Archives 2008

Nannies hit by financial crisis

With the financial crisis’ heightening sense of menace, many are reconsidering what they can and can’t afford – and employing a nanny at 30,000 yuan ($4,280) a year is falling into the latter category.

With a demanding job working for a multinational company, 27-year-old Ding Ting must now come home from the office and cook, care and clean for her children after being forced to let her nanny go.

“It’s a difficult time – every bit counts. After all, it’s not a small amount for employing a nanny,” Ding said, having relished the services of her nanny for the past two years.

“The possibility of being made redundant has been a sword of Damocles hanging over me since the crisis broke, and the problems are just starting.

“This has brought a huge stress to daily life.”

The hurricane howling through the world’s financial markets has left an oversupply of nannies in its wake.

A source from a local domestic service company said the city’s nanny market had dropped 20 to 30 percent in the past year, with nannies’ average salaries also decreasing from 2,000-2,500 yuan to 1,300-1,800 yuan.

The golden era for nannies in the city has come to a shuddering halt, Gong Linfang, president of Shanghai Pudong district domestic service association, said yesterday.

Local government founded the association in March to standardize and develop what was then a booming domestic service industry.

“The boom time for nannies in recent years looks to be ending now,” she said.

“Nannies are among the first to be hit when times start to get tough.

It is the hardest year for business of domestic service,” she added.

Li Rong, owner of Shanghai-based Laibang Nannies Company, said: “In the last month or two I have started receiving calls from employers saying they will stop employing nannies or switching to employ hourly waged nannies due to the depressed global economy and apprehension about future uncertainties.”

Meanwhile, insiders also attribute the current oversupply to a flood of workers laid off as businesses have failed.

“Fees for hourly-waged nannies have decreased from 15 yuan to 12 yuan, and at times even to the low of seven yuan, putting it back by two or three years,” said Xiao He, a nanny from Sichuan province with four years experience in home service.

“Normally at this time of the year, a rush of people come and look for nannies. But it hasn’t happened yet.

Some nanny companies have teamed up to weather the storm to share information from both employers and nannies in the city.

“That will give us a competitive edge in the shrinking market,” Li Rong said.

Sourcing Engineer (eng087nj)

Job Title: Sourcing Engineer
Job Description:
Company introduction: The client is a European company, which has become the world leader in automotive and machine tool markets during past 50 years, by offering its customers a combination of advanced products, market knowledge, and commitment to long term global partnerships. Building on these foundations, it has created an international organization able to deliver application, design, and service support virtually anywhere in the world. Its growth has been characterized by a strong commitment to research and development and close cooperation with customers in the automotive, machine tool, appliance, compressor, bearing, electric motors, aerospace, computer, and other industries. For the quick development in China, they are now looking for the talents to join them.

Report To: Sourcing Mgr.
Location: Nanjing

Responsibilities:
1. Out sourcing the suitable supplier & monitor current suppliers according to the quality requirement of the company
2. Responsibility on the quantity, quality, and price of procurement
3. Reduce the cost and maximize the delivery efficiency
4. Localize the components, the products and/or equipment
5. Study the manufacturing processes and move the production from HQ
6. Other job issued by supervisor
7. Knowledge-based negotiation on price, conditions, payment terms and contract requirements.
8. Issuing of Purchase Order and follow up with supplier for on time delivery.
9. Cost saving analysis and identifying opportunities for cost reduction.
10. Auditing and evaluating supplier’s quality system.
11. Manage part inspection and qualification process.

Qualifications:
1. B.E. in Mechanical Engineering or relevant
2. At least 5~6 years in industrial field of international company
3. Minimum 4 year Sourcing/Purchasing experience in manufacturing environment
4. Good English in reading and writing
5. Experiences in localizing the products and/or production
6. Flexibility, creativity, aggressive attitude to work in team, good communication skills
7. Be able to work independently
8. Ability to carry out several tasks at the same time
9. Plus – Familiar with machining process and heat treatment
* Please send us your complete resume (both in Chinese and in English to: ‘topjob_eng087nj@dacare.com'(Please replace “#” with “@”)
* In the email subject MUST you plus the position name ?in either En or Ch ?

