Not Enough Jobs for China's Graduates
March 26th, 2007Chinese university graduates are finding it increasingly difficult to land a job. China has more than doubled university enrollment during this decade, and educated job seekers are entering the labor force at a record rate. The government's goal was to provide more skilled workers for the rapidly growing economy. However, for more than half of this year's crop of university graduates -- about five million young men and women -- unemployment is the main prospect. Sam Beattie reports for VOA from Beijing.
Months before graduation, Beijing university students are already heading to job fairs, to start applying for positions and to gain valuable experience in the job-hunting process.
An estimated 100,000 positions will be offered at job fairs in Beijing this month, but there are many more students chasing those opportunities. Competition is fierce.
Li Yan
Li Yan has no brothers or sisters. She is a typical product of China's one-child policy. She speaks for many. "My family has given me a lot, so I want to give a lot back to them. I am trying my best to make sure I am in a position so that I can give something back to my parents."
Like many young Chinese, Li Yan did not have a part-time job in high school, and she only works at odd jobs when it suits her. Her parents covered all of her school expenses. In return, she will be expected to give around one-quarter of her salary back to her parents once she enters the work force. "I really want to support my family. I am over 20 years old now. I need to work hard and make money for my family, to make them happy and their lives better."
But having limited work experience is making the job search process harder.
For a growing number of employers, good university grades are not enough. They want life experience as well as a good academic record. Yang Chun Xiu is with China HR, a leading personnel-recruiting company. "There are more and more graduates every year, but the graduates do not know where to position themselves in the job market. Most employers at the moment want people with experience, so it's harder for graduates to find a good job."
Yang says employers prefer candidates with two or three years' work experience to help boost their growing businesses. Experts say the job crisis is mostly in the big cities. In the countryside, some companies face a serious shortage of qualified workers.
Hu Xingdou
Hu Xingdou is a professor of economics and China issues at Beijing Institute of Technology. He says graduates need to understand they cannot all land their dream jobs fresh out of university. "Some students feel because they have graduated university they are elite -- and maybe they are -- but really, they still need to join the common work force. There are not too many university graduates; they are just not in the right areas."
He says graduates looking for work should consider moving from the major cities to smaller towns, or even the countryside. Through financial incentives, the government could make this more attractive.
Like young people everywhere, China's graduates don't seem to want to give up the bright lights and perceived opportunities of the big cities to go where life is less exciting. So job fairs will continue to attract scores of applicants for every available job.
The AmeriChinaB2B Connection Makes Distributor Recruiting in China Easier
March 26th, 2007PALO ALTO, Calif. ¡ª AmeriChinaB2B, the importing and exporting Internet marketing platform to China has launched its newest service, a web portal exclusively for recruiting distributors. The recruiting portal is designed to provide U.S. businesses with assistance in locating distributors, middlemen or manufacturing sourcing sites in China¡¯s vast industrial base.
Ben Lee, President of AmeriChinaB2B hopes that with his company¡¯s assistance U.S. businesses will be able to overcome the barriers that exist in China which block many businesses efforts to locate the right representative or access local markets.
AmeriChinaB2B, after launching its Internet import and export marketing platform in January, has now introduced a new distributor recruiting service portal. The web service, in addition to its existing services, will help small and medium sized U.S. businesses to recruit distributors within China¡¯s industrial trade channels. The Internet recruiting service is a unique recruiting web portal for U.S. companies to locate, recruit and hire distributors, sales representatives and local talents in China.
American businesses will be able to connect through the website with distributors, middlemen, agents and manufacturing sourcing sites to build sales channels in China. AmeriChinB2B, with its partners in China and combined knowledge of the Chinese culture, language and business markets, will be able to guide U.S. companies through the bureaucratic hurdles of regulations and policies that so often prevent entrance into Chinese markets.
Ben Lee believes that his company and its Internet web platform is the best way to begin to approach the Chinese export market. ¡°AmeriChinaB2B recognizes that there are many difficulties facing U.S. companies when trying to enter into the Chinese business markets,¡± Lee said.
¡°With our recruiting portal focused on connecting with trade channels in China, we are able to locate and recruit the right distributor organizations and manufacturing firms,¡± Lee added.
The AmeriChinaB2B recruiting process begins with conducting a distributor candidate search in all major industrial regions of China. By posting recruitment messages on the Internet recruiting platform U.S. companies are able to find sales agents, sales channels.
The Internet recruiting portal main function is to help U.S. businesses find sales agents, sales channels, and distributors through numerous job market sites, professional sites, chamber of commerce, and professional organizations. The recruiting portal offers an online filtering system, which chooses candidate¡¯s resume matching client¡¯s requirement based upon their industrial experience, sales and marketing experience, education background, and their locations.
