Recruiting in China

The government's latest economic stimulus plan could create at least one million jobs by the end of the year, in turn curbing rapid unemployment among migrant workers hit by a looming global recession, a senior researcher has said.

The $586-billion stimulus package will help ease unemployment from export-oriented enterprises in the coastal regions shutting down or cutting costs amid the global financial downturn, Liu Junsheng from the labor-wage institute of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security said on Tuesday.

The country will invest 100 billion yuan by the end of the year as part of the package, said the National Development and Reform Commission, the country's top economic planner.

About one-third of the investment will go into improving infrastructure, boosting agricultural competitiveness and building up the social security network in the rural regions, sources close to the central government have said.

"This can directly bring new jobs for surplus labor in the rural regions," Liu said.

"All these investments can create new jobs in towns and villages," Liu said.

While the number of jobs created by the massive infrastructure projects will be considerable, it is equally important to stem the decline arising from the export sectors, Cai Fang, a labor economics specialist with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing, said yesterday.

"The stimulus projects for infrastructure nationwide will bring in a huge army of laborers and I'm sure a large number of migrant workers will return to construction sites for new work," said Cai, who is also a member of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress.

"But the projects are still limited to infrastructure, which is not sufficient."

"We believe the stimulus plan will create new jobs, but the government should pay equal attention to laborers in export-oriented enterprises. These enterprises may have been under pressure for a relatively long period of time," Cai said.

"The central government's fiscal policy has also stimulated the international community and we hope there will be more policies of the same caliber, both from the central and local governments, to support small businesses focusing on export," he said.

The government should also use the momentum to spend more and revamp its social security system, to further help laborers deal with the economic challenges, Cai said.

"Most laborers worry about their welfare, retirement funds or unemployment benefits. The government should address these worries," said Cai, who also suggested the government continue to remove the individual income tax from more low-income laborers.

Still, Cai said local authorities should not interfere in the job market to deal with unemployment.

Some local governments recently raised the standard wage for low-income workers, putting added pressure on enterprises and causing more unemployment, he said.

"These enterprises are facing their most difficult time, so the government, the enterprises and the laborers should go through this difficult time together," Cai said.

China, which holds the world's largest population of 1.3 billion, stands to face tremendous pressure from the 10 million people entering the workforce every year.

The government has set a target of maintaining at least 9 percent economic growth over the next two years, while the country is expected to keep its unemployment rate at about 4 percent, excluding migrant workers.

The country has about 200 million migrant workers, of whom 120 million move from rural areas to work in cities, figures from the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security showed.

The largest number of migrant workers comes from Sichuan, Hunan, Hubei and Jiangxi provinces, as well as the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

There has been an increasing number of migrant workers heading home to Chongqing municipality and Sichuan, Hunan and Hubei from the major exporting base of Guangdong in the past few weeks, the ministry said.

Hubei province alone registered 300,000 migrant workers returning home during the last two months, the Wuhan-based Chutian Metropolis Daily reported.

Similarly, the Hunan provincial administration of human resources and social security estimated that 2.8 million migrant workers will return to the province in the coming year, the local Xiaoxiang Morning Post reported.

Human Resources and Social Security Minister Yin Weimin said earlier this month that although 57,608 enterprises went bankrupt in Guangdong province, there were still 92,609 newly registered companies in the first three quarters of the year, which helped the province maintain a 10.4-percent growth rate.

However, in the third quarter of this year, the number of job vacancies in Guangdong was much lower than the previous year, and growth rate of newly created jobs has slowed down, Yin said.

The Minister of Human Resources and Social Security says the global financial crisis has had a negative impact on the domestic job situation. But Yin Weimin is confident of achieving the country's whole-year employment goals.

According to figures from the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the supply of new jobs in China in the first three quarters fell year-on-year. While growth in the number of new employees has started to slow.