Staffing Manager (hr118sh)

Job Title: Staffing Manager
Report To: HRD
Location: Shanghai
Our client is Fortune 500 American enterprise with a history of outstanding performance and has six BUs in China with 6800 employees. It is diversified technology leader, designs, manufactures, and markets innovative products and services with strong brand names and significant market positions. Its business activities encompass four reporting segments and are comprised of six strategic platforms: Medical Technologies, Professional Instrumentation, Industrial Technologies and Tools & Components.
Job Description:
This role will be responsible for the strategy to attract world-class, diverse talent and to drive a competitive advantage through talent acquisition, employee engagement, retention, and compliance leadership.
Responsibilities:
1. Operational Staffing Activities Management?
2. Monitor and update company organization growing progress, identify and forecast the resourcing needs for every department;
3. Professionally manage the recruitment function to continuously improve the quality of staffing, to meet the resourcing requirements through innovative and effective manner;
4. Develop and update staffing policies and processes and ensure policies, practices and processes are executed and full compliance to both local and the company’s Global standard;
5. Handle with employee relationship and labor issues; provide consultancy to line managers on handling employee relationship;
6. Interact with government and consulting agencies and keep apprised of government labor laws and regulations;
7. Independently manage the whole recruiting process, from initial CV screening to candidate offer management;
8. Manage Internet job posting and search firm liaison, be able to conduct candidate search through direct approach;
9. Act as a coordinator between internal clients and external candidates regarding interview schedule, feedback collection, and communication with the candidates during the on-board process;
10. Prepare monthly staffing reports; including hiring report, position forecast report, recruiting cost tracking, etc.
11. Process Management / Staffing Strategy Design & Implementation;
12. Develops creative approaches to the recruitment process to increase high-caliber candidate sourcing including referral generation, Internet sourcing, ad placement, direct sourcing/cold calling;
13. Develop and maintain professional relationships with college, university and community college placement offices, developing strong recruitment programs as a source to generate qualified applicants;
14. Build up talents pool according to business needs.
Requirement:
1. Bachelor Degree or above in Human Resources, Business, or related field;
2. Minimum 5 year experience in related area with multinational companies;
3. Familiar with various recruiting channels is preferred;
4. Experience implementing a wide variety of innovative talent acquisition programs and Internet and non-Internet based sourcing strategies;
5. Strong demonstration of strategic, process, and project management skills;
6. Good understanding of overall human resources operation;
7. Good English language ability (Oral, listening, reading and writing);
8. Proficient in computer and MS Office.
* Please send us your complete resume (both in Chinese and in English to: ‘topjob_hr118sh@dacare.com'(Please replace “#” with “@”)
* In the email subject MUST you plus the position name ?in either En or Ch ?

How To Hire True Diversity and Get Beyond Hiring Only Local Candidates

Your company may be sending a brand-destroying message that hiring next year’s summer intern is more important than hiring your next director, vice president, or other C-level executive.

Many firms are hiring college graduates and interns for next summer. In many of those cases, relocation is paid to the college graduate or summer housing is arranged for the intern. A look at the experienced hiring market illustrates an entirely different story. A search in Google for “local candidates only” delivers more than 250,000 results. Sure, several of these openings are for retail or hourly employees where considerable education credentials aren’t required.

But you get:
50,000+ results for “local candidates only” vp
5,000+ results for “local candidates only” mba

If you sift through there a bit, you’ll find some senior openings like Chief Financial Officer and Chief Marketing Officer. Would it not be wise to mix in talent from other regions, if not solely to have different vantage points and a more diverse perspective? The best companies I’ve ever worked for had these qualities and created true diversity in skills and life perspectives. Ideally, you should be recruiting the best people who are passionate lifelong learners with cutting-edge skills capable of a building a collaborative, high-performing culture regardless of their location.

It’s similar to what I see when analyzing strategic Internet marketing programs. It comes down to one simple thing: legacy, incumbent budgets that prevent you from achieving the desired outcome. Long-standing, legacy budgets fund college graduate and intern relocation programs and are regularly renewed while mid-level, experienced-hire budget resources are highly irregular and often insufficient to acquire the best talent.

