Recruiting in China

What is the actual shape of the recruitment market in China?
What you have to understand first is that twenty years ago there was no recruiting market in China. The government allocated all jobs. Then, when China began to embrace free enterprise, the local recruitment market started to develop. But at that time, employers still mainly used referrals and job fairs as sourcing channels: they were the traditional government channels.
Suddenly, after 1990, there was a rapid rise in the number of job seekers, and at that time, new sourcing channels appeared. Today, job seekers can choose between many different channel types as Online recruiting, executive search agency, news papers, job fairs ect.
Not only foreign ventures, but also local HR service companies face a booming market. To use a popular Chinese expression to describe a market with such a great potential, I would say that the recruiting market in China is quite a "big cake." I believe the size of China¡¯s recruiting market will reach to over $1 billion in 2006.

How did the first recruitment agencies appear?
Once the Chinese door have been opened on the outside world, the big cities and business centers as Beijing or Shanghai have quickly attracted foreign companies -- giant corporations as well as small start-ups. All those companies need to recruit, and so need professional HR agencies to help them source their ideal personnel and build their Chinese HR structure. This is how we first met these clients.
That was specially the case for small "start-up companies", for which competition increased quickly. In the same time, skills and abilities were hard to find. They needed professional recruiting experts to help them improving management team¡¯s quality.

What are the key success factors for non-Chinese multinationals when they start recruiting in China?
First of all, multinational should know that attitude is the vital thing when they start recruiting in China.
Then, they should be prepare to face real shortage of candidates in certain circumstances. Sometimes the war for talent is as fierce as in many parts of the Western countries, although China has a population of 1.3 billion people. Most foreign companies entering into China, have been surprised to find that managers were particularly hard to find.
I think there are four points playing a key role in the success of non-Chinese multinationals when they start recruiting in China:

Get professional recruiting staff in their HR department. That¡¯s very important for a foreign company in China.
Get an effective vendor management system.
Deploy perfect Recruiting tools.
Implement an Internal staffing inspiriting process system.
Is the using of a recruiting technology a good option when recruiting in China?
Yes. Certainly it is.
As skilled managers are in particularly short supply on the Chinese market, attracting good ones can present a special challenge. The truth is that recruiting for any position in China can require a whole new outlook. Usually, recruiters in HR department always aim to decrease costs and increase recruiting quality. For that, an excellent recruiting technology is the vital thing for making the difference and recruits the right staff.
That is why we promote Talent Management Solutions to companies in China.

What is your assessment of the added value brought by recruitment technologies on the Chinese market?
Using Recruitment Technologies, especially when associated with Process Outsourcing, can help recruiters decrease costs and increase working efficiency. For example, in a traditional model, a recruiter has to take a lot of time to filtering resumes from the Internet, mails, job fairs ect. The follow up of candidates¡¯ interviews with line managers is also very time demanding. Recruitment technologies can help recruiters save more time and more money.

What is your vision of the future of recruitment in China?
It is a difficult question: the major fact about our market is its capcaity to change and evolve in a fast fast way. Tomorow can be a totally different thing. Still, I think that in the future, the evolution of the recruitment market in China will be driven by three important sectors:

The quality of candidates
The ability to build efficient recruiting processes,
The ability to integrate technology.

An "adventure" is what Dave McCann calls the quest to recruit and retain good workers in the rapidly changing economy and market in China.

"The opportunities are great, but they create HR challenges," says McCann, who is based in Beijing and has responsibility for HR activities for PricewaterhouseCoopers throughout China. The country may have a population of 1.3 billion people, but there's a war for talent as fierce as in many parts of the Western world, he explains.

Carrie Conlon, director of human resources for Nanjing Interbrew Breweries in Nanjing, says China is undergoing significant changes and wants a market economy. "But they don't have the talent," she explains. "They haven't recognized the need to train people to go into that type of economy.

And managers are particularly hard to find. "The challenge is finding managerial talent," she says. "You can't find a marketing director to save your soul."