He says the most vulnerable groups during this financial crisis are workers in export and labor-intensive fields. As the economy slows, the impact will be felt in the fourth quarter and the first half of next year. But he says he is confident in achieving this year's goals of creating 10 million jobs and reemploying 10 million laid-off workers.

Yin Weimin, Ministry of Human Resources & Social Security said "By the end of the year, the employment and social security goals, which were set in Premier Wen Jiabao's government work report, will be met."

In the first nine months of the year, 9.4 million workers found jobs in urban areas, and 4 million laid-off workers found new jobs.

Minister Yin says the country's sound and stable economic fundamentals will guarantee employment and social security. For example, the GDP growth rate for the first three quarters in Guangdong Province was 10.4 percent.

To help increase employment, the government will adopt a series of measures, like providing small loans to support the development of labor-intensive companies and encourage the creation of new businesses.

With the financial crisis' heightening sense of menace, many are reconsidering what they can and can't afford - and employing a nanny at 30,000 yuan ($4,280) a year is falling into the latter category.

With a demanding job working for a multinational company, 27-year-old Ding Ting must now come home from the office and cook, care and clean for her children after being forced to let her nanny go.

"It's a difficult time - every bit counts. After all, it's not a small amount for employing a nanny," Ding said, having relished the services of her nanny for the past two years.

"The possibility of being made redundant has been a sword of Damocles hanging over me since the crisis broke, and the problems are just starting.

"This has brought a huge stress to daily life."

The hurricane howling through the world's financial markets has left an oversupply of nannies in its wake.

A source from a local domestic service company said the city's nanny market had dropped 20 to 30 percent in the past year, with nannies' average salaries also decreasing from 2,000-2,500 yuan to 1,300-1,800 yuan.

The golden era for nannies in the city has come to a shuddering halt, Gong Linfang, president of Shanghai Pudong district domestic service association, said yesterday.

Local government founded the association in March to standardize and develop what was then a booming domestic service industry.

"The boom time for nannies in recent years looks to be ending now," she said.

"Nannies are among the first to be hit when times start to get tough.

It is the hardest year for business of domestic service," she added.

Li Rong, owner of Shanghai-based Laibang Nannies Company, said: "In the last month or two I have started receiving calls from employers saying they will stop employing nannies or switching to employ hourly waged nannies due to the depressed global economy and apprehension about future uncertainties."

Meanwhile, insiders also attribute the current oversupply to a flood of workers laid off as businesses have failed.

"Fees for hourly-waged nannies have decreased from 15 yuan to 12 yuan, and at times even to the low of seven yuan, putting it back by two or three years," said Xiao He, a nanny from Sichuan province with four years experience in home service.

"Normally at this time of the year, a rush of people come and look for nannies. But it hasn't happened yet.

Some nanny companies have teamed up to weather the storm to share information from both employers and nannies in the city.

"That will give us a competitive edge in the shrinking market," Li Rong said.

Your company may be sending a brand-destroying message that hiring next year’s summer intern is more important than hiring your next director, vice president, or other C-level executive.

Many firms are hiring college graduates and interns for next summer. In many of those cases, relocation is paid to the college graduate or summer housing is arranged for the intern. A look at the experienced hiring market illustrates an entirely different story. A search in Google for “local candidates only” delivers more than 250,000 results. Sure, several of these openings are for retail or hourly employees where considerable education credentials aren’t required.

But you get:
50,000+ results for “local candidates only” vp
5,000+ results for “local candidates only” mba

If you sift through there a bit, you’ll find some senior openings like Chief Financial Officer and Chief Marketing Officer. Would it not be wise to mix in talent from other regions, if not solely to have different vantage points and a more diverse perspective? The best companies I’ve ever worked for had these qualities and created true diversity in skills and life perspectives. Ideally, you should be recruiting the best people who are passionate lifelong learners with cutting-edge skills capable of a building a collaborative, high-performing culture regardless of their location.

