Recruiting in China

BEIJING: Employment pressure is building in China with an additional 50 million people expected to be hunting for a limited pool of jobs in cities by 2010, state media reported on Friday.

Only 40 million new jobs will be created for urban residents between 2006 and 2010, leaving an additional 10 million people without work, according to a new report by the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, the China Daily said. It said the government was striving to maintain the unemployment rate among registered city residents at below five percent.

However, the jobless problem has been exacerbated by a massive influx of rural job seekers who are not registered in cities. China population of migrant workers is estimated at 150 million, or 11.5 per cent of the population, double the figure for a decade ago, the newspaper said.

The migrant workers plus other factors ensure that unemployment would remain a problem for the world most populous country in the years to come, it said.

By Kevin Voigt

From The Wall Street Journal Online

Finding a job in a distant market can be tough, as employers are less likely to give a break to someone who has no experience in the market, or who must be flown in for an interview. To make matters even trickier, what holds true in one country often doesn't apply in another, says job recruiter Lawrence Wang, author of the job-hunt book "Know the Game, Play the Game" and managing director of Beijing-based Wang & Li Asia Resources.

For starters, he says, remember that while the Internet is good, legwork is better. With the proliferation of specialized online job sites, it is easy to get your resume to the market you are interested in. "But there's really no substitute for being there," says Mr. Wang.

He suggests planning a trip to the area and letting the companies you are interested in know you are coming to town and would like to stop by. "If you fly there, it shows your commitment and gives a much higher indication of your interest in relocating."

Contacting local chambers of commerce and career centers, or stopping by bars and clubs frequented by professionals in the area, can give a job searcher more ideas and contacts, Mr. Wang says. If you don't know anyone in the city you are targeting, check your university alumni directory to see if any classmates live in the area.

Often, this process can help people decide whether they really want to relocate. "For example, Beijing is a real exciting place, but it's not for everyone," he says. "People sometimes come here a few times and decide it's not for them -- which is good. Now they won't spend the next five years wondering what could have been."

Spread your net of contacts. Dumb luck is often a key ingredient in a successful job search, and it often is resting in the hands of someone you haven't even met. By broadening your list of personal contacts, your break can come from the unlikeliest places.

Mr. Wang, a California native, began his first job search in Taipei when he was a 28-year-old graduate business student at the University of California, Los Angeles. Seeking a marketing position, he cold-called 50 foreign-owned companies. He got only three interviews. They were all unsuccessful. His break came not by slogging through company directories and mass-mailing resumes, but by calling an acquaintance -- a former classmate -- who had family in Taipei. In the end, his "classmate's sister's husband" was the one who made the connection that netted his first job with a Taipei marketing firm.

"The kindness of strangers can really come through for you," Mr. Wang says. "People in the international community have been through this before, so they can identify with you. And the average person knows a lot. They can know the people to talk to, have their names and numbers, and they're flattered that you're asking their advice. Use them."

Patience is a virtue in this kind of search. Don't be disheartened if the first trip doesn't yield a job. One of the biggest mistakes job seekers make is born out of impatience, Mr. Wang says. Overeager applicants often don't take the time to gain an understanding of the market, and they let their naivete show. "A common mistake we see is people coming into the market and completely outpricing themselves," he says.

Salary requests have to be within the market range, and wildly overshooting the curve undercuts your credibility.

Mr. Wang suggests talking to anyone who knows something about the job market you are looking at: "What are the trends, what is the current market mindset? What kind of skills are employers really looking at right now?" he says.

Job seekers must also be realistic about their chances in a market where they have no language skills, Mr. Wang adds.

Email your comments to cjeditor@dowjones.com.

A project was launched in Beijing on Friday aiming to build employer brands by naming China's "top employers" in a new publication and on TV.

The China Top Employers project was also launched in Shanghai in May by the Corporate Research Foundation (CRF), a Netherlands-based independent publishing company.

"Its format is unique in China. It aims to help companies build an employer brand," said Cai Rong, chief representative of CRF China. She added the project is currently active in nine countries.

Jobseekers, MBAs, EMBAs and graduates returning from overseas will be able to get information about companies selected by the CRF through books and TV shows.

"But each company has to pass a rigorous selection process to become one of the 'top employers' in China," Cai said.

After registering, companies complete a questionnaire and a CRF journalist interviews one of their senior human resources managers and two employees from the firm.

"Our questions vary from country to country and region to region covering a wide area from salary, welfare and corporate culture," Cai said. She added questions for each region are designed by a panel comprising experts from human resources companies, universities and the media.

