Recruiting in China

Out-of-work finance professionals in the UK and US have a new reason for optimism about their employment prospects - especially if they speak Mandarin.

Chinese financial institutions are set to exploit the widespread job losses in western financial centres as a result of the credit crunch by next month embarking on a hunt for financial experts willing to relocate.

The Shanghai Financial Service Office has told state media the city is sending a delegation to New York, Chicago and London to recruit specialists in risk management, asset management, product research and development, macro-economics and policy analysis.

The head of human resources at the office said at least 27 financial institutions in Shanghai, China's commercial and financial hub, had listed more than 170 vacancies specifically targeting foreigners.

The global financial turmoil has led to tens of thousands of job losses in financial services.

London and New York have been hit especially hard, while many of those still in employment fear for their future.

However, the salaries on offer in China are unlikely to meet international standards and a preference for those who understand and speak Mandarin Chinese will probably rule out many potential candidates.

In addition, China's unique political environment, in which the Communist party exercises ultimate control over all aspects of the financial, legal and commercial systems, means foreign passport-holders are unlikely to be given senior positions in state-run institutions.

China Investment Corp, the country's sovereign wealth fund, launched a global recruitment drive earlier this year but it was unable to match the salaries on offer in the City or on Wall Street.

Shanghai officials said organisations interested in recruiting in the UK and US included the nascent China Financial Futures Exchange, the Pudong financial district government, and state-run securities agencies, insurance companies and also banks.

The delegation will also try to recruit an assistant to the president of Shanghai Financial University, a chief economist for the SFU's International Finance Research Institute and a dean for its International Finance and Insurance School.

Academic posts are more likely to be offered to

foreigners as such positions are considered less politically sensitive.

China's state-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission has said it encourages the country's largest state companies to recruit internationally, but the number of foreign employees at those companies is still negligible.

All senior managers above a certain level at state companies are appointed by the secretive Communist party personnel department, regardless of the wishes of board directors or share-holders.

A number of Shanghai financial institutions hunting overseas to recruit high-end talent recently came back with their bags packed with resumes.

From Dec 5 to Dec 13, the Shanghai team held a series of recruitment fairs in the US and Britain, which lured thousands of local talents.

"The recruitment is quite hot. For a five minute interview, some applicants even take planes or drive more than 10 hours to attend the fairs," said a manager with a Shanghai-based financial institution.

According to statistics, more than 1,000 people attended the recruitment fair in New York, 300 joined the fair in London, and 200 visited the fair held in Chicago. People who attend the fairs were laid-off workers, those who worried about losing their jobs and prepared in advance, and several graduates.

"Some applicants have been the senior managers of financial institutions with more than 10 years, even 20 years, of work experience. It's a pity to see them standing in a queue to wait for a time-limited interview," the manager said.

Shanghai overseas recruitment offers about 170 high-end posts related to banking, funds, insurance and securities investment, including chief economists for financial institutions, senior managers charging financial derivatives and senior managers responsible for market risks. The annual salaries range from 100,000 yuan ($14,600) to 1.5 million yuan.

Most jobs require applicants with more than five years of work experience in multinational financial institutions, and a master's degree. Furthermore, some posts only recruit people with doctorate degrees and prefer to employ those with professional certificates, such as a CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst), an ACCA (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants), and a CFP (Certified Financial Planner).

For the posts related to risk management, the requirement is even higher. Applicants must have 5 years of work experience in financial institutions and 10 years in strategic research.

Rising unemployment and a widening income gap are the two issues of most concern to Chinese people, an annual report released on Monday by the Chinese Academy of Social Science (CASS) said.

Graduates from the Shandong Institute of Light Industry learn flower arranging at a florist's in Jinan, Shandong province on Monday. The bleak employment situation has forced many graduates to consider setting up their own businesses. [Xinhua]

The document, entitled The Analysis of and Forecasts for Social Development (or the Blue Book on Chinese Society), said 38.4 percent of the 7,000 families interviewed had been affected by the unstable employment situation.

The figure is 8.4 percentage points higher than in 2006.

In urban areas, the unemployment rate is now 9.4 percent, twice the registered rate of 4.5 percent released by the Human Resources and Society Security Ministry, the report said.

Central and western parts of the country, which have less-developed economies, are facing a more severe unemployment situation than wealthy coastal areas, while big cities have a higher unemployment rate than small towns, it said.

Natural disasters and rising operational costs due to the global economic slowdown have caused thousands of small and medium-sized labor-intensive firms to close down this year, leaving millions of migrant workers jobless, the report said.

"The global financial crisis has had a profound effect on the Chinese economy and society," Li Peilin, director of the CASS Institute of Sociology, said at a ceremony to release the report.

"The effects may go beyond our expectations and we have no clear idea how they will change society," he said.

The report also said that the number of people graduating from college rose to a new high of 5.6 million this year. But as of August, just 70 percent of them had found work, it said.

