Category HR News Express

Beijing to Hold Special Recruitment Event for Female Grads

A special recruitment event for female university students will be held in Beijing from March 7th to 9th. No male-relevant content will be presented in the recruitment information. This event is all about women.

During the second session of the 14th Beijing Municipal People’s Congress held in January this year, Tan Lin, member of the Secretariat of the All-China Women’s Federation (ACWF) and delegate of the Beijing Municipal People’s Congress, said that 51.4% of Chinese university students are female and nearly half of all masters and PhD students are female. However, female students face a far more difficult job-searching environment than men. “A lot of employers do not even look at female applicants’ resumes but simply tell them the position has been filled,” according to a survey conducted by ACWF.

This is the primary reason why the Beijing Student Career Center and the Beijing Women’s Federation have decided to hold this special event specifically for female students only. Gender discrimination in the workplace is a serious issue and should be addressed with effective and pragmatic methods.

Conference, Exhibition & Awards Marina Bay Sands, Singapore 2-3 October 2013

The Global Recruiter Magazine, the principal magazine for the global recruitment industry together with the Association of Professional Staffing Companies (APSCo), are pleased to announce our second Asia Pacific Recruitment Summit.

The event will bring together the industry in and around Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, Japan and the other main Asia Pacific jurisdictions.

With the world’s major industries and companies concentrating their efforts in the Asian Pacific hubs, the recruitment industry has seen dramatic growth. However, recruitment-specific data and events are a rarity, with conferences and expos leaning towards the corporate/HR end of the market.

The Global Recruiter magazine, together with the Association of Professional Staffing Companies (APSCo), have filled this void.

Held in Singapore in October 2013, our Summit will include a two day-long conference, with presentations from world leaders in global recruitment knowledge focusing on many different issues to help you grow your recruitment brand in the region. The two days will culminate in a lavish gala awards ceremony with the region’s staffing sector coming together to celebrate their achievements.

The 2012 Asia Pacific Summit provided the recruitment industry with an invigorating diverse informative and invaluable event where inspiring new ideas and refreshed enthusiasm were found. The conference programmes plenary sessions, masterclasses and tracks provided delegates real-life practical solutions to help transform their organisations and add value to their brand. Alongside the conference the exhibition provided tailored advice and solutions from leading recruitment industry suppliers, specific to the business challenges faced in the Asia Pacific region. The Summit climaxed with a glittering Gala dinner and awards ceremony, where 13 companies were recognised for their outstanding achievements in the Asia Pacific region.

The 2013 Summit will be a must attend for those serious about business in the Asia Pacific region. We fully expect the 2013 Summit to even further demonstrate the high standards of Recruitment in Asia Pacific , which, through this Summit, will only become more globally renowned.

Open recruitment more common in China’s public institutions

Open recruitment has been carried out in most Chinese public institutions as a method of filling posts, a government spokesman said on Friday.

The process of boosting open recruitment in government-sponsored institutions began in 2006, said Yin Chengji, spokesman for the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.

Public institutions, including schools, research institutions, hospitals and publishing houses, are the backbone of China’s public service system.

Yin said the ministry has also been working to standardize the way posts are managed, with 145 out of 157 public institutions under the central government having standardized such management.

The ministry will make more efforts to enhance and standardize open recruiting this year, as well as inspect recruitment efforts in public institutions in cooperation with the Organization Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, Yin said.

In addition, the ministry is considering creating regulations to encourage open recruitment in different sectors.

Seek increases share of Chinese job site Zhaopin

Job seeking website Seek has increased its share in Chinese employment site Zhaopin. The company’s equity interest will increase from 55.5% to between 72.3% and 79%.

The announcement:

SEEK Limited (“SEEK”) today announced it has entered into a share purchase agreement to increase its ownership stake in Zhaopin Limited (“Zhaopin”).

Zhaopin operates a leading online employment marketplace in China and this transaction is part of SEEK’s continued strategy to increase its exposure to leading international businesses. SEEK’s equity interest will increase from 55.5% to between 72.3% and c79% depending on the level of take up from certain shareholders.