"The information provided by the questionnaire is fully confidential and will be used to evaluate the participant and generate benchmark data," she said.

The CRF determines whether a company meets the minimum criteria to become one of China's "top employers," determining the top three reasons to work for the firm and a confidential report.

If a company fails the final selection and publication, all research material and CRF reports are returned. The whole process is then free of charge.

If the participating company is selected as one of China's "top employers," the company profile as written by a CRF journalist is submitted to the firm. Companies are only able to make factual changes to the text.

The companies will be listed in a book, which is to be directly delivered to jobseekers. The book describes the advantages of the companies through information gleaned from the interviews.

"We will also take them (the selected companies) to seminars and TV shows to discuss with young talents issues concerning employer branding," Cai said.

Companies are charged US$5,800 in Shanghai and US$7,800 in Beijing to cover research, writing, editorial, production and marketing costs.

The programme attracted 48 companies in Shanghai, including DHL, Alibaba, China Mobile and Home Inns. Thirty-eight have been selected as China's Top Employers for 2007.

But Cai said domestic companies only make up a tiny proportion of the firms about 10 per cent of the total.

"We hope Chinese companies will attach more significance to building an employer brand," she said.

The concept of employer brand was put forward by Western enterprises. Human resources departments play an important role in Western companies, but this is not the case in China.

"Human resources directors are not given enough rights in China and some roles that should belong to the department are played by other departments," Cai said. "China's human resources departments always remain at the operational level rather than at the strategic level."

In many Chinese companies human resources departments are responsible for recruiting but not for retaining people. For this reason job turnover in Chinese companies is two to three times higher than in Europe.

Cai said it is also an initiative that drove them to bring the project to China

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Total revenues increased 12.5% over Q3 2005 to US$22.9 million for 51job.com (JOBS). The online job recruitment website tofday announced its unaudited financial results for the third quarter of 2006 ended September 30, 2006.

Print advertising revenues for the third quarter of 2006 increased 5.7% to US$12.4 million compared with the same quarter in 2005. The company says the increase was primarily due to a greater volume of advertisements in 51job Weekly and higher average revenue per page.

The estimated number of print advertising pages generated in the third quarter of 2006 was 3,217 compared with 3,115 pages in the same quarter in 2005. Average revenue per page in the third quarter of 2006 increased 2.3% over the third quarter of 2005.

Online recruitment services revenues for the third quarter of 2006 were US$7.3 million, representing a 29.6% growth from RMB44.4 million for the same quarter last year. The increase was principally attributable to growth in the number of employers using the company's online services. Unique employers using the company's online recruitment services increased to 44,969 in the third quarter of 2006 compared with 34,407 in the same period last year.

Gross profit for the third quarter of 2006 was US$12.1 million, representing an increase of 15.9% from the same quarter last year.

As of September 30, 2006, the company's cash balance was US$104.5 million compared with RMB830.6 million at December 31, 2005 and RMB812.5 million at June 30, 2006.

White paper based on survey results says a small number of companies have talent pools, but do not adequately communicate with prospects.

Pleasant Prairie, WI (PRWEB via HRMarketer) November 7, 2006 -- Only 22 percent of respondents who have built "talent pools" regularly communicate with their prospects, reports an annual survey of recruiting professionals by TalentPen, provider of a web-based candidate collection and personality matching tool. A white paper summarizing this survey can be downloaded at http://www.talentpen.com/read_the_whitepapers.html.

¡°The lack of direct communications is turning off candidates,¡± according to Nick Burkholder, founding of Staffing.org. He is quoted by the white paper as considering candidate communications as ¡°a huge opportunity for improvement in most organizations.¡±

¡°Even Starbucks, which does maintain a talent pool, has said that the pool can¡¯t keep up with its growth (about 300 new hires a day),¡± states the paper.

The white paper offers tips to employers, including the development of ¡°talent pools¡± and active communication with prospects. Using personality assessments in recruiting is also cited as a key measurement for how an employee fits a company¡¯s culture, which directly impacts their loyalty.

Employers who don¡¯t follow this advice will pay a high price, according to the paper. ¡°Conservative industry estimates put the cost of turnover at 1.5 times that of salary,¡± explains Michael Sproul, president of TalentPen. ¡°Some companies are reporting a six-fold expenditure above salary when hidden costs such as ¡®chain reaction¡¯ turnover and lost productivity are factored in.¡±

Most recruiting professionals who responded to the survey were from companies with populations of 100 to 1,000 employees. More than a quarter of these respondents were from service companies. Other industries represented include healthcare, manufacturing, education, and financial services.

