Recruiting in China

HONG KONG (Dow Jones)--Chinese search engine company Baidu Inc. (BIDU) said Wednesday it is looking to hire 30 software engineers from the U.S. next month to help make the company more innovative as it seeks to take advantage of rival Google Inc.'s (GOOG) shrinking participation in China.

Baidu is set to gain market share in China from Google as the Chinese government objects to Google's recent strategy of redirecting Chinese users to an uncensored site in Hong Kong and threatened the U.S. company with the loss of its license.

Kaiser Kuo, a company spokesman, said Baidu, China's biggest search engine, will hold a job fair in Milpitas, Calif., and is aiming to hire mid-level to senior engineers.

"Baidu believes that talent is the key to our success as a company, and we go wherever the best talent can be found, whether here in China or in Silicon Valley," said Zheng Bin, human resources director at Baidu, in a statement.

Baidu's hiring in the U.S. market underscores the need for more experienced engineers in China. Analysts say having insufficient number of engineers means companies will fall behind other rivals as competition intensifies in the Internet space.

"It's good to see Baidu taking initiatives to expand its talent pool and speed up the company's technology development. New technology is vital for its long-term growth," said Elinor Leung, an analyst at CLSA.

Baidu currently employs about 2,500 engineers. It has research and development centers in Beijing and Shanghai.

According to figures from Analysys International, Google's market share in China declined to 31% in the first quarter of this year from 35.6% in the previous quarter, with Baidu benefiting at Google's expense.

Baidu reported in February its fourth-quarter earnings rose 48% to CNY427.9 million on a 40% increase in revenue to CNY1.26 billion.

General Electric Co. Chief Executive Jeffrey Immelt said it is getting harder for foreign companies to do business in China, and that the Obama administration hasn't done as much as its predecessors to develop ties to the business community, people who heard his comments said Thursday.

His remarks, made Wednesday night at a private dinner in Rome for Italian business leaders, GE executives and others, echoed concerns Mr. Immelt has expressed before about barriers to U.S. exports and links between business and government.

But his words appeared to show a growing irritation with China, which Mr. Immelt said is increasingly developing its own technology that competes with U.S. exports, according to a person who heard him speak. "Immelt expressed anger at China, because it's trying to suck technology away," this person said.

GE said Mr. Immelt was in transit, and not available for comment.

The company, however, said its approach to China hasn't changed. "There is no change to our strategy for or in China, which as Jeff has said many times is an important and attractive market for GE," said Anne Eisele, a spokeswoman for the Fairfield, Conn.-based conglomerate.

GE, a sponsor of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, has pinned much of its hopes for growth on Chinese markets. GE has 13,000 employees in China and has cut deals there to share technology in the areas of aviation, reducing pollution from coal, and rail locomotives.
China Real Time.

Around the time GE opened a new technology center in Shanghai in August of 2008, Mr. Immelt said GE expected to double its business in China to $10 billion by 2010. But the company appears behind schedule in reaching that target, with China revenue of about $5.3 billion in 2009, up from $4.7 billion in 2008.

Shifting to relations with governments, Mr. Immelt said Wednesday night that the Obama administration has been distracted by the economic crisis and its legislative priorities from developing the ties with business seen under the Bush and Clinton administrations.

The White House declined to comment.

Mr. Immelt enjoyed a warm relationship with President Barack Obama after the 2008 election, and was named to the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board, a bipartisan panel of industrial, finance and union leaders. Mr. Immelt was a leading corporate supporter of the $787 billion federal stimulus bill, praising it in op-ed pieces and speeches.

In recent months, though, Mr. Immelt has said the administration needs to do more to help U.S. manufacturers sell their goods in foreign markets. Speaking in May at the 92nd Street Y in New York, he said he felt outgunned in terms of political support when bidding against French and South Korean companies for a nuclear-reactor contract in Dubai. That $20 billion contract was ultimately won by a Korean consortium

Mr. Immelt's remarks from the Rome gathering were reported earlier by the Financial Times.

One attendee said the chief executive "used the word 'concern' a lot," indicating challenges as companies try to put the recession behind them. "His speech was gloomy," this person said. "He seemed worried about business conditions across the board. And at the same time, he was using those observations to highlight that GE was doing well in spite of the difficulties."

Mr. Immelt said GE's second-quarter results won't be bad. The company reported in April that its first-quarter profit fell 31% from a year earlier to $1.95 billion on revenue of $36.6 billion. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expect GE to report $38.7 billion in revenue for the second quarter.

By JENNIFER CLARK And PAUL GLADER

With 30 years of sister city relations, a highly educated work force and international business facilities, San Francisco is an important gateway for Chinese companies expanding into North America.

The close economic and cultural ties between the cities provide a unique business platform, and many Chinese companies have chosen to set up operations in the Bay Area in the past few years.