It’s similar to what I see when analyzing strategic Internet marketing programs. It comes down to one simple thing: legacy, incumbent budgets that prevent you from achieving the desired outcome. Long-standing, legacy budgets fund college graduate and intern relocation programs and are regularly renewed while mid-level, experienced-hire budget resources are highly irregular and often insufficient to acquire the best talent.

The expenses for experienced hire candidates, such as airfare and hotels during interviewing, and relocation costs of an experienced hire, often come directly out of the P&L of the business unit doing the hiring. As you enter budget cycles in the years ahead, you should consider creating a flexible budget pool for experienced hires that is independent of the business unit. This not only will help your recruiting programs hire the top talent you need today, but will position your firm strategically to have a nimble experienced hiring process in the upcoming years as the baby boomers begin to retire and you look to hire replacement leaders from Generation X.

In the short term, you need to get a bit more creative to give offers to the best and brightest talent. Here are a few ideas for obtaining the best, most geographically diverse talent:

Actively Seek Out Renters as Candidates. It’s understandable that you don’t want to take on real estate risk unless absolutely necessary, especially in the current marketplace. Additionally, you want to be hiring candidates who demonstrate responsible financial behavior — they might have the same positive tendencies when making decisions for your business! Renters with no outstanding debt or without hard-to-divest real estate should be therefore highly sought-after assets! An added benefit of this is that there is a correlation with having fewer personal belongings when renting and that would lead to a higher likelihood of a lower-cost move overall.

Target Veterans Terminating Active Duty Military. Lisa Rosser is a book author and founder of The Value of a Veteran, a firm that advises and trains organizations on the value and hidden benefits of hiring veterans. According to Lisa, “Over 100,000 service members separate from active military duty (i.e., not National Guard or Reserve duty) each year and it’s a little known fact that each and every one of them is entitled to one free move anywhere in the United States.” The veteran can request that benefit any time within one year after the date of separation. Many military members begin their job search eight or more months in advance of their last day of contracted service. That is the optimal window to begin marketing your company and its typical hiring needs to the military audience, and wrangle that free move on Uncle Sam’s dime. She also encourages people to look at the skills and competencies fully, not just their job titles and/or organization. These aren’t just infantry folks — among them are computer programmers, highly skilled engineers, nurses, and healthcare professionals.

Seek Out Spouses of Recently Relocated Workers. You might find some candidate gems here. Larger companies in your region who frequently relocate people might have lists of such people or access to organizations that provide support to these people. Look at their skill sets completely — not just their last job title and company brand. If you find a way to quickly show these people that you see value in them when they first move to an unfamiliar place, you are very likely to make an extremely positive impression. The result will be acquiring an appreciative, loyal, and content worker who has a higher likelihood of remembering your gesture.

Target Individuals Who Have Shown Interest in Your Geographic Region. You can seek bloggers and social media participants via search engines such as Google who mention the position’s location favorably in their writings about a vacation, a relative, or close friend that lives in the region, a business trip they particularly enjoyed, or otherwise. Then again, a candidate might present you with an old-fashioned letter to someone at the company stating a desire to move the area. Due to the affinity that they have for the area, they might be highly motivated to move to the region and happily share or absorb the costs upon receiving an offer. Just like with the relocated spouse, this individual will be highly appreciative of the opportunity. As an added bonus since you found them via their blog or social media tools they are likely to tell the story over and over, creating positive word of mouth about your employment brand.

Focus On Sourcing Candidates Who Once Lived In Your Region. If the role is New York City, knowing that they can handle living there can be an important factor in selecting a candidate. Potential candidates will likely fall into one of two buckets: A) they loved it and can’t wait for the opportunity to return; or B) they never wish to return. The latter might have ideas about candidates who might be appropriate due to their prior experience in the location, so even that outcome is not a waste of your time and effort.

Please share this article with your teammates and leadership to start the dialogue that will lead to budget reform of experienced hire relocation policies.