By the end of the year, more than 1.5 million fresh graduates will be without a job, while 6.1 million others will enter the jobs market next year, it said.

"The unemployment rate for new graduates is over 12 percent, three times the urban registered unemployment rate," Chen Guangjin, a professor with the Institute of Sociology, said.

"We should pay more attention to the problem," he said.

Sociologists have also warned that the widening income gap between rich and poor will restrict the consumption power of middle and low-income families, especially during the economic recession.

The average income of 20 percent of the richest families is 17 times higher than that of 20 percent of the poorest ones, the report said.

The rich also own far more durable home appliances, such as refrigerators, mobile phones and computers, it said.

Just 4 percent of poor families have a computer, compared with 66 of rich families, it said.

"It is very important to improve the income situation in China in order to boost domestic demand," Li Wei, a CASS researcher and one of the writers of the report, said.

During tough economic times there is intense pressure on all functions within the business to re-think their current approach in an effort to become more competitive and aggressive all while containing cost.

Unfortunately, many recruiters and recruiting leaders choose an opposite path, becoming more conservative in their approach. When markets head south and fear about economic issues grip the populace, consider a counter-cyclical recruiting strategy that sends a clear message to everyone inside and outside your organization that talent truly means something to your organization.

One controversial yet extremely public, effective outside-the-box recruiting approach you might consider is “proximity recruiting.”

You Must Do Internet and Physical Recruiting
Even with the tremendous growth of Internet recruiting, not everyone is actively surfing the Internet looking for a job or combing through their email in anticipation of your generic form letter introduction.

Reaching a greater percentage of the population relevant to your job searches often requires using at least three channels to reach them, one of which should be physical. The underlying concept of physical recruiting is a simple one, just as robbers target banks because that’s where the money is! Recruiters need to target physical locations where a large number of potential hires can be found.

While nearly everyone in recruiting is familiar with the dreaded job fair, there are numerous other approaches to physical recruiting that are far more effective and fun. One such approach is “proximity” or event recruiting. Proximity recruiting at professional events (tradeshows and seminars) is clearly becoming more mainstream, but one location in particular really elevates the visibility of your efforts and qualifies as “outrageous.” The location? Across the street or in the parking lot of talent-competing firms in trouble.

Proximity Recruiting with a Taco Truck
If you have been paying attention to the business press lately, you are probably aware that Internet giant Yahoo! was planning to lay off approximately 1,000 employees worldwide, the greatest percentage of which would come from its Silicon Valley headquarters in Sunnyvale, California.

What you may not know is that despite a multi-year trend of notable voluntary exits by key employees, Yahoo! is still considered by many to employ some of the greatest engineering talent in the industry. This talent is extremely valuable to hundreds of upstarts working on next-generation technologies.

Yahoo!, like many organizations planning a reduction in force, kept its plans secret until the day when the axe actually swung. Because employees knew pink slips were coming, but no real guidance was offered as to who would be impacted, more people were concerned than would actually be cut.

Seizing on that fear and the actual swinging of the axe, Tokbox, an upstart enabling free voice and video calling over the Internet without any software download, engaged a proximity recruiting strategy that some may consider outrageous.

While pink slips were being handed out, Tokbox executives were setting up a taco truck across the street from Yahoo’s corporate campus, offering employees affected (and anyone else that wanted to chat) a hot lunch and information about employment opportunities.

Their approach was a simple one. They leased a taco truck and driver for the day, set up across the street in plain view, and offered a hot lunch to any Yahoo! employee who wanted to talk. Company executives were on hand and the atmosphere was light.

In order not to make anyone overly nervous, the conversations were kept short. While proximity recruiting has become more common in the Silicon Valley, Tokbox’s efforts still garnered a great deal of press both on the Internet and via the mainstream news media, earning them hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of free PR and employment advertising.

Other Proximity or Event Recruiting Opportunities
If you are not ready to offer free food or display a banner, consider additional proximity recruiting approaches:

A van with a recruiting banner. If there was a most commonly used form of outrageous proximity recruiting, it would have to be the use of the recruiting van (usually with a large banner) that is parked within easy view of a large corporate site or a commuter site frequented by target talent. The “banner van” parked across the street approach has been used both in high-tech and healthcare to target firms that are currently going through acquisitions, union problems, and workforce reductions.
The “across the street” bar, restaurant, or gym. Almost any firm with a large number of employees has a bar or restaurant close by where a significant number of the site’s employees go for a drink or meal with a colleague. These locations are packed with employees wearing IDs, who incidentally, often have their guard down. Health clubs and gyms are also great spots to target.
Award events. You’re almost guaranteed to meet the best and brightest at events that offer awards or prizes for excellence and innovation. Not only should the recipients be targets but you should also look at award presenters as both potential targets and as referral sources.
College recruiting approaches. Because college students love to attend events, proximity recruiting should be a major part of your university recruiting effort. Place a “banner van” key across the street from college campuses. Consider recruiting at campus club meetings, at college sports events, at music concerts, on the beach during spring break, and even at both on- and off-campus college poker events.
Conventions. If you’re trying to hire a nurse, it only makes sense to recruit at a bar inside or outside a nursing-related convention, or where nursing continuing education is being offered. Here again you have the advantage of almost everyone having a name tag with their own and their company name on it.
Clubs and groups. If you are seeking individuals with certain skills or attributes, consider recruiting at clubs, societies, or organizations where individuals with these attributes are common. For example, if you’re looking for risk-takers, target rock-climbing clubs. If your search includes disciplined individuals, consider military groups, math societies, and music groups.
Hotels where company events are held. When you think about it, companies do send their very best people to meetings, seminars, and events. Occasionally, corporate events are announced on the hotels marquis for everyone to see, making it easy to schedule your next pub crawl. This time of year, immediately before a firm’s holiday party gets underway, is another time to begin building relationships with potential targets.
Corporate training centers. Many firms send their best employees to corporate training. Because a good deal of corporate training can be long and dull, there is a high likelihood that a large group will go out for cocktails in the host hotel or at a nearby bar. So, if you have large corporate training centers near you, consider them prime targets.
Shareholder meetings. The bar across the street from the location of the annual shareholders meeting will almost always include a number of company employees and leaders. Go before or after the event to make contacts and build relationships.
Miscellaneous. Firms have practiced “proximity recruiting” at other events and sites including wine festivals, home shows, in shopping malls, and at charity events.
Final Thoughts
If you are put off by the concept of boldly “raiding” other firms, you should realize that “stealing” another firm’s customers is already an accepted and common practice. Both sales and recruiting are competitive functions where the most desirable targets have already been captured by your competitors. As a recruiter, your job is to provide your coworkers with the best teammates that can be found anywhere, period.

No matter what you do, you can never successfully recruit a firm’s employees unless the firm that the employee currently works at has already failed to offer them opportunities that are superior to yours. If you are even slightly hesitant about raiding firms like GM, Ford, Chrysler, Citigroup etc. that have clearly failed their current employees, don’t be surprised when you are replaced by a recruiter who is more aggressive, bolder, and more willing to try something new.

An increasing number of overseas-educated Chinese are returning home in search of jobs after graduation.

According to the Ministry of Education, more than 50,000 Chinese students will come back to the country this year, up from 25,000 in 2004.

The World Journal, a Chinese newspaper based in the United States, reported in late November, more overseas-educated Chinese were trying to find jobs back in China, as unemployment rates in other countries increased during the global financial crisis.

A senior state leader said Tuesday the Party and government will try its best to create a favorable working and living environment for them.

"When faced with the tough task of reform and development and fierce international competition in science and technology development, talent is the most important resource we must have," said Jia Qinglin, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), at the first meeting of a newly elected council of the Western Returned Scholars Association (WRSA) and Chinese Overseas-Educated Scholars Association.

In the past three decades since China's economic reform and opening-up, an increasing number of Chinese, receiving higher educations abroad, have come back and contributed a lot to the country's modernization, Jia said.

He said he expected them to also contribute to helping the nation survive international financial turmoil and to maintain moderate economic growth and social stability.

The WRSA, founded in 1913, has 13 branches across the world with more than 11,000 members.

It should play a better role as a bridge among overseas-educated scholars and the government, Jia said.

Ok folks, it’s official! Now that the State Council has released its 2009 holiday schedule, we can start our planning and make full use of the precious vacation time for the coming year.

The intricacies of slapping on an extra day or two to really stretch out that 3-day weekend can sometimes be tricky. Stay local or jaunt to the near abroad? How does one overcome the teaming mass of humanity clustered at the airports and train stations? More importantly, How mad would your boss really be if you stuck ALL your vacation time right after that very meaty 8-day break in October? We’ll leave that to the tricky dicks out there.

It’s been rather common for office workers to start the work week on a Sunday after 3 continuous public holidays. Of course, not all companies abide by this schedule, and not everyone gets to take Saturdays or any time off at all.

New Year: January 1st (Thu) - 3rd (Sat). Back to work on January 4th (Sun.).

Lunar New Year: January 25th (Sun) - 31st (Sat). Back to work on February 1st (Sun).

Qing Ming Festival: April 4th (Sat) – 6th (Mon).

Labor Day: May 1st (Fri) – 3rd (Sun).

Dragon Boat Festival: May 28th (Thu) – 30th (Sat). Back to work on May 31st (Sun).

National Day and Mid-Autumn: October 1st (Tue) – 8th (Thu). Back to work on October 9th (Fri)

As you can see, there are no public holidays from June to September. This means if you have no planned vacation during this time, it will be a very long (and hot) summer.

Source: "Red Sea of Tourists" by stelzer