Recruiting in China

STRIKING union members battling Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co took their picket lines to about 150 tire retailers in the United States and Canada on Saturday.

They decided to take their case over health care and retirement benefits directly to consumers.

In Lincoln, Nebraska, 50 United Steelworkers' members protested at two Goodyear retailers, decrying the company's use of replacement workers during the two-month strike.

"We know what it takes to build tires, and unskilled workers just can't do it," said Gary Schaefer, 54, vice president of the United Steelworkers' Local 286 in Lincoln. "We do not want the general public riding their lives on temporary workers."

Goodyear spokesman Ed Markey said the protests do not affect plans to return to the bargaining table in Pittsburgh today for the first time since talks broke down on November 17.

"Our goal in the negotiations remains the same, and that is to reach a fair agreement that enables us to be competitive and win with our customers," he said.

The company's temporary workers are qualified and received the same training as all new employees, Markey said. "Goodyear will never compromise quality."

About 15,000 workers are on strike at 12 US and four Canadian plants.

Goodyear workers went on strike on October 5 after talks broke down on a new contract.

Since the strike began, Goodyear has been making tires at some of its North American plants with non-union and temporary workers, as well as some managers, and relying on production at its international plants to help supply home customers.

In suburban Pittsburgh, more than 80 people handed out fliers and urged holiday shoppers driving past a Goodyear service center to honk in support of employees.

Leo Gerard, USW international president, said the protests were intended to inform consumers about treatment by Goodyear, including plans to slash health care and retirement benefits.

MORGAN Stanley has given Chief Executive Officer John Mack the biggest bonus for the head of a Wall Street firm, awarding him US$40 million as the company headed for the best profit in its 71-year history.

Mack, 62, was granted shares valued at US$36.2 million, and about US$4 million in options to buy Morgan Stanley shares, Bloomberg News reported yesterday.

Seven other top executives in the company were given bonuses of more than US$57 million.

The payout for Mack, 44 percent more than Morgan Stanley awarded him last year, eclipses the US$38.3 million given in 2005 to Henry Paulson, CEO of Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

Shares in Morgan Stanley, the second-biggest United States securities firm by market value, are recording their best year for investors since 2003 after Mack put the firm on course for record earnings.

"You expect performance to be reflected in the compensation," said Laura Thatcher, an Atlanta-based partner in charge of the executive-compensation practice at law firm Alston & Bird.

"You're talking about staggeringly big companies with huge market caps and huge performance."

Shares of Morgan Stanley have gained 40 percent this year and closed yesterday at US$79.60, giving the company a market value of US$84.2 billion.

The firm may report next week that full-year profit rose 41 percent to US$6.98 billion, the average estimate in a Bloomberg survey of 10 analysts.

Mack, who's also chairman, received his entire bonus in stock and options, Morgan Stanley said. Last year, he declined a US$28 million bonus because he had worked at Morgan Stanley for only five months.

He accepted a pro-rata payout of US$11.5 million in stock and also received a US$337,534 salary.

Lehman Brothers, the fourth-biggest US securities firm, earlier this week said Chief Executive Richard Fuld received US$10.9 million in stock for 2006, down from US$14.9 million last year.

Mack, who left Morgan Stanley in 2001 when he was president, returned in June 2005 as the board's choice to revive a firm bruised by a battle with dissident shareholders.

Some of Morgan Stanley's top executives, including President Stephan Newhouse and Vikram Pandit, abandoned then-CEO Philip Purcell during the dispute and dozens of other bankers and traders quit.

Since Mack joined, Morgan Stanley has fired more than 1,000 underperforming brokers, made acquisitions to bolster the firm's energy, fixed-income and hedge fund businesses and created new incentives to keep top employees.

Screening techniques honed in developing markets provide valuable lessons for talent management everywhere. Originally, the push for screening in the developing markets was driven by the multinationals, but now local employers are increasingly recognizing the need for background screening.
By Fay Hansen --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The White House sent Steve Casteel to Iraq for two years to recruit 200 people to rebuild the Interior Ministry under the Coalition Provisional Authority. In Iraq and in his previous position as chief of intelligence for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Casteel learned how to screen candidates in Latin America and the Middle East.