Staff layoffs at a number of multinational companies (MNCs) in the country as a result of the worldwide financial crisis should present an opportunity for small and medium-sized domestic enterprises (SMEs) to grab whatever talent they can, according to the head of a global recruitment agency.

The SMEs should do so before the MNCs realize the resilience of the Chinese economy and start rehiring sometime next year, said Tony Goodwin, CEO of Antal International.

Hiring people now can bring greater long-term benefits than firing, Goodwin told China Daily in an exclusive interview.

In these uncertain times when developed economies, especially the US, are sliding into a recession, corporate executives should think "long-term" in formulating corporate human resources strategies, Goodwin said.

In China, US companies tend to react a little more aggressively to the perceived effect of the global economic downturn in the reduction of their workforce, Goodwin said. Domestic enterprises and European multinationals have shown much greater restraint in their response to the unfolding crisis, he said.

The conservative approach is a wise one because of the underlying strength of the larger developing economies, particularly China.

"Firms that are now firing people will experience problems in coping with the growth of business next year," Goodwin said. "They will have no choice but to start rehiring then."

As some MNCs are on the downsizing path, they have provided a window of opportunity for the small- and medium-sized companies to recruit the talents they would not be able to find in the past.

"If the financial crisis had not had happened, the smaller companies would never have stood a chance of competing with the big corporations for top managers," Goodwin said. "Now is the best time for them to tap the market for talent."

Goodwin also said that instead of cutting staff, foreign companies can save costs by speeding up the process of localization by hiring more Chinese managers and professionals, rather than bring people from their own countries. The quality of Chinese talent, especially those who have worked at foreign companies, has improved rapidly, he said.

Liew Mun Leong, CEO of Singapore-based MNC CapitaLand, one of the largest investment and real estate companies in China, said the firm will hire even more locals in 2009 to eventually have a 100 percent Chinese management team.

Thousands of migrant workers in the Pearl River Delta are packing up and heading home, as jobs and decent wages in the region become increasingly hard to find.

"There just wasn't enough work; I was barely making my basic salary," Wen Caixia, who quit her job at a shoe factory in Dongguan, Guangdong Province, in favor of a return to her village in Hubei Province, told China Daily yesterday at Guangzhou East Railway Station.

Migrant workers who quit their jobs in Guangdong Province arrive in Zhengzhou, Henan Province, November 3, 2008. [China Daily]

Wen said she and her husband had been working in Dongguan for more than two years.

"Over the past few months, the company just wasn't getting enough orders. There was never any chance of overtime, so we were unable to save any money," she said.

"The living costs are very high here, so I think it's better if I go home and take care of my son," she said.

Before boarding her train, Wen said she hoped to return to the province in January for the Spring Festival.

"It might be easier to find a job then, and hopefully I'll be able to make more money," she said.

Also waiting for a train yesterday was Liang Dong, an IT engineer who said he was taking a sabbatical from his job at a printed circuit board factory in the Nanhai district of Foshan.

"The company has seen its orders plummet since the beginning of the financial crisis," he said.

"My boss said that I could take a long holiday, but it will be very hard to make a decent living."

Liang said he will have a good rest before deciding whether to return to Guangdong or look for work elsewhere.

A ticket seller surnamed Guan at Guangzhou East Station, said that over the past few weeks there had been a marked increase in the number of migrant workers heading home to Chongqing and Sichuan, Hunan and Hubei provinces.

Liang Jiamin, an official with the Guangdong labor department, said on Thursday: "Many workers have lost their jobs or gone without pay as a result of firms going bust or downsizing their operations.

"Labor and social security departments across the province, especially those based in the Pearl River Delta region, have been told to do all they can to help people get the money they are owed," he said.

"We are also trying to help people to find new jobs," Liang said.

In the third quarter of this year, the number of job vacancies in Guangdong fell by almost 17 percent year on year to 2.1 million, he said.