Recruiting in China

THE city's 100 leading businesses for the past year have been chosen by the Shanghai Private Enterprise Association.

The chosen businesses show the top profits, pay the most tax and employ the most people.

Some of the best known city businesses in manufacturing, commerce and the service industry - like the Spring International Travel Service and the JuneYao Group - are in the list.

Commercial and service industry businesses make up two thirds of the top 100 companies which shows the accent of the city on these fields and the needs of the citizens, the association said.

The top 100 private enterprises have an average registered balance of more than 69 million yuan (US$9.3 million) and there are 12 of these companies with a registered balance of more than 200 million yuan

INDUSTRIAL and Commercial Bank of China Ltd has "insufficient" assets overseas and seeks more investments abroad, President Yang Kaisheng said, even as he denied the lender plans to buy a stake in Standard Chartered Plc. "ICBC will pursue a combined strategy of acquisitions and new projects in expanding overseas," Yang said at a finance conference in Beijing on Saturday. "Overseas diversification is an important way for Chinese banks to spread risks against cyclical economic downturns."

Having raised US$22 billion in the world's largest share sale a year ago, ICBC, the world's biggest bank by market value, is expanding more aggressively than peers such as Bank of China Ltd. ICBC's 36.7 billion rand (US$5.4 billion) purchase of a 20-percent stake in South Africa's Standard Bank Group Ltd is the biggest overseas investment by a Chinese company.

"Overseas expansion is likely to continue as Chinese banks are seeking to build up their global presence," Bill Stacey, a Hong Kong-based analyst at Credit Suisse, told Bloomberg News yesterday, citing ICBC's forays in Indonesia and Macau. Yang joined China Construction Bank Corp Deputy President Luo Zhefu in denying a newspaper report that their banks planned to acquire a stake in Standard Chartered Plc from Temasek Holdings Pte, the Singaporean government's investment company.

"We have no plans to buy a stake in Standard Chartered," Luo said, while Yang said the report was "just a rumor."

The Financial Times reported that China's three biggest banks - ICBC, Construction Bank and Bank of China - had approached Temasek to buy a 17-percent stake.

Many companies are still getting their heads around Web 2.0 and how they can use the real interaction it brings, to engage more effectively with job seekers and potential employees. There are some great sites, notably the new Microsoft site but in reality the vast majority of companies have struggled to grasp the Web 2.0 concept. Well all the geeks in geek land have come up with the next level if interaction - Web 3.0 aka The Semantic Web. In simple terms it means information that is understandable by computers without human intervention - enabling computers to perform more of the boring work involved in finding and sharing information on the Web.

So what will that mean to anyone who uses the web to recruit (nearly everyone!!)?

The search engine spiders that find web pages based on certain keywords will gain an understanding of natural language. They will be able to read the pages rather than simply respond to given words and so will be able to deliver more targeted contextual jobs. There will also be software applications that we will all have called Intelligent Agents that will make decisions online for you without the need to ask you first. As an example; a job board wants to send you the jobs that it thinks fits your criteria, but first it has to 'communicate' with your intelligent agent. Think of the intelligent agent as your personal PA - if it doesn't think the job is for you it simply won't tell you about it!

So, this creates an interesting future problem for companies, as they have to 'sell' their jobs on two levels - firstly to get past your non-human intelligent agent, and secondly to appeal to the emotional real human, namely you!! So for recruitment advertisers of the future, just simply writing adds 'appealing to your emotions' will not get past your new PA! This will get all you SEO specialists thinking hard now, won't it!!

Obviously, Web 3.0 is a little way off, but companies can start to think about some of the forthcoming challenges of the SEO, by looking at your current way your company brand is perceived by job seekers and future employees. Balance the rational and emotional messages you are giving out to them, and realise that to be a recruitment success in the future, these new PA's will make more decisions than the candidates will!!

JOB seekers should adjust their goals rather than continuing to send resumes blindly if they do not receive an employment offer after applying for more than three positions, officials at the Shanghai Employment Promotion Center said yesterday.

According to a report released yesterday by the Shanghai Labor and Social Security Bureau, job offers do not rise proportionately to the number of resumes sent.

A survey conducted by the Shanghai Job Placement Center's Website, the city's only government job placement organization, showed the success rate reaches 38.6 percent, the highest, when job seekers apply for three posts, followed by 36.9 percent for two positions.