The reason: While many Chinese professionals have good technical educations, few have managerial training because in the past managers were promoted based on their political party allegiance. "There never had been any selection criteria; it was not attached to skills," she says.

While managers are in particularly short supply and attracting good ones can present a special challenge, the truth is that recruiting for any position in China can require a whole new outlook. In some cases you may need to rethink what you know about finding and hiring talented workers because, when it comes to recruiting, China has its own particular rules of the road.

Do's and Don'ts

As in other countries, companies operating in China can use campus recruitment, job fairs, newspaper advertisements, search firms, internal referrals and the Internet to search for the right talent. But, "in terms of hiring, there are more than a hundred 'do's and don'ts,'" says P.O. Mak, president of the Hong Kong Institute of Human Resource Management.

"First of all, you have to know where you are and what kind of people you wish to hire. And then, a thorough knowledge of applicable law is important," says Mak.

Given the complexity of the market, Annella Heytens of Watson Wyatt urges U.S. companies to develop a well-thought-out recruitment strategy that spells out screening and interviewing methodology.

"Do not look for the perfect candidate--he or she does not exist," Heytens says. Other mistakes: being inflexible with the benefits package and taking too long to interview or make an offer, in which case, "You may lose a good candidate," she warns.

In addition, she warns not to market the company too optimistically or negatively. "Be realistic when describing the working conditions," she says, because new workers "may not stay too long if you misrepresent the company."

When interviewing, don't be fooled by "a perfect accent and Oxford English," Mak warns. "You still need to probe into values and experience. In the older days, many firms hired people primarily because of language proficiency. Don't do this anymore. I put values first because unfortunately--due to education systems, culture and norms--we tend to see a big gap between 'our' values and 'their' values, and this can make or break a working relationship."

Conlon warns that Chinese interviewees "may not be polished. Be cautious not to make a judgment on that."

Unlike Heytens, Conlon advises conducting several interviews because people in the Chinese culture tend to be less direct than in Western cultures, and they "take a long time to say what they want to say. Bring them back, so they feel comfortable and you get the information you need. Tap into their true potential. The system is not geared to helping people know their own potential."

Michael Colozzi--general manager for Portola Packaging Inc. in Shanghai--agrees. "Everyone I hired on my immediate staff I interviewed five times," he says. "In two cases, I gave people minor assignments to prepare presentations. I tested them. I let everybody know I was extremely serious."

Camille Elliott, who returned from Beijing last year to work as a recruitment manager for PricewaterhouseCoopers in the San Francisco area, also made use of multiple interviews in China. In fact, Elliott would regularly ask a Chinese native and someone from the West to interview and assess a candidate's ability to balance Western and Chinese styles of management. The Chinese management style tends to be very directed, she says, and Chinese managers "tend not to have the coaching skills that you as a Westerner would like to see."

This lack of managerial skills can be overcome, says Colozzi. Chinese managers "don't like to make decisions without having 100 percent of the facts," he explains. "In the United States we're not reluctant. If we make a mistake, we clean up the mess and start again," he says. But he has found that Chinese managers can learn to make direct decisions "and you'll be amazed at how creative they are at solving problems."

Conlon adds that references are easy to obtain in China. "You can call up a previous manager and ask for a reference. People have been pretty open."

Companies are using exit interviews to decrease turnover, often by comparing their results to engagement surveys. They're also finding exit interviews useful in luring ex-employees back.
By Eilene Zimmerman
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he HR metric of the moment may be employee engagement, but many companies have also placed a new emphasis on employee disengagement by reinventing the exit interview and acknowledging there¡¯s much to be learned from a departing employee. The development and implementation of these surveys is increasingly being outsourced, and the data compared with other workforce surveys.

Vendors that provide these services say demand is rising because outsourced exit interviews are often more comprehensive and strategic than internally devised surveys, which can be incomplete or haphazard. Beth Carvin is CEO of Nobscot, a Web-based software provider whose products include WebExit, which was introduced in 2001. She has seen growth in both the number of her business's clients as well as her revenue of between 20 to 50 percent a year since then. "Exit interviews are the one process that companies haven¡¯t really figured out how to do well," says Carvin.

