CSR Agenda Imperialists
April 17th, 2007By David Wolf
The client was a Fortune 500 company that had just celebrated completing two decades in China. They had been through all of the phases of the localization process. They understood the market and were leaders in their sector. China was their largest market in the world. They knew what they were doing. Then came the day when we started talking about their corporate social responsibility program.They were spending upwards of US$10 million a year on their CSR efforts, and there was nothing that they could recognize as return-on-investment. Company executives couldn't understand why. They were doing all the right things: well planned programs, leveraging the company's core competency, and genuinely doing a lot of good on the ground. They were even winning awards in the United States for their efforts in China.
And yet, nobody in China seemed to care. The press weren't picking up the story. Most government officials knew nothing about the program, and those that did, shrugged it off. The company was so frustrated they were considering dumping their China CSR program entirely.
After the executive we were meeting finished, one of my colleagues asked a simple question. "How did you develop your China CSR program," she asked?
"Well, our team here worked with our CSR people back in the States," came the reply.
My colleague probed further. "Did you involve the government in the process at all?"
Puzzled silence. "No. We didn't see the need to. We saw a problem that needed fixing, knew we had the core competence to fix it, and went and did it. We've done great work."
This, of course, was the problem. Our client was an Agenda Imperialist.
Seeing a problem that you know you can fix, then going out and fixing it, is by no means a bad thing. That is, after all, the core of the entrepreneurial spirit that drives successful businesses throughout the world and, increasingly, in China.
The instincts that serve us so well in commerce, however, do not always serve us as well when seeking to better the communities in which we operate, but especially if we want to get something more than quiet satisfaction for our CSR efforts.
Simply showing up and unilaterally deciding you're going to go out and fix something in China - even if it is driven by a global CSR agenda with the best of intentions - is not going to make you friends here. At best, you'll get no credit for your work. At worst, you'll be branded a paternalist or a neo-imperialist.
Creating great corporate social responsibility in China is a matter of balancing three agendas: your company agenda (what it seeks to accomplish in the PRC and globally), the global agenda (the clear social challenges upon which most of your global audiences would agree), and the China agenda (the social priorities of the Chinese government and people).
The plain truth is that the more you weight the China agenda in your calculations, the more people in China will acknowledge the value of your efforts.
That's not rocket science, but it's apparently not terribly obvious. A few years ago, I was peripherally involved in a major project auditing the CSR efforts of multinational technology companies in China. Of all the companies we researched, only one was getting significant ROI, acknowledgement, and appreciation from Chinese. Not surprisingly, it was the only company who dumped its global CSR program, bypassed the prescriptive, company-and-global-viewpoint-centric approach, ignored the imprecations of well-meaning NGOs, and instead based its program on an interactive process that engaged government, academics, and media.
The message is fairly clear. There are many ways to create meaningful change in China, even as an agenda imperialst.
But if a core goal of your CSR is acknowledgment, appreciation, or even support from audiences here in China, you had better make sure you are addressing the issues that Chinese find most pressing in a manner Chinese can understand that attains results Chinese can appreciate.
Job data may see Aussie rates rise
April 16th, 2007AUSTRALIAN employment climbed in March and the jobless rate fell to a 31-year low as builders and retailers hired more workers, raising expectations the central bank may raise interest rates as soon as next month.
Employers hired an extra 10,500 staff after adding a revised 23,200 in February. The jobless rate dropped to 4.5 percent from 4.6 percent, the Bureau of Statistics said yesterday in Sydney.
The median estimate of 22 economists was for 15,000 new jobs and an unchanged unemployment rate, according to a survey by Bloomberg News.
A worker shortage is driving up wages and consumer spending, underpinning an economic expansion now in its 16th year. Futures and currency traders have bet the Reserve Bank of Australia may soon raise interest rates after it warned last month inflation is likely to be "too high" this year.
"The Reserve Bank's concerns about wages growth putting pressure on inflation are justified," said Jarrod Kerr, an economist at JPMorgan Chase & Co in Sydney. "It's a very resilient, very tight labor market."
The Australian dollar rose to as high as 82.73 US cents from 82.45 US cents immediately before the report. It traded at 82.56 US cents at 4:30pm in Sydney. The yield on the benchmark 10-year government bond rose 1 basis point, or 0.01 percentage point, to 5.93 percent.
The number of full-time jobs rose 31,200 in March, the report showed, and part-time employment dropped 21,200. About 10.4 million of Australia's 20.8 million people are employed, and the economy has created 276,600 new jobs in the past 12 months.
The Reserve Bank raised its benchmark interest rate three times last year after annual inflation breached its target range of between 2 percent and 3 percent for three straight quarters. The overnight cash rate target is at a six-year-high 6.25 percent.
A Credit Suisse index of futures contracts put the probability of a May interest-rate increase at 63 percent.
Top 10 Hiring Don¡¯ts In China
April 13th, 2007By Frank Mulligan - Recruit China
In a War for Talent market like China you might want to consider your hiring process your Number 1 priority.
You can run as many Six Sigma FMEA projects as you like to improve quality and speed of hiring but sometimes it¡¯s just easier to tell line managers what they should not do. It¡¯s a quick and dirty solution that might give you time while you work out a more detailed, nuanced approach.
This advice is specific to what line managers in China should not do but it could just as easily cover other hot markets likes India or Ireland. Please copy, paste, modify and email as you see fit.