"Recruiting in Iraq is not that different from recruiting in Jordan or Egypt, or China, for that matter," Casteel says. "You can use any databases that are available--military and police data, for example--but in the end you have to rely on local contacts to research an applicant¡¯s reputation and history in the community. You can¡¯t just use a Western approach."

Casteel is now senior vice president for international business development at Vance International Inc., an investigation and security consulting firm based in Oakton, Virginia, with 3,200 employees worldwide. His approach to screening and background checks will become increasingly relevant as globalization accelerates in 2007 and corporations pursue a broader mix of geographies and less familiar locations.

Business reports indicate that companies will continue the trend toward staffing new facilities with local nationals instead of expatriates.

"Multinationals have found that they can reduce costs and eliminate many problems by hiring locals," Casteel notes. "Shell, for example, has moved to local hiring in Nigeria."

As Shell has discovered in Nigeria, however, recruiting in the developing nations requires extreme due diligence.

"By far, the biggest risk in recruiting in less-developed markets is corruption, most likely in the form of political corruption but also, in some locations, organized crime," Casteel reports.

In 2005 alone, Shell Nigeria investigated 74 cases of employee fraud and ethics violations, ending in the dismissal of 24 career and contractor staff, warning letters to 49 employees and delisting for six contractors. In addition to the recruiting difficulties that arise from corruption among candidates and employees, Shell is also plagued by local scam artists who make bogus offers of employment at Shell Nigeria and then shake down job seekers for money or personal financial information.

Digging deeper
"The biggest weakness among companies that are recruiting in the developing countries is their lack of knowledge about the local market and their willingness to rely entirely on cheap background checks," says Bob Sikellis, managing director and associate general counsel at Vance. "In the U.S., the quality of standard pre-employment screening is good enough for entry-level positions. But outside the U.S., the quality is abysmal. The databases are simply not available."

Instead, companies must develop the capacity for deeper pre-employment investigations, often working with local partners. Even then, the company must know which local security companies do quality work.

"In Iraq, there are 52 security companies, and you need one that has local operations in the city where you need to recruit," Casteel notes.

"Companies need to be very cautious and do full due diligence on the security companies they choose to work with," Casteel says. "Just because a local vendor seems to take a Western approach and shows up in a business suit does not mean you will get high-quality work. This is true anywhere."

The client company should ask the security firm exactly what information they will provide.

"And, as the Hewlett Packard case demonstrates, the security firm should also explain exactly how they will get that information," Sikellis says.

The fact that negligent hiring lawsuits are uncommon abroad does not reduce the need to screen applicants carefully.

"To focus on the potential for negligent hiring lawsuits or other legal actions is a dangerously narrow approach," Sikellis says. "Outside of the U.S., the ability to remove employees is so limited that you want to be extremely careful about who you hire. In many countries, a company that removes an employee faces long unemployment payments and other significant costs."

Local demand
Originally, the push for screening in the developing markets was driven by the multinationals, but now local employers are increasingly recognizing the need for background screening, according to Chuck Papageorgiou, executive vice president of international services for First Advantage, a risk mitigation and business solutions provider. The company, based in St. Petersburg, Florida, employs 4,500 people, with 1,200 outside the U.S. devoted to employee screening.

Papageorgiou reports that screening by local employers in the developing markets has accelerated during the past three years, driven by different factors in each country. In India, for example, the rise of diploma mills has generated a new focus on education credentialing.

In other developing countries, concerns about cyber-crime, corruption and terrorism have spurred local employers to institute screening policies along with the multinationals that operate there.

In addition, developing-market BPO providers that work for financial institutions must screen applicants to meet their contractual obligations.

"Some of the contracts are very explicit," Papageorgiou says. "This is spreading to other industries, especially design firms and manufacturers with high-value intellectual property. Also, more companies are screening all management applicants because they see credentialing managers as very important."

