Category News of China

Returnees discover fulfillment

Governments in rural areas are harvesting the experience of overseas returnees to boost grassroots development.

Zhou Ti studied at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Metiers in France for more than two years for a master’s degree in management.

The 27-year-old returned to China in 2010 and found a job at an investment bank in Beijing paying almost 200,000 yuan ($32,000) a year.

After working for the bank for two years, he decided to go back to his hometown in Hunan province where a county was recruiting overseas returnees for town-level positions.

Zhou signed a three-year contract with Changsha county last year and now works with Kaihui town’s environmental protection office, largely dealing with policymaking and trying to reduce its vehicle emissions.

“I need to visit villages every day, see how households are following the rules, such as the ban on livestock excreting into farmland or ponds,” he said. “My workmates and I also keep records of each household’s waste sorting and we financially reward families that do well.”

Although the work pays only 3,000 yuan a month, Zhou said he believes the job offers a good platform through which he can put his own thoughts into practice.

“The job helps me improve my ability to communicate with people,” he said. “I want to keep doing the job if I can make some achievements.”

Leaders of town and county authorities are enthusiastic about recruiting and retaining overseas returnees like Zhou.
Changsha county hired 10 returnees for grassroots posts last year. The recruitment attracted 112 applicants, labor official Yang Xige said.

All 10 had master’s degrees or above and now have different village positions according to their majors, he said.
“We assess their performance twice a year,” Yang explained. “If they contribute to economic and social development, we will introduce more overseas returnees.”

Deng Ruiqi, also 27, is another recruit of the county’s program. He spent four years in France and works as secretary of the Communist Youth League of China for Fulin town.

Deng’s main job is to explain government policies to villagers. “Once I visited 70 households in two days. The work has helped me accumulate grassroots work experience that I couldn’t have acquired from books,” he said.

Deng successfully organized a gala in September, raising about 400,000 yuan from businesses and individuals to address the schooling problems of children from poor families.

Deng hopes the experience can help him get a position in higher-level government bodies.

Other places are also looking at overseas returnees.

Beijing’s labor authority started to hire overseas returnees to be village heads in 2011. More than 30 applied for the posts, and five were recruited.

Song Xin has a master’s in education from La Trobe University in Australia and now works as assistant to the head of Paifang village in Beijing’s Chaoyang district.

“The premier obstacle I need to conquer is how to communicate with villagers,” the 28-year-old said. “I told myself I am a farmer from the day I took the job.”

He said by doing this, he can really understand what villagers are thinking about.

Song’s job also requires him to mediate civil disputes. “Sometimes the work is like cracking a hard nut, but it helped me understand how to be down-to-earth, as well as the importance of dealing well with every small issue,” he said.

Overseas returnees have a comparatively broad scope of vision and active thinking and their innovation is an advantage, but grassroots jobs are not yet major employment channels for them, according to the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Human Resources and Social Security, which is in charge of the city’s recruitment of village heads.

Overseas returnees are less active in applying for grassroots positions and are less stable in retaining the work compared with graduates from domestic universities, the bureau said.

Among the five overseas returnees recruited in the city, three have quit, it said.

Liu Xin, a professor of human resources at Renmin University of China, said it’s normal for overseas returnees to take grassroots jobs because the employment situation is tough. Many find it hard to get a job when they return to China, he said.

“Managing a village requires a deep understanding of the rural political situation, including grassroots democratic elections,” Liu said. “It can take a long time.”

Courses offered by overseas schools don’t necessarily suit domestic jobs, he said.

Job-hopping sneaks in early

Year of the Snake not seen as very auspicious for the Chinese economy

The peak season for job-hopping in 2013 came earlier than usual because of economic uncertainty.

Some employees started to consider moving on even before the Spring Festival this year, much earlier than the usual peak season in March and April.

The months after the Lunar New Year are traditionally the best to find a new job because companies have completed their recruitment plans for the year and consequently just released job vacancies.

The year-end bonus is another important motivation for job-hoppers who leave their positions after the festival.

But the situation is different this year.