This matching process is followed up with credential investigation system to verify the candidate¡¯s academic credibility, employment references, English certification and work ethic are checked through various domestic credit systems. After passing AmeriChinaB2B initial assessment, it¡¯s experienced Chinese recruiting experts subsequently interview the candidates to verify their qualifications. After these steps are completed, AmeriChinaB2B then recommends the pre-qualified candidates to U.S. companies.
And every effort of the AmeriChinaB2B Internet recruitment portal¡¯s focus is on helping U.S. companies have distributor or sales agents. Interestingly enough, many people and businesses in China have a great desire to work with U.S. companies. This connection helps both U.S. and Chinese companies do business better.
7 Keys to Successful Employment Selection Decisions
March 25th, 2007By Stephen Moulton
What Research Tells Us
Over the last 50 years, researchers have conducted numerous studies on the employment selection process. The studies discussed here are some of the most current. We hope this information will help you make better hiring decisions. Successful Interviewing is a Process, Not an Event.
1. Conduct a Job Analysis:
Wiesner, W. H., & Cronshaw, S. F. (1988) A meta-analytic investigation of the impact of interview format and degree of structure on the validity of the employment interview. Journal of Applied Psychology, 61,275-290.
The results showed that structured interviews were more than twice as effective as unstructured interviews. “On the basis of our findings we concluded that the best prediction achievable for structured interviews would be obtained where structured interview questions are based on a formal job analysis rather than a less systematic assessment of job requirements.”
The Wiesner and Cronshaw study reflected some interesting statistics.
1. The typical unstructured interview, conducted by a highly experienced interviewer, had a reliability of predicting job performance of about 15-30%.
2. A structured past-event interview, based on a job analysis, using rating guides, could achieve up to an 87% reliability in predicting job performance.
2. Create a Structured Interview:
Huffcutt, A. I., Roth, P. L., & McDaniel, M. A. (1996) A meta-analytic investigation of cognitive ability in employment interview evaluations: Moderating characteristics and implications for incremental validity. Journal of Applied Psychology, 81,459-473.
This review of 49 studies considered the impact of such factors as structure, type of interviews, and job complexity in assessing the extent to which employment interview evaluations reflect cognitive ability. Why do structured interviews have higher levels of validity? One theory is that they are better at assessing other factors related to success on the job.
3. Use Past Event Interview Questions:
Pulakos, E. D. & Schmidtt, N. (1995) Experience-based and situational interview questions: Studies of validity. Personnel Psychology, 48, 289-308.
In this study, two groups of 108 subjects were interviewed. One group was interviewed using experience-based questions (past event) about how they handled specific situations in the past, requiring skills and abilities necessary for effective job performance. The second group was interviewed using situational (highly structured future event or hypothetical) job related situations and asked how they would respond if they were confronted with these situations. The experienced-based interview questions resulted in higher levels of validity than the situational questions.
Campion, M. A., Campion, J. E., & Hudson, J. P. Jr. (1994) Structured Interviewing: A note on incremental validity and alternative question types. Journal of Applied Psychology, 79, 998-1002.
This study was conducted to see if a structured interview can have incremental validity in the prediction of job performance beyond a battery of cognitive ability tests. In addition, the study looked at whether the future oriented situational interview or past oriented behavioral interview would have higher validity. The validity of past interview questions (.51) was higher than the validity of future interview questions (.39). In addition, the past-oriented interview questions demonstrated incremental validity beyond future questions and the tests.
4. Use Interview Panels:
McDaniel, M. A., Whetzel, D.L., Schmidt, F.L., & Maurer, S. D. (1994) The validity of employment interviews: A comprehensive review and meta-analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 79, 599-616.
This investigation focused on what prior research had found on interview validity. The results were that the validity of structured interviews were higher than unstructured interviews and panel interviews were more valid than individual interviews. The study also found that interviewers who had access to test scores prior to interviewing candidates appeared to decrease validity.
So what is the big deal? The traditional interviews that most managers conduct will not keep your company ahead of the power curve. If you what to improve your ability to hire the right people for the right positions, structured panel interviews are the most effective. Panels need only be two or three members.
5. Control Biases and First Impressions:
Marlowe, C. M., Schneider, S. L., & Nelson, C. E. (1996) Gender and attractiveness biases in hiring decisions: Are more experienced managers less biased? Journal of Applied Psychology, 81, 11-21.
This study demonstrated that highly attractive male candidates were consistently rated as more suitable for hire than either marginally attractive male or female applicants. In addition, marginally attractive females were at the greatest disadvantage. Finally, men were perceived to be more suitable for hire or advancement than equally qualified women.