However, those who apply for more than three positions have less of a chance at receiving a job offer, with the success rate dropping to 26.6 percent when applying for four posts, and 22.5 percent for those applying for more than five jobs.

"Applicants who register for only two or three positions tend to be successful because they usually have a clear objective and they know what kind of jobs are most suitable to their skills," said Huang He, an analyst in the bureau's service center.

"In comparison, those who send resumes to more employers are often blind in seeking jobs," he said. "So if they fail after more than three tries, they should pause and set a career goal for themselves."

In order to guide applicants, the bureau organized a series of lectures in communities for unemployed individuals. The lectures will continue for one month.

Yesterday's lecture showed applicants how to obtain more job opportunities.

Lu Danmeng, a senior consultant at the job service center, gave the first lecture to unemployed young people in Hongkou District.

Lu said most people want to become white-collar workers, but that more blue-collar opportunities are available.

She said there are some great job opportunities in Shanghai's suburbs.

According to the report, a record 501,300 people applied for jobs at the Shanghai Job Placement Center's Website (jobs.12333sh.gov.cn) during the third quarter this year. About 168,800 succeeded in finding work.

CITIGROUP Inc replaced David Bushnell as chief risk officer, two weeks after the largest United States bank said writedowns on mortgage-related investments may lead to its first quarterly loss since at least 1998.

Jorge Bermudez, 56, whose 30-year career at Citigroup includes experience in risk management and operations, takes over for Bushnell effective immediately, the New York-based bank said in a statement. Bushnell, 53, a 22-year veteran who also serves as chief administrative officer, will retire on December 31.

Bushnell is at least the fifth executive to be forced out or reassigned at Citigroup as this year's credit-market turmoil in the US ravaged the bank's investments in subprime mortgages and related bonds. The company's board ousted Chief Executive Officer Charles Prince on November 4, three weeks after Prince himself replaced three top trading executives.

"They're addressing a situation that should have been addressed two years ago," William Smith, who manages about US$80 million, including 71,000 Citigroup shares as president of Smith Asset Management, told Bloomberg News. "Heads have to roll, and Bushnell's head was next to roll."

The company's stock has tumbled 39 percent this year.

Citigroup said earlier this month bad subprime investments might result in as much as US$11 billion of writedowns this quarter. The losses are on top of US$3.15 billion of writedowns on subprime mortgages and leveraged loans reported for the fourth quarter.

FOREIGN food companies are making a beeline to China hoping to tap the huge potential in the imported food industry as they cash in on people's rising disposable income and easing of import tariffs.

A record 800 companies from 35 countries and regions yesterday promoted their food specialities and beverages at FHC China 2007 in Shanghai for the first time.

One of the largest international food, wine and hospitality equipment and supply exhibitions, it opened yesterday and will end tomorrow at Shanghai New International Expo Center in Pudong New Area.

A wide variety of imported products will be displayed, from fresh and preserved foods, beverages, wine and spirits, bakery ingredients to confectionery, suggesting foreign companies are really eager to tap the emerging market.

Seven Austrian companies are showcasing food specialities like Julius Meinl Coffee, Darbo jams and Pfaffl wines at their pavilions.

"China's entry to the World Trade Organization has lowered tariffs and brought economic liberalization that yielded gains for US food exports," said Wayne Batwin, an official from the Agricultural Trade Office at the US Consulate Shanghai.

"Continued economic growth boosted the demand for high-quality foods and improvements in retail, distribution and transport system also increased competitiveness of imported food and beverages in the local market," Batwin added.

Metro Cash & Carry China is one foreign food and beverage company which is benefiting from Chinese people's interest in imported food.

Revenue of imported food now makes up 10 percent of Metro China's total food sales and the retailer plans to set up an imported food area in all its 34 stores nationwide to meet consumers' demand, Philippe Bacac, general manager of Metro Cash & Carry China East China Business unit, said.

Besides wine, snack foods such as ice creams and frozen foods are also becoming popular.

"The competition in the snack foods sector is quite demanding amid people's growing disposable income and willingness to try new things," said Zhong Wei, marketing manager of Gourmedis (China) Shanghai Office. He also added that sales were also boosted as consumers trusted imported food meets international safety standard.

Gourmedis, which added Alberto Pizza, Cellini Coffee and Maina cakes into its existing 1,000 items under 15 brands this year, has generated a revenue of 30 million yuan (US$4.1 million) since late last year.

"We are confident we will double our turnover next year," Zhong said.