Pessimism about the industries affected by the economic downturn encouraged employees to search for new jobs as soon as possible, said experts.

It forced businesses to start looking for new staff before the festival to cope with the exodus of existing workers.

Many enterprises adjusted their strategies in 2012 so it is understandable that employees are not sure about their company’s future during this period, said Liu Xingyang, a senior human resource expert with ChinaHR.com, the Chinese subsidiary of Monster Worldwide.

Employees complained about chaotic management and started to look for new jobs earlier in 2013, he said.

About 27 percent of the job-hoppers said they were quitting because of their company’s poor prospects, according to a report on job-hopping from ChinaHR.com.

Zhang Gang, a manager at a real estate agency in Beijing, said he started looking for a new job early on and hoped to settle down in one before the festival.

“I want to get an ideal position before the festival, also before plenty of other people start chasing just one job,” Zhang said in January.

Zhang said lack of job security in real estate drove him back to the consumer industry, in which he used to work.

The 28-year old said his salary was 50,000 yuan ($8,035) a month during the good times but now its is less than 50 percent of that.

“This year’s bonus will not be particularly attractive either,” he said. “It is not wise to wait for it.”

Many companies reduced pay rises this year because of fears about the economy, the main reason chosen by 26 percent of job-hoppers looking to move on, according to ChinaHR’s report.

The recruitment agency interviewed a selection of businesses. Only 0.8 percent of them said they will increase their employees’ salaries by 20 percent or more in 2013. The percentage was 2.7 percent in 2012.

The number of companies awarding pay rises between 11 and 20 percent also fell from 16.7 percent in 2012 to a predicted 11.2 percent in 2013, according to the agency’s report.

Meanwhile, the continuous rise of the consumer price index, which measures inflation, caused employees’ living costs to increase, leading to high expectations over salary rises to relieve financial pressures.

“If their expectations are not achieved, they will have to find new jobs,” said Liu Xiangyang.

ChinaHR.com also discovered financial, real estate and electric appliance manufacturing industries have more job-hoppers compared with other industries so far this year.

Employees in the financial industry are more sensitive to rising incomes and they feel the need for a higher quality of life, Liu said.

Some have chosen to weather the economic ill winds, while some have decided to leave.

Wang Li, a 27-year-old woman who has worked for an accounting firm in Beijing for three years, said she was asked to take five days of unpaid leave by the end of 2012. She used to be too busy to take year-end leave in the years before 2012.

Wang said she had less work to do recently and was not sure about her year-end bonus, although she received a 20-percent salary rise last October.

However, she said she and her colleagues would try to keep their jobs.

“It is not a good time to be quitting the job because the whole industry faces economic problems and there are few job opportunities in the market at the moment,” she said.

Wang has good reasons for believing that.

American Express Co, the US multinational financial services corporation headquartered in New York, plans to eliminate 5,400 staff jobs in order to cut costs and adjust its business, the company said on Jan 10.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc, the US investment banking firm, said in July last year it would cut 1,000 staff worldwide.

“Keeping one’s current job is a wise decision just now,” said Huang Yi, a 23-year-old woman who has worked for one of the so-called “Big Four” accountancy firms since July last year.

If the employees really want to change jobs, the automotive and retail industries would be good choices, experts said.

“The automotive market and retail industries will both be very active,” said Max Price, a partner at Antal China, a United Kingdom recruitment and headhunting company.

He said there is lots of organic growth forecast within the sectors.

Companies in these industries want experienced people rather than fresh graduates, which will lure some job-hoppers.

But Price nonetheless suggested people should be cautious about changing jobs and should stay three to five years with a company before moving on to a new role.

“Job-hopping every two or three years is terrible for career development in the long term,” he said.

Chizhou Hosts Campaign to Promote Women’s Employment

The Chizhou Women’s Federation hosted a job fair especially for migrant workers in Chizhou City in east China’s Anhui Province, on February 5 and 6, 2013, providing a number of suitable opportunities for rural laborers, which benefited many local women.