India¡¯s outsourcing industry has been rocked by cases of data theft and fraud. KPMG¡¯s 2006 survey on fraud in India reports high levels of deception in CVs, fueled by unethical practices at placement agencies. In March 2006, Wipro cleaned house after discovering major screening shortcomings in the placement agencies it used.

The National Association of Software and Service Companies, the trade group representing the Indian IT software and services industry, launched a national skills registry in early 2006 that provides information on employees¡¯ backgrounds. Job candidates authorize release of the information to employers.

Papageorgiou does believe that other nations will soon follow with the same level of self-policing.

"But we are seeing professional associations in some countries building membership rosters, and we can work with this information to verify certifications," he says.

According to Papageorgiou, companies in India are also plagued by scammers posing as recruiters who demand money and personal financial information from job seekers.

In both India and China, candidates and employers can no longer rely entirely on familiar village contacts to make recommendations. Dramatic increases in worker mobility in recent years leave candidates and employers more vulnerable fraudulent practices

Living with limitations
In some countries, full accurate screening is simply not possible.

"We deem screening in these countries as ¡®nonreliable¡¯ for background information," Papageorgiou says. "The limits on the amount of information available about candidates may enter into site location discussions, and some companies may decide that they cannot expand into these areas."

"There are many ways to get information in many countries if you are willing to break the law, which we are not," Papageorgiou says. "We advise clients of these restrictions and then use research teams to gather as much information as possible on criminality, for example. The key is to make sure that the client is well aware of the limitations."

In India, the crime rate is relatively low and some information is available about most job applicants.

"If all the education and employment checks are clean, it is highly likely that the candidate is clean," Papageorgiou says. "In other locations, a clean check may not mean the same thing."

In China, educational and professional qualifications, employment history and employment performance history can be secured, but criminal record checks are more difficult.

First Advantage is developing statistical models that provide some indication of the probability of criminal records and other negative factors for specific groups of applicants. These models are in place in some locations and in development for others.

First Advantage abandoned the idea of screening candidates abroad from offices in the U.S., and now has offices staffed with its own employees in the Philippines, Singapore, China, Japan, India, New Zealand, Australia, Canada and the United Arab Emirates. It will open an office in South Korea by the end of 2006 and new offices in Europe, Africa and the Middle East in 2007.

The international portion of First Advantage¡¯s screening services now represents 25 percent to 30 percent of its total screening revenues. The company expects 20 percent growth in the international portion in 2007.

"In this industry, it is extremely expensive to have a physical presence on a worldwide basis, but there is a competitive advantage in expanding our international presence," Papageorgiou says. "In addition, the market for screening is relatively saturated in the U.S.; the real growth in screening is abroad."

For clients, the biggest advantage in using screening firms that have a physical presence overseas is speed and more control over compliance. Also, firms with offices abroad may be more effective in managing costs because they utilize their own staff and operations.

In any developing market, screening must be tailored for the specific risk level, legal environment and infrastructure, and executives should be aware of any limitations.

"When a company moves into a new location, it must develop a market-entry strategy," Sikellis says.

"Recruiting should be part of the discussion and HR should have a seat at the table." Sikellis says. "HR executives need to analyze the personnel risks and maintain a close relationship with legal counsel while they do this."

The Job Outlook survey is a forecast of hiring intentions of employers as they relate to new college graduates. Each year, the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) surveys its employer members about their hiring plans and other employment-related issues.

From mid-August through October 4, 2006, NACE collected data for the Job Outlook 2007 survey. The survey was provided to 1,137 members; there were a total of 267 usable surveys, a 23.5 percent response rate. This report focuses largely on the results of that survey.

Of those responding, 52.4 percent were service sector employers, 37.8 percent were manufacturers, and 9.7 percent were government/nonprofit employers. In addition, 38.6 percent of respondents were from the South, 25.5 percent were from the Midwest, 21.7 percent were from the Northeast, and the remaining 14.2 percent were from the West.

Job Outlook 2007 Spring Update (data collected late March through early April) will offer a final update on hiring for 2006-07 graduates. Results will be available in mid-April.

BEIJING, Dec. 15 - For years, China's stock market was an anomaly: the economy was going one way up and it was going in the opposite direction.