TalentPen, a web-based candidate collection and matching tool, measures personalities, job preferences and qualifications, collects them into private talent pools and matches them to employers with appropriate cultures. Candidates don¡¯t apply for a specific job, but instead complete personality profiles for placement into expandable talent networks.

About eBullpen, LLC
Based in Pleasant Prairie, WI, eBullpen, LLC helps employers and job seekers alike find better employment matches by putting personality matching up front in the candidate sourcing process. eBullpen created the TalentPen candidate collection and matching system to give employers an edge in talent acquisition and the tools for improving the hire -- not just the hiring process. TalentPen allows employers to incorporate eBullpen¡¯s proven assessment techniques and technologies into their existing career site or ATS. With either system, the end result is a streamlined hiring process and a faster placement of qualified candidates who fit a company¡¯s culture.

For more information, visit www.talentpen.com.

Media Note: To arrange phone or personal interviews with Michael Sproul, CEO of eBullpen or other appropriate executives, contact:

Bruce Brough at 831-234-9297, or Matt Pitchford at 317-460-0250

This press release was distributed through eMediawire by Human Resources Marketer (HR Marketer: www.HRmarketer.com) on behalf of the company listed above.

By Michael Flaherty

SHANGHAI, Oct 9 (Reuters) - Minutes after news he had quit as chief financial officer of KongZhong Corp. (KONG.O: Quote, Profile, Research), J.P. Gan took a call from a headhunter.

On offer was a top spot at a venture capital-backed Chinese company with plans for an overseas initial public offering.

CFOs and top level executives are in high demand across the globe as cash-rich investment firms put their money to work buying companies, changing management teams, and growing the businesses.

In China the effect is amplified. Young, western-savvy CFOs who have language skills, regulatory knowledge and international experience are highly sought after and hard to find. "Talent is limited, in general. That's just the way things are in China," said Jixun Foo, a Shanghai-based managing director at venture capital firm Granite Global Ventures.

Aggravating the shortage is the flow of western-educated executives out of the the corporate and investment banking sectors and into private equity firms and hedge funds.

To name but a few: HSBC China investment banking chief Huan Guocang joined Primus Pacific Partners. Dennis Zhu left JPMorgan to join Oaktree Capital Management while Bain Capital recently hired away Morgan Stanley China chief executive Jonathan Zhu.

Mark Qiu -- former CFO of CNOOC Ltd. (0883.HK: Quote, Profile, Research), last year left the top Chinese offshore oil producer to set up a private equity fund.

"Understanding the people-risk factor may be one of the most important things an investor needs to know before coming here," Foo said.

Buyout firms have invested more than $4 billion in China this year, compared with only $723 million in 2003, according to market data firm Dealogic.

While talented chief executives are in demand in China, many investors view equally talented CFOs as more significant and harder to find, given the increased accounting demands required by global securities markets.

Chinese companies need CFOs who can put in place or modernise their financial infrastructure to satisfy investors and regulators.

That means establishing proper billing procedures, cleaning up books, creating budgets, and setting up legal and compliance departments -- areas either neglected in many existing companies or not yet formed in young start-ups.

"There is a great demand for the CFO position," said Gan of KongZhong, who from 2000 to 2005 was Carlyle Group's director of venture capital investments in China.

Gan is leaving KongZhong, a $250 million Chinese wireless services company, for venture capital firm Qiming Venture Partners in Shanghai. He said he knows at least 10 venture-backed companies hunting for CFOs right now.

One key executive requirement is solid English skills.

With Wall Street investors and outside regulators increasingly involved with corporate China, English is seen as essential, especially for CFOs who handle the bulk of calls from such people.

A CFO of a foreign-listed or Hong Kong-listed Chinese firm can expect to earn anywhere from $150,000 to $500,000, plus options, said several people interviewed for this article, with CEO's earning slightly more.

That is well short of what some U.S. and European executives make, but it is more than many non-listed, old-style Chinese companies would pay.

Also fuelling CFO demand is a string of successful new China listings, which have sparked a rush to the initial public offerings market.

Peter Mok, President and CEO of KLM Capital Group, an investment firm specialising in Asia, says the real talent search action goes on among companies going for IPO.

"They are looking for someone who understands GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) and who can connect with Wall Street," he said. "They need a guy who is dynamic and who is going to stay up late to talk to New York."