The job fair had 30 stands providing services for employment and entrepreneurship. More than 30 employing units attended the job fair, providing more than 2,000 work positions, which attracted more than 2,000 rural laborers and migrant workers who had returned to their home town during the Spring Festival. More than 800, including about 250 women, signified employment intentions during the two-day job fair.

The Chizhou Women’s Federation distributed more than 500 brochures publicizing policies about small loans for women, safeguarding women’s rights, and fighting against domestic violence.

President of the Chizhou Women’s Federation Tao Xulin and Vice President of the Chizhou Women’s Federation Wang Cuixiang talked with rural women at the job fair, encouraging them to work near their hometowns. They also encouraged them to attend professional housekeeping skills training and widen their scope for employment.

Higher degrees worth less in job searches in China this year

As the Spring Festival is coming to an end, graduate students may find it harder to get a desirable job than usual, as a recent survey shows that only 29 percent of students with master’s degrees have secured jobs, down from last year.

A survey conducted from December last year to January 2013 by My China Occupational Skills (MyCOS), a higher education consulting and outcome evaluation facility in China, found that only 29 percent of the graduate students surveyed have found jobs, seven percentage points lower than last year, Xinhua News Agency reported Wednesday.

The survey collected 10,940 valid questionnaires, of which 3,802 were from graduate students, 3,699 from undergraduates and 3,439 from graduates of vocational training schools.

According to the survey, 35 percent of postgraduates with an employment history have signed for a job, while 47 percent of fourth-year undergraduates with internship experience have signed, compared to the overall rate of 38 percent.

Another survey by MyCOS found that as of November 14, 2012, employment pressure on postgraduates has increased by three percentage points compared with the same period last year, while pressure for undergraduates has dropped by six percentage points.

“I’ve spent three years and tens of thousands of yuan getting a master’s degree, but ended up with so much difficulty in finding a job… It feels like my graduate school years were a total waste,” a graduate student, who wished to be called Li Yan, at the Central China Normal University was quoted by the Outlook Weekly as saying.

Job hunting in the Chinese New Year

With the smell of fireworks hanging in the air, we are rushing headlong into the Lunar New Year holiday. Common sense tells us to put our feet up and spend time with the family, and begin the job search again with a new sense of urgency after the holiday. After all, hiring managers are winding down, human resource professionals are busy with annual pay reviews, promotions and the endless year-end reports.

However, a lot of evidence would suggest that this is currently the best time to be searching for a new job. Firstly, your competition (i.e. other job hunters) is probably thinking “I’ll wait”; this makes it the best time for you to step up your job search. Research shows that calling off your job search is very counter-productive; instead of waiting, now is the time to redouble your effort to find that ideal new job, and gain an advantage over your relaxed competitors.

The other factor is, recruitment budgets are still there and HR people are still coming to work every day, looking for candidates. There is a great deal of pressure on managers to have people in place before the Golden period begins.

“During this time of year, I get so many calls from managers telling me how urgent their vacancies are and how few CVs they are receiving. They push me very hard. Candidates who make themselves available for interview, who answer their phones, who return emails the same day have a huge advantage at this time of year,” a Shanghai-based colleague told me.

So what are some of the proactive things that you can do? For one thing, make sure that your online presence is up to date. Touch base with any recruiters and HR people who have connected with you through LinkedIn during the past year. Make sure your profile clearly details your experience and strengths. It’s a great time to get in touch with any companies you interviewed within the past year. Send an e-card wishing them a happy holiday and remind them that you are available; they might have a new opening in their organisation that you are unaware of. Thirdly attend as many of those holiday parties as you can. Every business chamber and networking organisation holds one at this time of year; get out there and press the flesh.

And whilst we are on the topic, let’s remind ourselves of the few key points when planning a career change:

* Be very clear about what you bring to the table. Start by writing down your key skills and accomplishments, and then build the case for hiring you around those.
* Make sure that you are applying for the right jobs. It is too easy to fire your CV off to a hundred online postings that mention one key word you are interested in, but this is a waste of your time. Be realistic, and only target organisations that you want to work for.
* Use your network to better target your ideal jobs. Use Linkedin to see how many of your connections work in the company you are applying to.