Like Carvin, Diane Irvin has seen demand for her firm¡¯s exit interview services grow rapidly in the last few years. Irvin, senior vice president for the HR research and consulting firm Strategic Programs, says the Denver-based company has been growing more than 70 percent a year for the past three years, largely due to its exit interview work. "Right now it¡¯s trendy to do employee engagement surveys, but to engage employees you have to understand them. Comparing your exit data to your engagement data helps you do that." Irvin and others in the exit interview business find employees are both more likely to participate and to be more honest when someone unconnected to their employer asks the questions.

Nobscot, Strategic Programs and most other vendors provide clients with detailed reports that correlate responses from departing employees and analyze data, breaking it down by age, seniority, gender and other demographics. The number of questions ranges from about 35 to 70. For larger organizations, the questions are generally quantitative rather than qualitative, although most surveys contain a section for open-ended comment.

Since January, Black & Veatch has been comparing data from its newly designed exit interviews with its workforce engagement surveys in order to accurately gauge how employees feel about their jobs. The engineering consulting firm hopes the information gleaned from its surveys will help senior management find ways to increase employee productivity and, ultimately, profits. The company may discover, for example, that supervisors need a specific kind of training or development to better manage their teams.

Michael Harris, a professor of human resources at the University of Missouri-St. Louis¡¯ College of Business, says that¡¯s a smart move. "Think of your employee as your customer," he says. "Most companies want to measure customer satisfaction, but it¡¯s important to also find out why your customers are leaving."

Black & Veatch changed its old set of exit interview questions--which B.J. Holdnak, vice president of organization effectiveness describes as "kind of hit or miss"--to a standardized survey that identifies high performers and categorizes the reasons they leave. Black & Veatch¡¯s exit survey also tracks demographics. "Are younger people leaving us more often than those with a longer tenure? If so, why? Is it compensation? Their team? The environment? The culture? We are looking for patterns," says Holdnak.

Some of the same questions asked in Black & Veatch¡¯s exit interviews are also asked in their engagement survey, so that the responses of those currently in the workforce can be compared to those who are leaving.

Richard Wellins, a senior vice president at human resources consulting firm DDI, says asking exit interview questions before people actually exit--in engagement surveys--can help a company prevent people from leaving. "The idea is that the questions you ask for a current employee are very similar to what you ask a person who is leaving. For example, on an engagement survey you might ask, ¡®Do you feel you have opportunities to expand your knowledge and learning? Are we meeting your needs for learning and growth?¡¯ and on the exit survey it¡¯s the same questions, only past tense," says Wellins.

Richard Harding, director of research at Kenexa, says this kind of comparison across surveys is relatively new for businesses. "You¡¯re looking not just at why people are leaving, but why they are staying," says Harding. "Then you give your managers actions they can take to keep their people. Just doing exit interviews after someone leaves is like shutting the door after the horse has left the barn."

Expansion plans
Black & Veatch has an aggressive expansion plan in place, a response to dramatic growth in worldwide energy and water markets that began about three years ago. Its work is concentrated in those industries, says Holdnak, and the firm wants to capitalize on the opportunity for growth by hiring people that are a good fit and will stay put.

"We are going to have to increase the number of people we hire and retention is also going to be an issue. If [energy and water] markets are better, people are more likely to jump ship," says Holdnak.

Black & Veatch hasn¡¯t been collecting data long enough to know how it will use the information to make changes, but as the firm grows, a big concern is fostering a globally inclusive corporate culture.

Between 30 and 35 percent of Black & Veatch¡¯s 7,000 employees work outside of the U.S. "Having policies and processes that resonate with employees in different countries across a variety of cultures is a challenge for us and we¡¯re hoping the data we get from these surveys will help us achieve that," says Holdnak.