Moreover, because more than 25 percent of the city's population is of Chinese ancestry, there is no other place in North America where Chinese businessmen and businesswomen will feel more comfortable and welcome, according to ChinaSF - a joint public and private initiative that helps companies set up or invest between China and San Francisco.

The area is an international hub for pioneering and forward-thinking industries such as life sciences and health care, information technology and digital media, clean technology, financial and professional services, iPDR (integrated production, distribution and repair), retail and hospitality, international commerce and film.

"Among these, solar-tech manufacturing and biotech are two sectors with substantial growth prospects in both the Chinese and American markets," says Ginny Fang, director of ChinaSF.

ChinaSF is under the San Francisco Center for Economic Development and operates in close partnership with the city of San Francisco. It is funded entirely by its private sector partners and has offices in San Francisco and Shanghai. Their Shanghai office helps San Francisco businesses navigate China's unique business culture and climate, including support for appropriate Chinese government relations and protocol.

Since its official opening in November 2008, ChinaSF has had the notable success of attracting five of China's top solar companies to San Francisco, making the city the North American capital for the Chinese solar industry. By the end of 2009 it had attracted 10 Chinese companies to San Francisco, including Shanghai life sciences consulting firm SPRIM, which has chosen to base its international headquarters in San Francisco.

SPRIM has offices in 15 cities worldwide and employs over 400 staff.

Other companies of note with a presence in San Francisco include Suntech America based in Wuxi in Jiangsu Province, the world's third-largest solar cell maker; and Yingli Green Energy headquartered in Baoding in Hebei Province, one of the world's leading photovoltaic product manufacturers.

Factors that attract Chinese companies to San Francisco include innovation, intellectual capital and "the world's best employees because of its unparalleled quality of life," says Fang.

The City of San Francisco acts through its Office of Economic and Workforce Development to support the ongoing economic vitality of San Francisco with incentives such as help navigating city government, access to tax credits and other funding, employee recruitment and training, and site location.

The Shanghai-San Francisco sister city relationship has benefited both cities economically because of the involvement of all three main sectors of society including government, business and citizens, says Fang. "Exchanges take place in virtually all areas of the community - sports, art, culture, education, government and business - all of which have contributed to increased foreign direct investment, business partnerships and cross-cultural dialogue."

(Source: Shanghai Daily)

By René J.M. Schillings

This feature is not about the annual football match between the chef team and the engineers, nor which server sold the most Wine of the Month, this is about fierce competition among hotels to attract the best people.

In a market economy competition must exist. Walk the busy shopping streets of urban China and vendors will try to attract your attention. Hotels, Resorts, Serviced Residences, Restaurants & Bars will compete for business. It is about market share, sales & marketing strategies, and keeping happy customers coming back. In China the number of hotel beds is growing faster than anywhere in the world.

And in every random city new hotels open from a base of 2-5 international hotels up to 5 years ago to 10 hotels today and more to open in the next 5 years. Major cities like Shanghai and Beijing already feel the pinch of overcapacity in post-Olympic (and soon post-Expo) times.

Hotel owners, management companies and analysts crack their brains on how to achieve market share, and get the favor of the consumer who has more to chose from and can shop around. But this fast growth does not only put the Occupancy Rates and Average Rates under pressure. What few hotels realize yet is that they are also competing against each other for the best talents in a limited pool.

Whereas hotels are often built with a 20-30 year plan and expected growing market & needs it is doubtful if in the next 20 years the pool of available employees choosing hospitality will grow too, in China

The days that young hoteliers would join a certain hotel, or group and make their career all the way up with the same hotel, same group are long gone. Today a job with a hotel is good for the next 1-2 years and people see where the next opportunity lies (and in Beijing, Shanghai even faster).

Hoteliers are traditionally mobile, the world is their oyster, and the home is where good jobs are. This also applies to hotels in China anno 2010. Within China the term ‘local expatriates’ who work in any region of China other than their home town is commonly understood. Although hotel companies may promise future transfers to other locations, or gradual promotion it is not surprising that many hoteliers in China can not resist a good offer in another city, or a promotion when joining another brand.

The only way is up is the mood in China for the last 25 years, so why would hoteliers patiently wait for their promotion or do their hardship years in less favorable locations when hotels in more attractive locations are hungry to have them.

It was perhaps good practice for hotels when they open in a certain location to first look at the hotels present for potential recruits. Due to fast expansion of most hotel groups in China the transfer of staff from existing hotels to new openings is limited as existing hotels already struggle to find and keep their talents.

In addition, the expansion is often in the secondary cities where the primary cities do not necessarily want to go, or only for a short period of time. In mature markets, cities like Hong Kong where only 1 or 2 new major hotels open per year it’s quite normal for an F&B Director to slip his business card to a good waitress and ask her to give him a call. An Assistant HOD may be experienced enough to join another, smaller hotel as HOD. When there is a local HR Director who worked for an existing hotel for 10 years get’s pinched by a new hotel opening, the position maybe taken over by the # 2, Assistant HR, who was perhaps also 4-6 years there.