Once you have got the interview, it is really important to be able to convince people that you have what it takes to succeed. Employers are looking for good cultural fits; you have to show that you understand that. Be clear about your salary and your expectations. Any sign of an ‘errrr’ or an ‘ummm’ before answering raises doubts in the interviewers mind. Demonstrate your worth by providing clear examples of where and when you have exceeded expectations in a similar role.

Follow the steps above and you’ll beat the competition to your new job, even in the so-called slowest period of the year.

Recruitment giant Monster sells 90% of its stake in ChinaHR to Saongroup for a reported $30m

Monster, one of the largest employment websites in the world, has sold the unsettled jobs listing website ChinaHR to IrishJobs.ie for an undisclosed amount.

The Irish Examiner has reported today that Saongroup, an international online recruitment business owned by Denis O’Brien and Leslie Buckley, has acquired Monster’s Chinese operation for $30 million.

Saongroup now has a 90 percent stake in the business, with US-based Monster holding on to the remaining 10 percent.

Saongroup already operates an online jobs listing service in 30 countries, including China, through the IrishJobs.ie website. Although by default it’s set to display jobs in Ireland, the company’s sister site features openings in Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Guangdong and Chengdu.

Combined, Saongroup says its employment websites receive more than 25 million visitors each month.

Ciaran McCooey, CEO of Soangroup, told the Irish Independent earlier today that the acquisition would help the company build a greater presence in China’s major cities.

“It has really positioned us in the tier one cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, the mega cities,” he reportedly said. “Our own business had a very strong presence in the tier two and three cities outside of that, but we weren’t servicing the tier ones. It gives us a pan China presence now, which is excellent.”

Saongroup’s total workforce will now increase to 3,000 as a result of the acquisition.

Tech In Asia has reported that between 2005 and 2008, Monster pumped more than $240 million into ChinaHR as it transitioned from being an initial investor to its owner. The $30 million figure – which hasn’t been confirmed by either party yet – therefore represents a significant loss for the company.

It follows reports that last week, ChinaHR laid off more than half of its Beijing staff after offering them what has been described as “a pretty generous severance package.” That didn’t sit well with the remaining workers though, igniting a protest at around 2pm in the afternoon. Tech In Asia said that the management staff sent by Monster to announce the layoffs hid in their offices until local police arrived to settle everybody down.

Saongroup acquires Monster’s Chinese operation

Saongroup, the online recruiter majority owned by Denis O’Brien, has acquired Monster’s China operation, ChinaHR.com, for an undisclosed amount.

Monster Worldwide will retain a ten per cent shareholding in the combined China business of Saongroup and the agreement takes place with immediate effect. Monster had previously announced its intention to divest its operation in China.

Saongroup already has a comprehensive national network of offices and websites in tier two, three and four cities throughout China and the addition of ChinaHR boosts this network to almost 200 cities across the country, whilst also giving it a strong presence in the tier one cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

“ChinaHR is an excellent match with Saongroup China. Its blue chip client list and strong tier one city presence complements Saongroup’s robust online platform and pan-China reach. The acquisition of ChinaHR repositions Saongroup as a market leader and leaves us well positioned to accelerate our growth in the Chinese market.” said Ciaran McCooey, group chief executive officer of Saongroup.

Saongroup.com is a global online recruitment company with operations across four continents – Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas – and websites live in 30 countries. Irishjobs.ie is its domestic trading entity.

Saongroup is 75 per cent owned by Mr O’Brien, with chairman Leslie Buckley owning the balance.

ChinaHR.com lays off employees amid buyout plans

Summary: Monster Worldwide’s China unit is starting to shed 54 percent of its 400 workers, and remaining employees organize a sit-in office protest to demand for compensation should they be laid off this year.

Chinese recruitment site ChinaHR.com, a subsidiary of Monster Worldwide, has started laying off 54 percent of its 400 staff members amid discussions of the company being sold.