The expenses for experienced hire candidates, such as airfare and hotels during interviewing, and relocation costs of an experienced hire, often come directly out of the P&L of the business unit doing the hiring. As you enter budget cycles in the years ahead, you should consider creating a flexible budget pool for experienced hires that is independent of the business unit. This not only will help your recruiting programs hire the top talent you need today, but will position your firm strategically to have a nimble experienced hiring process in the upcoming years as the baby boomers begin to retire and you look to hire replacement leaders from Generation X.

In the short term, you need to get a bit more creative to give offers to the best and brightest talent. Here are a few ideas for obtaining the best, most geographically diverse talent:

Actively Seek Out Renters as Candidates. It’s understandable that you don’t want to take on real estate risk unless absolutely necessary, especially in the current marketplace. Additionally, you want to be hiring candidates who demonstrate responsible financial behavior — they might have the same positive tendencies when making decisions for your business! Renters with no outstanding debt or without hard-to-divest real estate should be therefore highly sought-after assets! An added benefit of this is that there is a correlation with having fewer personal belongings when renting and that would lead to a higher likelihood of a lower-cost move overall.

Target Veterans Terminating Active Duty Military. Lisa Rosser is a book author and founder of The Value of a Veteran, a firm that advises and trains organizations on the value and hidden benefits of hiring veterans. According to Lisa, “Over 100,000 service members separate from active military duty (i.e., not National Guard or Reserve duty) each year and it’s a little known fact that each and every one of them is entitled to one free move anywhere in the United States.” The veteran can request that benefit any time within one year after the date of separation. Many military members begin their job search eight or more months in advance of their last day of contracted service. That is the optimal window to begin marketing your company and its typical hiring needs to the military audience, and wrangle that free move on Uncle Sam’s dime. She also encourages people to look at the skills and competencies fully, not just their job titles and/or organization. These aren’t just infantry folks — among them are computer programmers, highly skilled engineers, nurses, and healthcare professionals.

Seek Out Spouses of Recently Relocated Workers. You might find some candidate gems here. Larger companies in your region who frequently relocate people might have lists of such people or access to organizations that provide support to these people. Look at their skill sets completely — not just their last job title and company brand. If you find a way to quickly show these people that you see value in them when they first move to an unfamiliar place, you are very likely to make an extremely positive impression. The result will be acquiring an appreciative, loyal, and content worker who has a higher likelihood of remembering your gesture.

Target Individuals Who Have Shown Interest in Your Geographic Region. You can seek bloggers and social media participants via search engines such as Google who mention the position’s location favorably in their writings about a vacation, a relative, or close friend that lives in the region, a business trip they particularly enjoyed, or otherwise. Then again, a candidate might present you with an old-fashioned letter to someone at the company stating a desire to move the area. Due to the affinity that they have for the area, they might be highly motivated to move to the region and happily share or absorb the costs upon receiving an offer. Just like with the relocated spouse, this individual will be highly appreciative of the opportunity. As an added bonus since you found them via their blog or social media tools they are likely to tell the story over and over, creating positive word of mouth about your employment brand.

Focus On Sourcing Candidates Who Once Lived In Your Region. If the role is New York City, knowing that they can handle living there can be an important factor in selecting a candidate. Potential candidates will likely fall into one of two buckets: A) they loved it and can’t wait for the opportunity to return; or B) they never wish to return. The latter might have ideas about candidates who might be appropriate due to their prior experience in the location, so even that outcome is not a waste of your time and effort.

Please share this article with your teammates and leadership to start the dialogue that will lead to budget reform of experienced hire relocation policies.

SMEs Urged to Hire Talents Now

Staff layoffs at a number of multinational companies (MNCs) in the country as a result of the worldwide financial crisis should present an opportunity for small and medium-sized domestic enterprises (SMEs) to grab whatever talent they can, according to the head of a global recruitment agency.

The SMEs should do so before the MNCs realize the resilience of the Chinese economy and start rehiring sometime next year, said Tony Goodwin, CEO of Antal International.