Increasing participation
Sutter Health, a healthcare network based in Sacramento that serves northern California and Hawaii, overhauled its exit interview process when it developed a nursing retention and recruitment plan four years ago. The data is being used to help stem the turnover of newly hired nurses, which is very high compared to Sutter¡¯s general nursing population, says Diane Lahola, director of workforce planning and retention at the company. Turnover of new nursing school graduates is high throughout the healthcare industry, says Lahola, and Sutter wants to find out "what it will take to create a more satisfactory work environment for nurses, because the cost of turnover is very high and they are difficult to recruit."

Sutter¡¯s affiliates--the members of its network--have been allowed to either internally redesign their exit interviews or contract with third-party vendor Strategic Programs. "It made sense to use a third party because you tend to get better participation rates and more [candid] data," says Lahola. The first year, between 40 and 50 percent of affiliates outsourced exit interviews; this past year 75 percent did. Lahola says for affiliates who conduct the interviews themselves, participation among departing employees is between 0 and 12 percent. With a third party, average participation is about 70 percent.

The new exit surveys give Lahola more accurate information than she had previously. "A lot of times someone will say they are leaving because they are getting more money across town, when the real reason is that you can¡¯t pay them enough to work for their manager," says Lahola.

In an effort to get at the true reasons employees leave, Lahola compares exit data to the data she gets on annual employee opinion surveys. She was surprised to learn this fall, after the most recent opinion survey, that the orientation and assimilation period was a sore spot for new nurses. It wasn't the structure of the orientation program itself. It was other things, such as current employees not being prepared for a new employee¡¯s first day on the job. "Although it wasn¡¯t happening at all our affiliates, I didn¡¯t realize the degree to which this was a problem," says Lahola. "New nurses and other employees would show up for their first day and staff may not have been prepared to orient and assimilate them."

Also surprising was the issue of competitive pay. Employees currently with the organization are actually less satisfied with their pay than those who leave. "That tells me people aren¡¯t leaving because of money," she says. "And I can drill down by affiliates to see where the problem is most acute."

Sutter Health¡¯s affiliates are just starting to make changes based on the exit data. New nurses are now surveyed about their work experience at the 30, 60 and 90-day mark and several affiliates have begun mentor or buddy programs. Another reason nurses were leaving, says Lahola, was a perceived lack of career opportunities, despite the fact that Sutter offers a variety of programs that allow employees to move from one affiliate to another or attend management and leadership programs. "We need to connect the dots better to show employees these opportunities exist," says Lahola. "Now we focus on that in all of our communications."

Sutter does hear from employees in other ways. Hundreds of its employees are currently on strike over a number of issues; the Service Employees International Union has said employees want "a voice in staffing decisions, a training fund and protections for speaking out for patients."

Hiring alumnae
Jeppesen, an Englewood, Colorado company that provides aviation data such as maps and flight plans, redesigned its exit interviews in 2000 with the help of an outside vendor. Information from the exit surveys spurred the company to offer more training for managers and change the way management jobs are posted. "There was a perception here that people got jobs through who they knew rather than what they knew," says Alice DiFraia, the company¡¯s director of human resources and organizational development.

The changes had a profound effect: by 2003, turnover was down to six percent, which was DiFraia¡¯s goal, and the company stopped performing exit interviews. This year, however, turnover began rising again--it¡¯s 12 percent now--and the company has reinstituted the interviews.

Data from exit interviews is also used in less obvious ways. United Risk Partners, for example, a firm that does background checks, is finding that about 40 percent of companies also use it to conduct exit interviews. Craig Lawrence and Marco Confuorto, partners in the suburban Chicago firm, are both trained investigators and use the interviews to gain information about a company that management can¡¯t find on its own. "From a risk management standpoint, you can find out things about sexual harassment, drug and alcohol abuse, intimate relationships and criminal activity," says Lawrence. "To investigate a criminal allegation you would have to hire an investigator to go under cover for a 90- or 120-day investigation. Exit interviews are a way to obtain inside intelligence about operations without having to make those significant investments."

Boomeranging--getting highly valued employees who leave voluntarily to return--can also be facilitated via exit interviews. Exit questions for those employees focus on what it would take to get them to stay. Beth Carvin of Nobscot recalls an insurance company client that was able to do just that. "They called an employee who had left to say, ¡®All the great things you liked about working here are still here, and the things you didn¡¯t like? They are gone.¡¯ They hired this guy back within two weeks," she says.

