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- Human Resources and Payroll in China 2016-2017 (5th Edition)
1.1 China Recruitment Challenges
Hard-to-fill positions:
High demand for skilled labor, a more demanding business environment,
skills mismatch, difference in expectations and deficiencies in tertiary education have resulted in a
competitivemarket environment, and a shortfall in supply of professionals who possess the following
skills: multiple language ability, in-depth technical and industry know-how, international exposure,
and familiarity with global best practices. In particular, higher salaries in commercial roles such as sales
and purchasing positions, have created a shortage of technical professionals.
High personnel turn-over and recruitment uncertainty:
Professionals move quickly between jobs,
particularly infirst-tier cities suchas Shanghai, BeijingandGuangzhou. Due to this common job-hopping
trend, coupled with high drop-out rates during the on-boarding process, continuous recruitment
planning is an unavoidable challenge.
Low mobility of staff:
There is a general reluctance for professionals to relocate within China or to
accept a longer commute to theworkplace.Therefore, location is a particularly important factor to take
into consideration when choosing to establish a branch location and attracting potential employees.
Misinterpretation of candidate credentials, profiles and presentations:
Personality characteristics,
such as being straight-forward, whichmight be favorable in theWesternhemisphere, or language skills,
such as the ability to communicate fluently in English, are often misinterpreted or over-emphasized
in the search for suitable candidates. Furthermore, academic credentials are often over-valued. The
Chinese education systemstill emphasizes learning facts by heart rather than developing independent
thinking andproblemsolving skills. Additionally, candidates’ frequent job changes are often incorrectly
interpreted by companies as a sign of immaturity. From the perspective of the candidate, changing
jobs has been considered for many years to be a means to rapidly gain experience and speed-up
professional growth.
CV and credentials fraud:
Falsifying credentials is a prevalent problem faced by recruiters in China.
Particularly when CVs are provided by applicants in languages other than Chinese, these “translation
mistakes”are a convenient means to “upgrade” titles or certificates. Accordingly the employment risk
is amplified and appropriate actions must be taken to minimize these risks.
Lacking calibration of title and salary:
Job titles in China have a different prestige status than in
other cultures. Particularly, being a “Manager” or working in a commercial function are linked to
greater prestige. Furthermore, finding the right salary level linked to a job and its title is a challenge.
This problem is amplified by the lack of detailed market data and unrealistic expectations colored by
candidates’ perception of foreign salary levels. Companies tend to over-emphasize the starting salary;
however, a clear growth perspective with respect to salary development is often more important to
candidates than the starting salary per se.