Top 10 Things Line Manager¡¯s In China Should Not Do
Do not wait more than a few hours before you begin to review applicant emails or online application links sent to you by your internal Recruiter.
Do not wait more than one day to respond with a decision about which candidates you want to actually meet. Recruiting is sales and you wouldn¡¯t keep a hot sales lead waiting, would you?
Phone screen all applicants and take the time to cull unsuitable candidates. Aim to bring in only two to three people and hire one.
Don¡¯t assume anything. Tell your Recruiter in detail why you thought his/her presented candidates were unsuitable, or suitable.
Never tell your Recruiter that you will only interview when he has enough candidates ie. more than 4. Interview what he presents now. If you wait more than a week you are likely to lose the current slate
Never miss interviews unless it absolutely critical. When you have to reorganize timing, be flexible and show the candidate that this is not how you normally work. Above all pay them the respect they deserve.
Once you have decided that someone is suitable, get an offer to them within a day or two. If you cannot do this, ask why, and take steps to ensure you are ready the next time. HR can support you with standard contracts etc.
Do not allow yourself to be unduly influenced about not hiring someone. On the other hand if everyone agrees act fast, the time for thinking is over.
Communicate with the successful candidate at least 5 times before he comes on board and meet him at least once. This is not HR¡¯s job.
And finally, be there when the candidate arrives for his first day and make sure you have thought through what you will do with him for that first day.
The Responsibilites Of A Recruiter
April 13th, 2007When you first start recruiting, the world is your oyster. You get the opportunity to help people find jobs, a noble way to earn your bread and one that promises a good living if you work hard.
Making phone calls, meeting with candidates, and finding new ways to uncover resumes is all part of the fun. Most people enjoy taking your calls, and in terms of respectability, most people really do like recruiters. Ask any parent, and the job of recruiter is a very respectable one. You may not be a doctor, but you help people and you make money.
But very soon, the recruiter runs into the hard facts about employment. The control of the process is all in your mind. The real task of recruiting is not finding candidates or finding job orders, but rather making a connection between an employer and a job-seeker. And at the end of the day, working with people is infinitely harder than working with widgets.
After 3 months or so of getting battered and bruised and quite honestly, failing to place people, as many recruiters do, most newbies start to wish for a job that is less sales oriented and more creative. Recruiting is hard work, but it's not always smart work.
Maybe this is why so many experienced recruiters are jaded. Having seen the employment process up close, they know that is is unpredictable, and that keeping your word is not a valued commodity for hiring managers or jobseekers when their job is on the line.
It's a results-driven business. If you want to eat, you do what you can to survive, and that hardens you. You can't afford to let emotion get into your decision-making process, but emotion is exactly the right selling technique you need to be successful.
So the question this leads to are what are your responsibilities as a recruiter? The client pays you, and so perhaps your responsibility lies in helping them? The problem is you have many clients, and so who gets your best effort? How do you manage your time?
And what about the candidate? Surely they are a client, too? But they don't pay you, and you can't afford to be their career counselor in any meaningful way, especially when their job is to get a job, not make you money.
There is no single answer to this question - there is no should here that can be defended. There is no "one right way" that protects all parties and leads to a gleaming city on the hill of profit, respectability, and happy clients. Every situation is different, and in the end, everyone gets burned at some time.
So the real question is not, what is your responsibility as a recruiter, but rather, what is your responsibility to yourself.
College grads offered rural jobs
April 12th, 2007THE city is recruiting more than 500 recent college graduates to work in local rural areas as teachers, doctors and government officials to aid social development, the Shanghai Personnel Bureau announced yesterday.
The graduates will be dispatched to the city's 10 less-developed suburban districts such as Nanhui, Qingpu, Fengxian, and Chongming County for at least two years.
Each applicant that passes an academic test and a physical check will be granted a living allowance of 1,790 yuan (US$224) each month, plus an annual government bonus of 7,000 yuan to 18,800 yuan.
That puts their monthly income at 2,000 yuan or more in the first year - higher than the city average for new college graduates.
"We offer a favorable package to make the rural positions an attractive choice for graduates struggling in the fierce job market," said Chen Hao, the personnel bureau's vice director.
He added that the bureau was also building a talent database to track elite graduates with the hopes of enticing them into a career as senior civil servants.
The bureau doesn't guarantee the graduates a job after their rural service ends, officials said.
Last year, the bureau posted 500 similar medical, teaching and government administration positions in rural areas.
However, only 259 positions were filled due to a shortage of qualified applicants, especially in the medical sector.
Bureau officials said they were not sure if all the positions would be filled this year.
Labor switch for expats
April 12th, 2007EXPATRIATES who have a labor dispute with their employer will need to apply for government mediation at the Shanghai Labor Arbitration Committee from next month.
The city's new labor arbitration regulation takes effect on May 1, the Shanghai Labor and Social Security Bureau said yesterday.
The new regulation states that employees usually filed a labor arbitration application at district-level mediation committees where the company is located.
Sui Wei, vice director of the bureau's arbitration division, said that the clear division would enable government mediation to work more efficiently.
Cases involving foreigners, employees from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, as well as foreign invested companies with registered capital of US$10 million or above, will only be accepted at the city-level committee.
But the Pudong New Area Arbitration Committee will also be allowed to handle cases involving big foreign-invested companies registered in the district.
Previously, no division was made about where cases would be handled.
Overseas applicants should file in written form within 60 days of a dispute. A work contract and work permit are required, officials said.
The Shanghai Labor Arbitration Committee is at 45 Anyuan Road.