Bias and error by interviewers is a key reason for interviewing failure. Without some sort of scientific tools and training, interviewers will often make hiring decisions based on “gut feelings” and intuition. “Gut feelings” and intuition should be used to make probing more effective.
Dougherty, T. W., Turban, D.B., & Callender, J. C. (1994) Confirming First Impressions in the Employment Interview: A Field Study of Interviewer Behavior. Journal of Applied Psychology, 79, 659-665.
This study examined the behavioral styles of interviewers to confirm their first impressions of job applicants. In this study interviewers followed up positive first impressions by showing a high regard toward the candidate “selling” the company and giving job information. The interviewer also gathered less information on the candidate.
The candidate’s job is to make a good first impression. The first impression façade is often as unreal as the façade of a movie set, looks good, but little behind it. Interviewers that allow themselves to be sold by first impressions do little to check the qualifications of the candidate behind the façade.
Additional findings included:
1. Inexperienced candidates might be restricted in a range of potential responses to past questions. The relative flexibility of an interview probe based on past questions might improve relative effectiveness.
2. Future questions may be impacted by “fake-ability.”
“Fake-ability” relates to the candidate’s efforts to deliver responses that are not true in order to obtain a test or interview result that is favorable. Having the ability to minimize or eliminate “fake-ability” is perceived as important when screening for new employees.
6. Use a Rating Guide:
Cesare, S. J. (1996) Subjective Judgement and the Selection Interview: a methodological review. Public Personal Management, 25, 291-306.
Beyond such research considerations is the practical development of a sound interview that is psychometrically adequate, legally defensible, and cost effective. First, an effective interview must be premised on a through job analysis to outline the content, score, and determine the primary work domains of the position being examined. By extension, it is vital to align the rating dimensions contained within the job analysis to those content-based questions asked in the interview and those which correspond to segments of the performance criteria.
Additional findings included:
“ An essential component of any interview development strategy is the inclusion of training.”
The difference between an interview built on a job analysis, that links the interview questions and the rating guides, and one that doesn’t, is like the difference between day and night. Improving objectivity from subjectivity is a significant step toward the science end of the selection spectrum. Training is a key to user success.
7. Use Consensus Ratings:
Pulakos, E. D., Schmitt, N., Whitney, D., & Smith, M. (1996) Individual differences in interviewer ratings: The impact of standardization, consensus discussion, and sampling error of a structured interview. Personnel Psychology, 49, 85-103.
This research study investigated the validity of averaged versus standardized versus consensus ratings. This study sampled 515 professionals in a large Federal agency. The sample included a large cross-section of minorities. Past-oriented interviews were used to measure the quality of the rating process. “The underlying notion is that the best predictor of future performance is past performance in similar situations.” The result was that the validity of consensus ratings was significantly higher than the other approaches. The belief was that the interviewers were accountable to their peers and hence were more accurate in their ratings.
The consensus rating plays a key role in getting the right candidate. When interviewers and raters know they will have to meet and be accountable on the reasons for the fit of the candidate, they become more objective and thorough in their interviewing efforts.
Additional findings included:
1. Structured interviews, if preceded by a thorough job analysis, can be developed to tap the many skill and ability areas required for the job.
2. Experience-based interviews had little impact on, and were equally valid for, subgroups (White, Black, Hispanic, male, and female).
Past event questions were shown to be more effective than future event questions. Validated situational interviews often take weeks and cost $10,000 or more per position to create. Validated past event structured interviews can be created for 99.99% less.
Note that this study also supports the need for a thorough job analysis that identifies the skills or competencies necessary for success.
Bottom-line
Plowing through research studies like these can be dull and dry, as these summaries may be. Yet, they help us to understand what managers and interviewers need to do in order to hire employees and team members that will succeed and add to the success and bottom line of your company’s profitability.
Hitachi to cut 11% of workers in hard disk unit
March 22nd, 2007HITACHI Ltd, Japan's biggest electronics group by sales, said it will eliminate 11 percent of its workers at the hard-disk drive unit and shut factories in Mexico and Japan to turn around the unprofitable business, Bloomberg said today.
About 4,400 out of the 40,000 jobs worldwide at the disk unit will be cut, saving about US$300 million over five years, the Tokyo-based company said today in a statement through Business Wire.
Hitachi, which also sells consumer electronics and nuclear power equipment, has about 327,000 employees worldwide. The company's stock gained as much as 5.4 percent in Tokyo today.