Jason Lenga, Managing Director of SEEK International and Director of Zhaopin, said “Zhaopin is a leading player in many of China’s geographic regions and across several key online operating metrics. As China’s urbanisation and internet penetration increases, we expect it will be the world’s largest online employment marketplace.”

When comparing the 2012 financial year to 2011, Zhaopin’s financial performance has been strong, recording revenue growth of 28% and EBITDA growth of 70% (FY12 v FY11).

Zhaopin’s local management team has performed well in achieving these results and leading a highly successful business. SEEK fully support the local team’s ability to lead the way going forward.

Mr Lenga said, “Despite a recent slowdown in China’s economic conditions, Zhaopin’s team has demonstrated a deep understanding of local conditions and their needs. The business will continue to invest appropriately to drive Zhaopin’s growth and focus on leading the company to a potential IPO.”

“This transaction is an important step in expanding SEEK’s exposure in key international markets as well as a compelling growth opportunity for SEEK’s shareholders.”

SEEK’s equity interest in Zhaopin will depend on the take up levels from other shareholders based on SEEK’s offer to acquire additional shares. However, it is expected that SEEK will increase its current interests from 55.5% to 72.3% to c79%. There is a provision that SEEK may acquire further ownership interests in Zhaopin in FY14.

The acquisition will take place via a sell down of shares from Macquarie and other individual shareholders.

ConU Severing Ties with Recruitment Company

Concordia announced Friday afternoon that it will end its contract with Orchard Consultants Ltd., the company used to recruit Chinese students for the university.

In September, The Link published a story examining poor homestay conditions experienced by some Chinese students recruited through Orchard.

The story prompted an internal investigation by the university of its recruiting practices, particularly with regards to recruitment in China.

The contract between Concordia and Orchard was up for negotiation, but after receiving a list of recommendations aimed at addressing the issue of questionable recruitment practices, the university has decided to issue a Request for Proposals to seek out a new recruiting company in February.

In an interview with The Link, Concordia VP Services Roger Côté said the university will aim to make the process transparent; in the interim, the agreement with Orchard will continue until Feb. 28 to allow Orchard to finalize and transfer open student applications.

In order to prevent similar issues in the future, the university said in a press release on Friday that it intends to use “a blended approach to student recruitment in China” that will combine “in-house and third-party” involvement in the process.

Côté also said that the university is looking to work with the Concordia Student Union, the Graduate Students’ Association and Concordia’s Housing and Job Bank going forward.

“What we want to do going forward is have a relationship with the students ourselves directly,” said Côté.

China moves to improve workers’ employment rights

China amended its labor law Dec 28 to ensure that workers hired through contracting agents are offered the same conditions as full employees, a move meant to tighten a loophole used by many employers to maintain flexible staffing.

Contracting agencies have taken off since China implemented the Labor Contract Law in 2008, which stipulates employers must pay workers’ health insurance and social security benefits and also makes firing them very difficult.

WORKFORCE

“Hiring via labor contracting agents should be arranged only for temporary, supplementary and backup jobs,” the amendment reads, according to Xinhua news agency. It takes effect on July 1.

Contracted laborers now make up about a third of the workforce at many Chinese and multinational factories and in some cases account for well over half

EMPLOYMENT AGENCIES

Some foreign representative offices, all news bureaus and most embassies are required to hire Chinese staff through employment agencies, rather than directly.

In theory contracted workers should be paid the same, with benefits supplied by the agencies who are legally their direct employers.

However, in reality many contracted workers, especially in manufacturing industries and state-owned enterprises, do not enjoy benefits and are paid less.

Employment agencies have been set up by local governments, and even by companies themselves, to keep an arms-length relationship with workers.

Workers who are underpaid, fired or suffer injury often find it very difficult to pursue compensation through the agencies.