But where will the next opening hotel recruit from? In locations where 10 hotels opened in less than half a decade and still another 10 in the ground this is not only ‘not done’ it also leads to a guerilla warfare for staff. New opening hotels can only apply the trick of scouting the competitor’s staff a few times till they fall victim themselves to the very next new hotel. China has a history of hotel development of less than 30 years with the base of the earliest hotels, where future managers were groomed, only 10% of what is there today.

Up to 10 years ago there were practically no hotel & catering management schools in China as such. Chinese hoteliers started to go overseas to study hotel management about 15 years ago. However the drop out rate of these graduates who do not continue their career in hospitality after graduation is worrying. The graduates of today, who are the managers of the future may deliver only 5-10% of hospitality management graduates today, still working in the industry 20 years from now.

Offering more salary, and offering a higher position is also something that would work out fine in mature markets. In a competitive market pricing is key, a hotel has to offer a salary that is market conform and in China today the market rate for salaries are not determined by regional levels of income but what nationwide is paid for the best. Hotels on Hainan Island need to compete with salaries in Shanghai, Beijing. They may attract staff from less prosperous regions, but will loose them to the higher paying regions.

Secondary cities need not pay the salaries paid in Shanghai and Beijing, but whether you are Shenyang, Chongqing, Jinan or Tianjin, the past 5-10 years salaries locally are no longer competitive when you need to attract managers from all over the country. Title inflation became rampant in China, attracting management with higher titles they had to wait for a few more years in a normal situation. But higher title and higher salary can only keep those fresh recruits only as long as nobody outdoes you. It’s an outright war with ever new tactics.

The more visionary hotel companies have already understood that many other benefits like modern and good staff facilities such as dormitories, staff canteens, and secondary benefits are the new tactics in this war. But when one hotel sets a new trend, the copy-cats will follow soon. The simple promise of promotion or transfer is a carrot everybody is dangling.

Good and intelligent staff recruitment goes from top to bottom. When management is unstable, unqualified, or has high turnover, rank and file will walk too. When rank & file is just fresh out of school, untrained, and keen to leave when better opportunities arise, managers may soon walk too, feeling that they can not achieve the objectives set when they have no staff.

The urgency to fill crucial positions, especially at pre-opening projects may often lead to poor recruitment, which leads to high turnover, which leads to poor reputation as an employer. Sitting on prospective candidates for a position too long and not keeping them in loop of the process, delayed interviews etc. may make a hotel loose the best available talents to other hotels who were simply faster or a bit further in the recruitment process.

Recruiting management and rank & file for new hotel openings can sometimes be hit & miss. Joining an existing hotel with a track record of business volume and where managers moved on thereafter is much more attractive for hoteliers than joining a hotel that isn’t open yet.

A hotel’s reputation as a good employer or where people come and go is as crucial for attracting talents and keeping them as is your guest satisfaction index and Tripadvisor rating are for attracting guests and keeping them.

Chinese officials say the country's exports surged in December to edge out Germany as the world's biggest exporter.

The official Xinhua news agency reported Sunday that figures from the General Administration for Customs showed that exports jumped 17.7 percent in December from a year earlier.

Huang Guohua, a statistics official with the customs administration, said the December exports rebound was an important turning point for China's export sector.

Huang added that the jump was an indication that exporters have emerged from their downslide.

However, although China overtook Germany in exports, China's total foreign trade -- both exports and imports -- fell 13.9 percent in 2009.

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Nearly 40 percent of people in a new poll conducted by 1111 Jobs Bank expressed an interest in working in the financial industry, due to higher pay and better prospects for the industry in the wake of the signing of a cross-strait financial memorandum of understanding (MOU).

The jobs bank released its survey in a news conference yesterday.

The poll found nearly 40 percent of respondents thinking about entering the financial industry. Their top three reasons were: having an expertise in the area, having an interest in the area and good pay.

By market segment, over 50 percent wanted to work in banks, while 17 percent wanted to work in securities or futures trading.

At the same time, 43.59 percent wanted to work with foreign firms, 37.18 percent wanted to work with local firms, and 9.83 percent wanted to work with state-run businesses.

Some 64 percent of respondents said their interest in the financial industry increased because of the MOU, which was signed in November and will take effect in January next year. The MOU will allow Taiwan and Chinese financial operators to invest in each other's market.

Eighty-five percent of respondents said they would like to work in China as a result of the MOU.

The top three reasons for their interest in doing so were: more challenging work, prospects for good earnings for mainland Chinese firms operating in Taiwan and a more international environment.

The top three reasons for a non-interest in working in China were: unwillingness to go to China, unwillingness to work with the Chinese people and the ever-changing nature of China's work environment.

The survey was conducted by 1111 Jobs Bank from Dec. 2 to 15 on salary workers. A total of 1,239 eligible surveys were returned. The margin of error was plus-or-minus 2.41 percent.