According to Sina Tech Wednesday, the dismissed staff were compensated three months’ salary plus additional amounts depending on the time they have spent with the company. For example, an employee who has been with ChinaHR.com for five years will get an additional five months’ worth of his salary. Pregnant staff members will receive an extra 24 months’ salary, it added.

The layoffs come amid reports in November 2012 that Monster Worldwide will sell off its Chinese business unit, which it fully acquired in 2008, as part of its restructuring program to curb losses of US$130 billion. The acquiring company has not been disclosed though.

However, employees who did not get laid off were unsatisfied as they were not included in the compensation scheme. They were also disgruntled that ChinaHR CEO Luo Bingquan did not want to reveal details of the buyout, citing confidentiality, it reported.

On Tuesday night, more than 200 employees organized a sit-in protest in ChinaHR’s headquarters in Beijing.

After 10 hours of negotiation, both Luo and Monster Chairman Sal Iannuzzi proposed the remaining staff be compensated with the same plan if they are to be laid off in 2013 following ChinaHR’s acquisition, Sina Tech reported.

The proposal is subject to the approval from the unnamed buyer of the Web company, it added.

Apple finally takes action on underage labour

Apple has stuck to its word and begun to cut ties with Chinese suppliers who are found to employ underage workers.

Apple last year joined forces with the Fair Labor Association (FLA) after a report from the organisation found evidence of the practise at some of Apple’s suppliers.

Now the company has released its Supplier Responsibility Progress Report, in which it was revealed that Apple has cut ties with Guangdong Real Faith Pingzhou Electronics (PZ) after 74 violations were discovered.

Staffing firm Shenzhen Quanshun Human Resources, which supplied workers to PZ, reportedly went as far as to aid families to produce fake age documentation. 106 active cases were revealed.

Interestingly, notorious employer Foxconn “is on track to meet the FLA’s recommendations by July 1st”, The Verge reports.

In fact, Apple CEO Tim Cook has made a point of stressing that improved labour practices are a key priority for Apple – a notable change from the seemingly opposite policy employed by his predecessor (and Buddhist!) Steve Jobs.

The company performed 393 labour audits in 2012 – that’s a 72 per cent increase over 2011.

Building on his article in the month’s Global Recruiter, Max Price, Partner at Antal International, China gives a view on the recruitment sector in 2013

We all know there is plenty of information in the international and local press about how the economy and therefore the jobs market is slowing down. 2012 saw the lowest rate of GDP for some time and of course this will concern people. What we need to remember that a GDP of well over seven per cent is huge, and that over Q4 GDP rose again, so all of the signs are positive that growth will continue. Foreign direct investment in China is also expected to remain steady. As recruiters we are in a unique position to be in regular contact with the hiring departments within multinational and local business as well as being in contact with the local talent pool and this piece is based around the feedback from both sides.

China is a completely candidate driven market still and this will continue in 2013. What seems to be different is the company and candidate will value each other differently based on the previous few years in China, and this is where problems can occur. Candidates at the moment have lots of questions that need to be addressed before we get to the employers side of 2013. The Chinese workforce is still active in the employment market and is still one of the most active candidate markets in the world. By active I mean that the majority of employees out there will be interested in speaking to companies about their opportunities and are approaching companies and recruitment consultancies directly to see what is available for someone with their skillset and experience. The average recruiter in China will receive well over 100 applications a day from candidates directly or through mediums such as Zhaopin.com. Candidates are looking for exciting new challenges at all times and this will have a huge affect on the 2013 job market, as it has done towards the end of 2012.

Over the last six months there have been two main candidate observations during their interviews with companies. First of all, companies are taking longer in hiring decisions and secondly, companies are not offering the salary increases that are expected. There are other observations but these two are most prevalent and a lot of candidates say the same. Both of the above mentioned points are true, companies are taking longer to make decisions and companies aren’t offering the same salary increases as before as will be address later in the article. The fact that a lot of candidates are experiencing this adds to the impression that there is some looming financial crisis in China and that everyone should be panicking about their job security. Job seekers talk to each other regularly, candidates that are being headhunted let their friends know that they have been approached for a great new job, it is human nature. As these interview processes talk longer or the packages aren’t what candidates expect this information doesn’t just stay with them, it spreads around their circles, and then their friend’s circles like a virus. A virus spreading the self fulfilling prophecy of a crash in the jobs market in China which simply isn’t true. There will be changes in 2013 but change is good providing companies and candidates are well educated about the change.