Hiring people now can bring greater long-term benefits than firing, Goodwin told China Daily in an exclusive interview.

In these uncertain times when developed economies, especially the US, are sliding into a recession, corporate executives should think “long-term” in formulating corporate human resources strategies, Goodwin said.

In China, US companies tend to react a little more aggressively to the perceived effect of the global economic downturn in the reduction of their workforce, Goodwin said. Domestic enterprises and European multinationals have shown much greater restraint in their response to the unfolding crisis, he said.

The conservative approach is a wise one because of the underlying strength of the larger developing economies, particularly China.

“Firms that are now firing people will experience problems in coping with the growth of business next year,” Goodwin said. “They will have no choice but to start rehiring then.”

As some MNCs are on the downsizing path, they have provided a window of opportunity for the small- and medium-sized companies to recruit the talents they would not be able to find in the past.

“If the financial crisis had not had happened, the smaller companies would never have stood a chance of competing with the big corporations for top managers,” Goodwin said. “Now is the best time for them to tap the market for talent.”

Goodwin also said that instead of cutting staff, foreign companies can save costs by speeding up the process of localization by hiring more Chinese managers and professionals, rather than bring people from their own countries. The quality of Chinese talent, especially those who have worked at foreign companies, has improved rapidly, he said.

Liew Mun Leong, CEO of Singapore-based MNC CapitaLand, one of the largest investment and real estate companies in China, said the firm will hire even more locals in 2009 to eventually have a 100 percent Chinese management team.

Hard times for migrant workers in Guangdong

Thousands of migrant workers in the Pearl River Delta are packing up and heading home, as jobs and decent wages in the region become increasingly hard to find.

“There just wasn’t enough work; I was barely making my basic salary,” Wen Caixia, who quit her job at a shoe factory in Dongguan, Guangdong Province, in favor of a return to her village in Hubei Province, told China Daily yesterday at Guangzhou East Railway Station.

Migrant workers who quit their jobs in Guangdong Province arrive in Zhengzhou, Henan Province, November 3, 2008. [China Daily]

Wen said she and her husband had been working in Dongguan for more than two years.

“Over the past few months, the company just wasn’t getting enough orders. There was never any chance of overtime, so we were unable to save any money,” she said.

“The living costs are very high here, so I think it’s better if I go home and take care of my son,” she said.

Before boarding her train, Wen said she hoped to return to the province in January for the Spring Festival.

“It might be easier to find a job then, and hopefully I’ll be able to make more money,” she said.

Also waiting for a train yesterday was Liang Dong, an IT engineer who said he was taking a sabbatical from his job at a printed circuit board factory in the Nanhai district of Foshan.

“The company has seen its orders plummet since the beginning of the financial crisis,” he said.

“My boss said that I could take a long holiday, but it will be very hard to make a decent living.”

Liang said he will have a good rest before deciding whether to return to Guangdong or look for work elsewhere.

A ticket seller surnamed Guan at Guangzhou East Station, said that over the past few weeks there had been a marked increase in the number of migrant workers heading home to Chongqing and Sichuan, Hunan and Hubei provinces.

Liang Jiamin, an official with the Guangdong labor department, said on Thursday: “Many workers have lost their jobs or gone without pay as a result of firms going bust or downsizing their operations.

“Labor and social security departments across the province, especially those based in the Pearl River Delta region, have been told to do all they can to help people get the money they are owed,” he said.

“We are also trying to help people to find new jobs,” Liang said.

In the third quarter of this year, the number of job vacancies in Guangdong fell by almost 17 percent year on year to 2.1 million, he said.

China Online Job Hunters Totaled 118.726mn

BEIJING, Nov 07, 2008 —

China’s online recruiting websites lured 118.726 million individual members and 7.65 million company members as of Q3 2008, respectively leaping 70% and 34% from a year ago, according to a recent report by technology, media and telecom (TMT) market researcher Analysys International.

The top three recruiting websites, 51job, Inc. (Nasdaq: JOBS), ChinaHR.com Corporation, and Zhaopin.com respectively had 37.10 million, 23.15 million, and 14.90 million registered job hunters, as well as 1.01 million, 1.038 million, and 420,000 company members.