This year, it seems it can't wait to catch up gaining a staggering 94 per cent and becoming one of the best performing markets in the world in 2006 mainly because of successful security reforms.

Yesterday, the market hit a historic high: the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index rose 1.15 per cent to close at 2249 points, passing the previous intra-day high of 2245 on June 14, 2001.

Turnover of Shanghai A shares was a heavy 36.88 billion yuan (4.67 billion U.S.dollars).

The Shenzhen Composite Index yesterday closed at 6044.28 points, up 71.80 points from the previous day. It has more than doubled since the beginning of this year.

"Factors like the steadily growing economy, a series of reforms in the capital market, and massive capital inflows into the mainland will see the stock market embracing a 'golden decade'," said a report in Shanghai-based Orient Securities. "The index is expected to break 3000 points in 2007," it added.

In May last year, the central government embarked on an ambitious reform to convert non-tradable shares worth as much as US$250 billion to tradable ones.

"Now for the first time, the stock market is able to reflect China's booming economy. It proves the ongoing securities reform has fundamentally changed the stock market from a gambling house to a normally functioning market based on true value", said Li Yongsen, a professor at Renmin University of China.

With the bulls clearly on the ascendant, analysts point out that massive inflows of new money into the market make it hard to foresee when the rally will stop.

"With such excessive liquidity, the index is likely to continue to climb, and there is no clear sign it will end in the short term," said Zhang Qi, an analyst with Haitong Securities.

The rise of A shares yuan-denominated mainland stocks has tempted many blue chips originally listed overseas to come back to the home market.

China Life Insurance, the nation's biggest life insurer, has applied to issue A shares worth as much as 25.5 billion yuan (3.23 billion dollars) in Shanghai. The offer will likely make the company the second largest public offering in the A-share market after Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the country's biggest lender.

The bullish market has allowed many ordinary Chinese to share the profits from the economic boom for the first time.

"The rise is just crazy. Many of my friends have doubled their money by investing in stocks or mutual funds this year. I also want to put some money in the market," said Li Yan who works for a law firm.

by: (ContentDesk) ¡ª With the busy hiring season just ahead, now is the time to think about preparing for the interviewthat can land you the job you want in 2006. To get that coveted offer, the interview must be considered one of the most important steps in the hiring process to create a relationship with a potential employer. With the right preparation, qualified candidates can take the driver¡¯s seat and position themselves as the top pick for the position.

Jill Donnelly, president of CareerWomen.com advises, Practice, practice, practice. Many questions, such as those inquiring about your experience and qualifications, should be expected. By creating the right storyline to anticipated questions, your delivery will sound natural and confident. Remember, if you are qualified, the interview is where you can win or lose the game. To get the job you want, CareerWomen.com¡¯s top five tips to impress interviewers are:

1. Be the qualified candidate

Know why you are qualified for the position by matching your experience to the specific requirements of the job ahead of the interview. By offering examples that match your qualifications to the exact position, the interview will be a breeze for you.

2. Prepare by doing your homework

Do your homework on the company as well as the position. Get up to date on the company¡¯s current business issues so you can address any questions about direction and opportunity. Develop a list of questions prior to the interview to demonstrate your interest and curiosity about the company.

3. Speak with confidence

This is not the time to by shy and timid. Be confident about your professional accomplishments and talk about your results. Talk about yourself through your previous employer¡¯s words to give your claims needed validation. If you have some work samples you are proud of that are related to the position, why not show them off?

4. Act like a professional

This may seem like common sense, but you¡¯ll be surprised how many people forget this completely. Common courtesies will take you a long way at setting the right professional impression. For example, dress appropriately for the position, be sure to turn off the cell phone and most importantly, be on time!

5. Be a good communicator

Listen and be appropriately enthusiastic. Listen to the questions before you answer. If you interrupt, it could send a warning flag that you are not interested. Lean forward, listen carefully and be sure to make direct eye contact.

Additional resources to enhance professional development and advance women¡¯s careers can be found at http://www.CareerWomen.comincluding career development tools, career and employment news, professional associations and employment opportunities across the US with some of the best women-friendly companies.