The job cuts and factory relocations are part of Hitachi's plan to return the unit to profit and tap growing demand for disks used to store computer data. The unit will probably report an operating loss of 43.7 billion yen (US$370 million) this fiscal year because of falling prices, Hitachi said in February.
``It's a plus for Hitachi as it can increase the company's production efficiency,'' said Haruo Sato, a Tokyo-based analyst at Tokai Tokyo Securities Co. ``The point is whether the company, which hasn't been good at making products cheaply, can improve its manufacturing technology.''
Hitachi, which bought the hard-disk operations of International Business Machines Corp in 2002, ranked third among makers as of the third quarter of 2006, according to researcher IDC.
The company had a 17 percent share of a global market that will probably grow about 13 percent to 494,300 units in 2007, IDC forecasts.
Production of hard-disk drive parts known as sliders will move to an existing factory in Laguna, Philippines, and a facility in Guadalajara, Mexico will be shut, the company said.
Hitachi will concentrate manufacturing of the disks at its factory in Shenzhen, China, and will phase out production in Odawara, Japan by the fourth quarter of 2007. At its facility at Prachinburi, Thailand, the company will increase output of 2.5-inch automotive hard-disk drives, it said.
The company said in February will book 180 billion yen in depreciation charges this fiscal year, 89 percent of which is for the disk drive business, it said.
Hitachi had initially forecast a return to profit for the unit in 2006.
``Steeper than usual price declines were the main reason,'' the company reversed its projection for the unit to a loss, Hiroaki Nakanishi, who heads Hitachi's disk drive unit, said at a news conference in Tokyo today. ``We also failed to introduce new products effectively.''
Shanghai Electric Signs JV For Renewable Energy Market
March 21st, 2007Xantrex Technology has entered into an agreement to form a joint venture with Shanghai Electric Group's Shanghai Power Transmission & Distribution Company to design, manufacture and sell solar and wind power electronics products exclusively for the renewable energy market in China from a facility to be built in Shanghai.
"The establishment of this joint venture with a member of the Shanghai Electric Group is an important milestone in creating a strong presence for Xantrex in China," said Mossadiq Umedaly, Xantrex's Chairman. "The renewable energy market in China, which has the potential to be very large, is integral to our long-term growth plans, and Shanghai Electric is a resourceful and strategically attractive partner."
Dinan Huang, President of the Shanghai Electric Group said, "We searched extensively for the best partner and are very pleased to secure this joint venture agreement with Xantrex. Together we will address the rapidly growing renewable energy market in China, which complements our leading electricity generation, transmission and distribution businesses."
The joint venture, to be owned 49% by Xantrex and 51% by SPTD, will be known as Shanghai Electric Xantrex Power Electronics Company. The total initial investment will be US$20 million and the new entity will have a registered capital of US$10 million. The joint venture is expected to receive final approval from the Chinese government in the next few weeks.
China's new Renewable Energy law has made one of the largest state-sponsored commitments toward renewable energy by requiring 15% of the country's energy mix to be from renewable energy sources by the year 2020.
"This joint venture will provide Xantrex access to China's Renewable Energy market, while ensuring that customers in China benefit from the quality and reliability of our proven technology made in China by our joint venture," said Xantrex CEO, John Wallace.
GE Will Focus On Water Quality In China
March 20th, 2007GE Water & Process Technologies, a unit of General Electric Company, has announced its upcoming World Water Tour, a series of seminars which will bring water industry experts and industrial water users together to discuss best practices and solutions capable of meeting industry's growing need to minimize operational costs, create sustainable supplies of quality water, decrease energy consumption and meet increasingly stringent regulatory requirements.
The 14-city tour will arrive in Beijing and Shanghai in fall 2007 and will focus on best practices proven in balancing the competitive business and environmental demands that often face industrial water users, especially those located in regions confronting water quality and scarcity challenges.
"Some of industries costliest mandates are regulatory compliancy, as well as water and energy use," said Jeff Garwood, president and CEO, GE Water & Process Technologies. "Experts will discuss ways industries can better meet business demands and improve productivity through solutions that can cut operational costs. And in competitive marketplaces, this can be an invaluable asset."
Currently, industries consume as much as 22% of the world's water. In developed countries, industrial water use is as high as 59%. For industrial water users in areas that lack access to adequate supplies of quality water, and often infrastructure too, creating a sustainable and dependable source of water can offer security, independence and increased opportunity for growth.
GE Water & Process Technologies' World Water Tour will touch on challenges that can often arise during industrial processes, such as: washing, diluting, cooling, transporting, processing, fabricating products, sanitizing facilities, and producing commodities such as, refined petroleum, chemicals, food, paper and primary metals.