Archives October 2010

Foreign companies increasing jobs in U.S., Europe

Companies in growing markets like China and India are adding more jobs in North America and Europe, a shift from the usual hiring patterns, says a new study from IBM.

Out today, IBM’s new “Working Beyond Borders” study found that growth in jobs is now moving two ways–from emerging economies tapping into more mature markets as well as the more traditional reverse pattern.

The reason for the trend? As more companies expand globally, they’re hiring people with the creativity, flexibility, and speed needed to help their expansion, prompting them to increase their staffing in North America, Western Europe, and other mature markets.

Specifically, IBM found that 45 percent of companies in India plan to increase their headcount in North America, while 44 percent will expand in Western Europe. And 33 percent of businesses in China are looking to add staff in North America, while 14 percent will boost headcount in Western Europe.

“The silver lining of globalization is that the shift toward expansion will require companies to redirect their workforce to locations that provide the greatest opportunities, not just the lowest costs, and at the same time, re-imagine their management strategies to reflect an increasingly dynamic workforce,” Denis Brousseau, vice president of organization and people for IBM Global Business Services, said in a statement.

Despite this recent trend, much of the increase in hiring over the next three years will still happen in emerging growth regions, such as China, India, Eastern Europe, and Latin America. Whichever direction it goes, this new global focus on job growth will force companies to rethink how they attract and manage workers from around the world, according to IBM.
(Credit: IBM)

Beyond the shift in hiring trends, companies are finding that employees with certain “soft” skills, such as social networking and collaboration, can benefit their bottom line. The study showed that companies that outperform financially are 57 percent more likely than underperformers to use social networking and collaboration tools to help their global staff work together more effectively.
To compile its results, IBM interviewed more than 700 chief human resource officers and other senior executives, almost all of them face-to-face, across 61 countries and 32 different industries.

Concern over China’s ‘job-hoppers’

Fund managers in China are switching jobs too frequently. That has led to concerns about the asset management companies’ ability to retain key portfolio personnel and ultimately deliver performance.

Around 148 fund managers have switched or quit their jobs so far this year compared with 85 people in the same period last year, according to Wind Info, a Shanghai-based financial data provider.

Wind Info says only three fund managers in China have more than 10 years of experience in the same company.

“In the US, the average working life for a fund manager is 4.8 to 4.9 years. In China, it is only 1.68 years,” says Vivian Lee, a fund researcher of Galaxy Securities in Beijing.

More and more fund managers are moving from public to private funds. One recent example is Mo Tai Shan. Last week, the ex-general manager of the Bank of Communications Schroder Fund Management moved to Chongyang Investment Management, the largest private hedge fund in China.

Public funds in China target retail investors in the same way that mutual funds do elsewhere. Private funds, meanwhile, target wealthy or institutional investors with a higher investment and risk threshold.

Fund managers are in short supply, so it is common for one manager to run more than one fund. For instance, Lu Zhigang, the former fund manager of Yin Hua Fund Management, controlled three fund products before he left the company this month.

“Here is the regular pattern: fund companies first post recruitment announcements, then the fund managers’ leaving announcements are likely to follow,” says a source from the marketing department of a fund house in Shanghai.

There are several reasons for the high turnover of fund managers in China.

First, the unsophisticated assessment system and poor incentive structure of public funds has made it challenging to retain managers. Many fund houses use the ranking of funds as a big indicator to judge a manager’s performance. However, this is not in line with the concept of “value investment” they put forward. Some fund companies even attempt to draw investors’ attention to new managers in the hope this will increase sales.

“Everything is based on the fund rankings here,” says a source from a fund house in Shanghai. “Investors select funds by their rankings and fund houses judge your [fund manager] performance also by the rankings. We do need a benchmark for comparing the performance of different funds, not just merely relying on the rate of return.”

Second, public fund managers have less investment flexibility, being subject to restrictions such as position limits and on asset allocation. “Fund managers want to be free from these restrictions,” says Jonathan Ha, director for advisory service at Shanghai-based consulting firm Z-Ben Advisors. He adds that good incentives and compensation from private fund houses are attractive to fund managers.

Third, poor portfolio performance forces fund managers to resign. According to Wind Info, by the end of May this year, the average growth rate of the 350 equities funds that it tracks in China was -12.72 per cent, with 54 funds down more than 20 per cent and only 12 funds turning in a profit.

To solve the problem of this high turnover, more and more fund companies tend to apply a “two fund manager” system, which means having one “old” or existing manager plus a new manager. This is also what The China Securities Regulatory Commission expects funds to do, according to analysts.

Wen Qun, an analyst at TX Investment Consulting in Beijing, says the problem will not be solved in the short term. “The fund industry in China has been developing quickly in recent years. It is inevitable the fund houses will face staff shortages,” says Mr Wen.

By Glori Ye