Richard Harding of Kenexa says because employees sometimes find the grass isn¡¯t necessarily greener at another company, doing exit interviews a few weeks or even months after valued employees leave can help a company find out what it will take to bring them back. Harding says Kenexa asks departing employees if they'd consider returning to the company, and under what conditions. About two-thirds say they would consider returning if the circumstances changed. Often, employees don't say they want more money--they just don't want to work for the same manger.

Finding a new job can be a daunting task. You need to make sure your job search involves positions you're qualified for, but you also want to land a position that pays well and comes with some benefits. And, since it wouldn't hurt to do a job search for companies that treat their employees right, the stakes can be pretty high.

A good job search starts with you. You'll need to do some things in advance before you head out the door to apply or interview. First off you'll want to get your resume in order. Make sure it's accurate and offers a fair representation of your past experiences and qualifications. Keep it as short as possible while not skipping over major details. Next, you'll want to make sure you have your references in order before you conduct a job search. Employers like to hear as well as see that potential hires can do the job.

With your paperwork straight, you can now begin a more thorough job search. Here are five tips to help make that job search go more smoothly:

Evaluate your skills, strengths and weaknesses. Try to match up what you can do and what you're trained to do with ideal positions. Going after the wrong kinds of jobs for your skill set can be an exercise in futility.
Evaluate your desires. If you have a 10-year background in management, you might not want to settle for an entry-level position. Make sure you know what you want and try to find jobs to match not only your qualifications, but also your actual worth. Sometimes this might not be possible, but shoot as close to the mark as you possibly can in your job search.
Narrow searches by location, type of job and pay. You don't want to waste your time going after minimum pay jobs if you're over qualified and vice versa. The more you focus your job search, the less time you'll waste on positions that don't fit the bill. But, do be honest with yourself. If you're only qualified for an entry level, go after one with the notion of building on it for a better career.
Consider skill enhancements. If you're a computer programmer, but you haven't taken a new course in five years, you might want to add a certification or two to your resume before you start your job search. Or, at the very least, have some retraining or advanced training in the works when you start applying.
Use the tools at your fingertips. A good job search covers all the bases. This means those on the hunt look online, in papers, and even in trade magazines to find ideal positions. The more you spread out your search, the better.
There's no magic way to land a position and ensure a job search will be ideal, but the more realistic you are about yourself and you are to yourself during a search, the more likely you are to land the right job. Take time to evaluate where you are in your career and your background and be certain to have all paperwork in order before you begin your job search. With some time and patience and a bit of confidence thrown in, you'll likely have a successful job search.

UK unemployment unexpectedly fell in November by the most in almost two years and wage growth accelerated, adding to the case for higher interest rates, the statistics office said yesterday.

The number of Britons claiming jobless benefits fell by 5,700 to 950,800, the biggest drop since January 2005, the Office for National Statistics said in London. Economists expected unemployment claims to rise by 4,000, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of 30 economists. The claimant count rate of unemployment was unchanged at three percent, Bloomberg News said.

Falling unemployment and bigger wage gains may add to concern that workers will boost pay demands at talks starting next month. Inflation quickened to the fastest pace in at least nine years last month, prompting investors to raise bets on the Bank of England raising interest rates next year.

"The labor market is rebounding strongly and that points to wages picking up," said Raj Gunaratna, an economist at 4Cast Ltd, a research group in London. "The report gives the Bank of England more reasons to hike interest rates."

The pound and interest-rate futures rose on speculation that the central bank will raise its benchmark rate again next year after two increases since August to five percent, a five-year high.

Higher energy bills pushed consumer prices up an annual 2.7 percent in November, the most since the index was introduced in January 1997, the statistics office said.

Wages growth excluding bonuses rebounded to an annual 3.8 percent from August through October from the 3.5 percent gain in the previous period, which was the slowest since July 2003.