Efficient browsing time of Chinese online recruiting websites increased to 16.22 million hours in September from 14.11 million in August, representing an increase of 15%. And the number is forecast to grow further in October, according to an earlier report.

Monthly coverage index increased 4.1% from the comparable period one year ago. The top six recruiting websites all saw their efficient browsing hours climb during the period. Yingjiesheng.com, a recruiting website especially for new graduates, witnessed its efficient browsing hours rise drastically by 273.7%.

Gov’t foots shoe firm’s wage bill

Public funds have been used to cover the 7 million yuan ($1 million) owed in back pay to employees of the collapsed Dongguan Weixu Shoe Company, a spokesman for the Chang’an town government said yesterday.

The press official, surnamed Chen, told China Daily that a series of measures has been introduced to deal with the aftermath of the closure of the Chang’an-based firm, which is owned by investors from Taiwan.

“When we learned on Saturday that the boss of the company had fled, we set up a task force to deal with workers’ grievances and other matters arising from the incident,” he said.

“The government has advanced about 7 million yuan to cover the wages of the 2,000-odd workers.”

Chen said the government had been in contact with the boss of the firm and set a deadline of Tuesday for his return to discuss possible solutions.

“As he failed to return, the local government will take possession of the factory and auction off its equipment, as it is entitled to do under the law,” he said.

Luo Hongliang, one of the 2,000 people left jobless by the shoemaker’s demise, said yesterday that although he is grateful to the government for paying his wages, he fears for his future.

“The welfare package was good; I got more than 2,000 yuan, which covered my salary and overtime pay,” he said.

“My fear now is that although some other factories are recruiting, I will probably have to take a pay cut.

“I just can’t understand how such a big factory could close all of a sudden,” he said.

“We’ve all been talking about what might have happened; some people have said the company had cash flow problems,” Luo said.

According to a report in yesterday’s Nanfang Metropolis Daily, the firm had been experiencing financial difficulties following a period of rapid expansion.

The final straw came when one of its partners withdrew 50 million yuan from the firm, it said.

Huang Chunming, secretary-general of the Dongguan leather and footwear association, claimed the boss of the firm had also been accused of defrauding his suppliers, the report said without elaborating.

CMMI Senior QA Engineer (eng086sh)

Job Title: CMMI Senior QA Engineer
Report To: QA Manager
Location: Shanghai
With operations in 50 countries and 68,000 employees, our client is a world leader in Mission-critical information systems for the Aerospace, Defense and Security markets with its global network of 20,000 high-level researchers.
Our client’s rich history goes back well over a century. Built slowly and with careful planning, the Group boasts remarkable cohesion and strength, and has often proven its ability to adapt its structures to prevailing conditions.
Leveraging a global presence and spanning the entire value chain, from prime contracting to equipment; our client plays a pivotal role in making the world a safer place. With the development in APAC, especially in China, they are looking for talents to join them.
Job Description:
Responsibilities:
Project QA Rep
1. Work effectively with project managers and project team members to ensure the project team follow the process;
2. Establish QA plan and submit QA report periodically;
3. Participant in the project meetings to understand the project status; Work with project team and follow-up the identified actions when necessary to ensure high quality product/system release; Coach Project Teams on the strategy, process and cultural elements of CMMI;
4. Review typical project work products to evaluate the quality;
5. Generate weekly project tracking report and release to project manager;
6. Report the project findings to QA manager;
7. Develop project quality report at each milestone;
8. Conduct QA Release;
Quality System
1. Verify that the activities relevant to the products and services provision are in accordance with the defined processes and procedures;
2. Perform internal quality audits as planned and follow-up the proposed corrective actions and preventive actions to closure;
3. Maintain the consistency of the quality management system with the requirement of CMMI and ISO9001;
4. Identify process improvement opportunities and participate in process improvement activities based on CMMI and ISO9001;
5. Edit Quality indicators and reports;
6. Collect process improvement suggestions and lessons learnt from project team;
Requirement:
1. Bachelor degree (or above) major in Quality Management or Electronic/Electromechanical Engineering or System Engineering;
2. Min. 3-5 years Experience in Electronics industry; at least 2 year experience in implement CMM or CMMI;
3. Good knowledge in project management and software development and quality processes; Familiar with R&D life cycles relevant software products development;
4. Ability to plan, execute quality audit, provide project quality report;
5. Strong process/quality knowledge on CMMI process;
6. Excellent communication skills and presentation skills, able to communicate comfortably with managers, project managers engineers and staff;
7. Great sensibility to organization’s culture and rules;
8. Strong capacity to cooperate with people in order to accomplish team-working objectives;
9. Excellent command of spoken and written Chinese and English;
* Please send us your complete resume (both in Chinese and in English to: ‘topjob_eng086sh@dacare.com'(Please replace “#” with “@”)
* In the email subject MUST you plus the position name ?in either En or Ch ?