SAMSUNG SUPPLIERS

Korean electronics giant Samsung Electronics said last month that it would require its 249 supplier factories in China to cap the number of temporary or contracted workers at 30 percent of regular full-time employees.

It announced the corrective measure after Chinese labor activists reported violations of overtime rules and working conditions as well as under-age workers at Samsung suppliers.

Samsung says its own audit did not find workers under China’s legal working age of 16 and therefore it had not violated any of China’s employment regulations..

Taiwan concerned over China high-tech talent poaching

Taiwan Wednesday voiced concern over “malicious talent poaching” in reaction to a report that a high-tech firm run by former Chinese president Jiang Zemin’s son was aggressively recruiting staff from the island. “The flow of talent has to follow proper procedures,” Economic Minister Shih Yen-hsiang, pictured in 2003, told a session of parliament.

“The flow of talent has to follow proper procedures,” Economic Minister Shih Yen-hsiang told a session of parliament. “We don’t approve of malicious talent poaching.”

Shih made the comment after the Taiwan-based CommonWealth magazine reported that Jiang’s son Jiang Mianheng was among a string of Chinese businesses going after the island’s high-tech talent.

According to the biweekly magazine, tech company He Hui operated indirectly by the younger Jiang allegedly had recruited 70 people from top research institutes and firms in Taiwan to the alarm of the island’s authorities.

“We hope recruitees will seriously consider the potential damage they could cause or the liabilities they could face when making any move,” Shih said.

He was referring to an industrial secret protection law recently passed by parliament which imposes tougher punishment on the theft or improper usage of trade secrets.

Taipei has long taken care to protect its high-tech sectors, imposing restrictions on local firms investing in China to avoid the risk of giving the Chinese side a technological advantage.

The government in 2010 relaxed the rules on some high-tech investment in China following calls by local firms, which pointed out their competitors from South Korea and Japan had been stepping up activity there.

China still sees Taiwan as part of its territory awaiting reunification, by force if necessary. However, ties have improved markedly since in recent years under Taiwan’s Beijing-friendly President Ma Ying-jeou.

Jiangsu town breaks the mold in recruiting

Li Yufang didn’t follow the typical path to a government job — in fact, she didn’t even know it was an option until she received a call from a headhunter.

“I was very surprised,” said the 35-year-old, whose resume listed work at a wholesale market, a property agency and an investment firm, all in Guangdong province.

“They told me I’d been selected for an interview for a senior position at a city government, which normally don’t recruit through agencies.”

Li got the job, and in October, when more than 1 million young people were preparing to take the annual civil service exam, she was settling in as deputy director of the service industry development bureau in Shengze, a town under the jurisdiction of Suzhou, Jiangsu province.

Promoting staff members to fill senior positions remains the norm among most Chinese government agencies.

The Suzhou government said it broke the mold five years ago when it began using Suzhou Industrial Park Human Resources Development Corp to identify and lure quality candidates from the private sector.

Since then, the State-owned headhunter, based in Suzhou Industrial Park, has found about 100 candidates for various government departments and filled 20 positions.

Li was one of eight recruits from the private sector to start working for the city in October.

“We cater to a diverse range of industries across the country, working to detailed requirements and limited time,” said Kang Yue, general manager of Suzhou Industrial Park Human Resources Development. “Different departments in Suzhou have specific requirements and preferences for the positions, detailing the age, gender, work experience, and the length of leadership in the related industry.”

Most positions that authorities list are in auditing, finance, urban planning, and science and technology, which all require professional knowledge and practical experience, he said.

“This new method brought me from Guangzhou to Suzhou to apply my skills to government tasks,” said Li, who, like others recruited this way, must wait three years before they can be offered a lifetime contract.

Kang said that so far, all of his recruits have been kept on.

“We contacted the headhunting company to help with the recruitment of certain senior officials because we were unable to find people who would qualify for the positions in 2008, and because we noticed we didn’t have the many resources that headhunters do,” said the director of public information for the Suzhou government, who gave his name as Weng.