UK employees at Ford Motor Co and Rolls Royce Plc, as well as air traffic controllers, are set to receive pay increases of more than four percent, said Ken Mulkearn, the editor of Incomes Data Services.

About 4,200 people working for financial-services companies and law firms in London will get bonuses of more than one million pounds (US$1.97 million) this year, according to the Centre for Economics and Business Research.

Still, an influx of migrant workers and rising unemployment have kept a lid on workers' average pay so far. Around half a million immigrants came to the UK from Eastern Europe last year, keeping wages "subdued," and damping consumer prices, Deputy Governor Rachel Lomax said.

Each year the survey is conducted, employers name the skills and qualities in the "ideal candidate." They also compare their desires to the skills and qualities the current crop of graduates actually possess.

Employers rate the importance of specific qualities/skills Qualities Rating
Communication Skills 4.7
Honesty/integrity 4.7
Interpersonal skills (relates well to others) 4.5
Motivation/initiative 4.5
Strong work ethic 4.5
Teamwork skills (works well with others) 4.5
Computer skills 4.4
Analytical skills 4.3
Flexibility/adaptability 4.3
Detail-oriented 4.2
Organizational skills 4.0
Leadership skills 4.0
Self-confidence 4.0
Friendly/outgoing personality 3.9
Tactfulness 3.9
Well-mannered/polite 3.8
Creativity 3.7
GPA (3.0 or better) 3.6
Entrepreneurial skills/risk-taker 3.3
Sense of humor 3.2
Bilingual skills 2.3
(5-point scale, where 1=not important, 2=not very important; 3=somewhat important; 4=very important, and 5=extremely important)
A good GPA is, of course, important.

Employers look at other attributes, too. In fact, year after year, the number one skill employers say they want to see in job candidates is good communication skills: the ability to write and speak clearly. Unfortunately¡ªin spite of requesting this skill year after year¡ªmany employers also report that college graduates lack good grammar and writing skills.

Employers also want new hires who are honest, have teamwork skills, and have a strong work ethic.

What college candidates lack
Ironically, communication skills not only top employers' list of most-desired skills, but also their list of the skills most lacking in new college graduates.

Many employers reported that students have trouble with grammar, can't write, and lack presentation skills. Poor communication skills are often evident in the interview, where students are unable to articulate, as one employer said, "how what they have done relates to/contributes to the position" they are seeking.

In addition, employers pointed to other skills and attributes that had made their "wish list," and cited those qualities and abilities as lacking in many new college graduates, e.g., relevant work experience, strong work ethic, team work skills, and the like. They also faulted new college graduates for not conducting themselves in a professional manner.

Get experience¡ªand learn how to highlight it on your resume and at your interview
What this means is, you need some real-world experience before graduation. Although you won't learn everything about the workplace with an internship or co-op assignment, you can build many of the skills employers find lacking. An internship, for example, is not just an opportunity to gain experience, but it's also a setting for you to learn professional behavior, learn what it means to work in a team, and practice interpersonal communication. An internship or co-op position helps you see the professional skills employers seek in action¡ªand helps you learn how to fit into the world of work.

Where employers are looking for new graduates
On-campus interviews
Employer's internship program
Employee referrals
Employer's co-op program
Career/job fairs
Job postings on the college web site
Faculty contacts
Job postings on the company web site
Student organizations/clubs
Commercial job boards
Internet resume data bases
Job postings to career offices (printed)
Request resumes from career offices
Recruitment advertising (print)
Newspaper advertising (campus and/or local newspapers)
Career/job fairs(virtual)
Internet banners
Video interviewing

Plus, hands-on experience may lead to a full-time job offer. Employers say they look within their own student programs to recruit new graduates. In addition, many employers said they offer higher salaries to new graduates who have any co-op or internship experience than they do to those who do not have that experience.

Further, practical experience is an element that employers will look for on your resume¡ªwhether it is with their organization or another. While employers prefer "relevant" work experience, having any work experience is better than no work experience. If you get this valuable experience before graduation, you'll have a distinct advantage over job candidates who lack the experience.