‘Go China’: Dragon recruiting in gloomy London, New York

SHANGHAI (AFP) — Spotting an opening in the global fight for talent, China’s ambitious financial institutions are planning recruiting trips to London and Wall Street on the wounded financial titans’ home turf.

Sovereign fund China Investment Corporation has begun a global search, multi-billion dollar Chinese-French fund Fortune SGAM plans interviews on Wall Street and Shanghai’s government is headed to London and New York next month with job offers in hand.

“There are layoffs on Wall Street since the crisis but China’s financial industry is still in its infancy and is hungry for talent,” Pei Changjiang, chief executive of the Fortune SGAM Fund, told AFP.

It is estimated that the economic turmoil could lead to 165,000 job losses in New York over the next two years, while British think tank Oxford Economics predicts 194,000 job cuts in London over the same period.

But from Shanghai the message to the brightest finance minds is unmistakable: China is hiring.

Han Zheng, mayor of the China’s rapidly growing economic hub, has previously said by 2010 — when Shanghai hosts the World Expo — the city will have an infrastructure worthy of an international financial centre. By 2020, he said, it will be one.

Since the financial crisis, city officials are saying that could now come even sooner.

“The crisis has presented a rare lesson and opportunity and generally it will help accelerate the establishment of Shanghai as a global financial hub,” said the city’s deputy mayor in charge of economic affairs, Tu Guangshao.

“The US is a fatty and needs to take diet pills but in contrast China is still skinny… It needs to build a strong body,” the former vice-chairman of China’s securities watchdog wrote in an opinion piece in the official China Business newspaper.

More than 600 financial institutions had offices in Shanghai at the beginning of the year but finance jobs account for only 2.4 percent of the 9.1 million-strong workforce, compared to 11 percent in London and 12.7 percent in New York.

“More foreign financial institutions will be willing to operate in China, where financial service is in short supply, as their business at home contracts,” said Fang Xinghai, director of the city’s Financial Services Office.

The city government will be recruiting for more than 80 positions in leading banks, insurers, securities firms and asset management companies, Fang said.
Meanwhile the 200-billion dollar China Investment Corporation, or CIC, advertised more than 30 positions ranging from fixed-income investment to stock analysis.
SGAM, a joint venture between state-run steelmaker Shanghai Baosteel Group’s investment arm and French bank Societe Generale, confirmed it was sending a team to the United States to look for good quality hires but would not say how many, or who the ideal candidates might be.

“The actions being taken by these Chinese firms are clearly a good move that prepares for the recovery and maximises people’s value through the hard times,” said Jenny Li, a Greater China managing director of Hewitt Associates.
The biggest deterrent for the finance world’s smartest is likely to be the overregulation and the bureaucracy that comes with working for firms that are ultimately controlled by the state or state-run firms, experts said.

“Financial experts are unlikely to want to come to work in a state-owned enterprise unless that enterprise has a tremendous amount of autonomy. I’m not sure CIC for instance has that autonomy,” said Menzie Chinn, an economist at University of Wisconsin.

However, with 1.9 trillion dollars in foreign reserves, China is in an unrivalled position to pursue its ambitions to expand its financial and that presents an amazing opportunity to deal-makers, said Linda Stewart, head of Epoch, a Boston-based financial services recruiter.

“At this time China is holding all the cards — and all the US currency,” she said.