He added that the city would like to try the new method again soon because it was unexpectedly efficient and found excellent candidates within a short time.

According to the Suzhou information department, the city had problems finding enough applicants when it advertised open positions via traditional media.

“We don’t rely completely on the headhunter — it merely helps us early in the process to locate candidates from a wider range,” Weng said.

According to expert opinion, Suzhou is on the right track.

“The Suzhou government has taken an innovative step by involving the private sector in its recruiting,” said Ren Yuan, a professor at Fudan University’s School of Social Development and Public Policy.

More city governments should be encouraged to adopt similar modern methods to hire more experienced people in specific professional industries from society, he said.

Work is slow for online recruiters

ChinaHR was up for sale by its largest shareholder Monster Worldwide Inc. (NYSE: MWW) in early November. But so far no company is willing to take over ChinaHR.

According to the company’s third quarter financial report, Monster’s operating revenue in the third quarter has significantly decreased by 10.5 percent and the company suffered a net loss of $194.2 million, of which ChinaHR contributes $233 million – partially offset by Monster’s other more lucrative holdings.

In fact, ChinaHR is not the only online recruitment company trapped in a slump in China. Data from iResearch reveals that three Chinese online recruitment giants – 51job.com, zhaopin.com and ChinaHR.com, all suffered from decreasing visitors for the first time since 2011.

The mostly homogenous services provided by online recruitment companies are losing power to attract clients with the growth of social networking websites.

According to the Global Employees Index published by Kelly Services, 80 percent of Chinese employees visit social networking websites everyday, 21 percent of which are using these networks to look for jobs.

At present, the platform gathering the most global professional talent is the business networking website LinkedIn, founded at the end of 2002 and publicly listed in 2011. Now it hosts 187 million registered users and 109 million unique visitors per month.

The LinkedIn pattern was copied by large numbers of Chinese professional networking websites after its successful IPO, including wealink.com, tianji.com, dajie.com and wolonge.com.

“Among so many professional networking websites, it’s difficult to judge who will win the appreciation of most users at the moment,” said one analyst.

It was reported that the registered users on professional networking websites have exceeded 70 million and is expected to reach 100 million in three months.

The number of Chinese professionals is huge and is rapidly growing with the development of economy. However, the vertical social service platforms targeting professionals are still in the initial stages, said Han Hui, CEO wolonge.com.

Traditional online recruitment cannot solve the information gap between recruiting companies and job seekers, while professional networking websites can provide a platform for them to know each other more and to respect each other

Over 12 million jobs created in China this year: Report

BEIJING: The Chinese government today said it has created 12.02 million new jobs in the first 11 months of this year surpassing the goal of 9 million.

The urban registered unemployment rate stood at 4.1 per cent at the end of September, below the annual target of 4.6 per cent, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security (MHRSS) said.

The employment situation has been better than expected this year amid the backdrop of slowing global economic recovery and downward pressures weighing on the domestic economy, state-run Xinhua news agency quoted Human Resources Minister Yin Weimin as saying.

Meanwhile, massive layoffs have also been rare this year, as a continuous labour shortage left employers more prudent about staff cuts, Zhou added.

Yin said the focus of next year’s work will still be employment for college graduates, an expanding population that has hit 6.8 million this year.

China will carry out and improve policies in support of the employment and entrepreneurship of college graduates, expand their employment areas and introduce public recruitment services to campuses, Yin said.

To boost employment, the government also vowed to support the development of small and micro enterprises and strengthen social responsibility among large enterprises at the conference held on December 15 and 16.

China’s total urban population in search of employment reached 25 million in 2012, far exceeding the 12 million new jobs created annually in recent years, data show.

Analysts have pointed out that in addition to the pressure to create more jobs, there is a notable gap between the skills of the unemployed and the skills required for certain positions.

Most industries in China are currently facing a serious shortage of skilled workers. The manufacturing sector alone, according to the MHRSS, is in need of about 4 million senior technicians.