can just walk into a job or career in China is now out of date.

"The novelty of being a foreigner has worn off," said Shanghai-based Simon Lance, regional director in China for recruitment firm Hays. "Employers are seeking value. Demonstrating a genuine commitment to China is key."

That can include language skills and being willing to spend more than just one or two years in the country, he added.
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According to a report by the state-run Xinhua news agency, nearly 7 million new Chinese graduates entered the jobs market last year. It's a figure that is set to increase in the coming years as China expands its number of higher education institutions, adding to the challenge for foreigners embarking on their careers in the country.

"That side of the workforce there's almost an oversupply of junior end candidates," said Lance. "So it's hard for expats to compete. Without Mandarin or local language skills I'd say it's almost impossible."

Nick Cucinella, CEO at CareerBuilder China, advises graduates to have a CV in both English and Chinese, even if they don't speak the language, and that taking the initiative and targeting prospective employers and Chinese companies is the best path to a job.

"Not many people do that, but if they do they will be very well received. Too many just use jobs sites and search engines," he said.

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However for those with established careers and particular skill-sets, demand exceeds supply in many industries.

Big infrastructure projects in China mean that recruitment companies are seeing a desire for experienced architects and design engineers, plus a strong demand for those in the pharmaceutical industry, as local and international companies invest in R&D facilities in the country.

"Chinese companies realize they have to offer more than just a job, but show that the city is good place to live, raise children and there's enough going on," said Cucinella.

The recruitment process in China could also seem quite strange to many westerners.

"At a market in China you're expected to haggle and that applies in some way to job negotiations. Westerners don't want to feel like they're haggling over their life, they want to feel wanted," said Cucinella.

However a larger trend is localizing the workforce across positions, believes Lance.

If the employers he recruits for have a wish-list it is usually for a Chinese national who has gained many years of experience studying or working abroad.

These "haigui," or sea turtles as they are called in China, hit the employment sweet spot with "both the cultural connection and the language skills," according to Lance.

"They provide a pretty good compromise between being able to connect and communicate with local Chinese staff, but have a good understanding of western business and management practice. They bridge the two worlds quite well."

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For those expats at the Guangzhou event swimming against the rising tide of competition, employing a number of techniques is necessary to make it in China -- local connections being one of the most useful.

"Having a connection, or 'guanxi,' is important," said German national Max Storz, who found a sales job in Guangzhou through a contact of his girlfriend. "It helps a lot to find a job and get things done in general."

It's worked for Askerova, too. With business partners she met in China, she has been able to register a trading company in Hong Kong alongside developing a modeling career.

"There are cultural differences to work out, and it was hard for me at first (living in Guangzhou), very different," she said. "But there is really nowhere else like it."