Our job is to speak with hiring managers and HR professionals every day and the good news is that the vast majority of companies that actively engage with recruitment companies are expecting headcount growth in 2013. These companies range from multiple industry sectors, from Automotive to Luxury goods, from technical IT to Banking, from Retail to Construction. Certainly some of these industries are expecting lower growth than others, the construction industry is going to be relatively slow whereas the retail market, especially middle to high end luxury retail, is going to boom, but the common theme here is that all will be hiring, increasing headcount, and they all expect to have significant replacement recruitment to do as their employees move on to pastures new. As you can see it’s so far so positive for the job market, however there are snags. The points that candidates raised are valid, decisions take longer and the same increased salaries aren’t being offered and it is going to take some time with the two groups to come to agreement with that. Over the past few years the market has boomed in China, jobs outnumbered skilled employees and as candidates were originally underpaid their new companies were happy to give 30-50 per cent salary increases in order for a talented individual to move to them. The problem with that was that this war for talented individuals meant that professionals were moving again 9-12 months later for another 30-50 per cent increase and the cycle repeated itself again and again. It is not uncommon to see a CV with six different companies in an eight year career, the problem for candidates is that this is no longer acceptable to a rising number of companies.

When the boom in China took place, MNCs didn’t seem to care so much about backgrounds, providing someone could do the job required they would be hired and companies paid what was needed. Now that salaries are at an all time high in the Tier 1 cities and there is a very slight pinch in growth in China, MNCs and local companies alike are looking for their growth to come from increased performance from their people, in order for companies to get this increase they need to have time to train and develop them and this is where the two candidate points come into play. As we all know the standard job cycle globally runs in three stages, Year One – Learn your job, Year Two – Get good at your job and Year Three – Get bored.

The problem in China is that employees have been completing year one, then moving on to start the cycle again. As an employer you don’t really get much return on the investment of hiring until after year 1 has passed and it’s something that can no longer be tolerated. The reason why interview processes and hiring decisions are taking longer is because employers want to be sure that this candidate is right for their business, the candidate will stay and develop, and eventually add value to the organisation. Companies will intentionally delay interview procedures because they want to see that a candidate is truly interested in the role and the company, not the paycheck. This reasoning is true for the lower salary increases. Increases are still good compared on a global scale, an average of 17 per cent salary increase when moving job is fantastic, but nowhere near the same amount it was one year ago.

Companies will pay for the right people, and some large increases are still being offered, but not to candidates that have moved three times in the last four years as there is a huge risk in hiring someone that is likely to leave in nine months. The disruption to the team and the monetary cost of a bad hire is potentially devastating. Another point to mention here, though slightly off topic is Year Two. This is the stage that most job seekers in China have not been completing over the last few years, this means that a staggering number of candidates have the title of manager, or director, or senior partner etc without actually completing the required tasks to be proficient at the job. Extra rounds of interviews are being brought into a standard process in order to check this ability on a hands on level rather than theoretical and things like assessment centres are now becoming common place.

Moving to a linked topic to this, if, as an employer, you are offering less than the job market expects and are taking longer than normal to make your hires how do you attract people? The answer is in training and development. 51 per cent of candidates are more interested in in-house development than salary because of the experience over the last few years where this hasn’t been evident. Over the last six months the increase in demand for training and development specialist from HR departments has been huge across China and large amounts of vacancies at Manager or Director level insist on having someone who has experience in training and developing subordinates, some companies will actively get references from previous subordinates before extending an offer to a candidate.

In summary, 2013 will still be a great year for the job market, but job seekers and employers need to understand the market is changing and it wont be going back to the way it was which is not a bad thing.