September 2014
|
V
IETNAM
B
RIEFING
-
5
Company Considerations
While businesses in Vietnam have come to accept high turnover as
a cost of doing business in the country, there is still a strong push
to find ways to increase the amount of time that an employee is
willing to spend at a company. Providing higher salaries is certainly
an attraction, but money may not be the only factor in what makes
Vietnamese employees stay longer at a company. Those businesses
that findways to build employee loyalty will therefore be particularly
successful.
Commonly encountered
when hiring Vietnamese
employees include a lack of English skills and a lack of technical skills.
Many Vietnamese have a basic level of English but do not have the
fluency required to conduct business in the language. While the
government is pushing English education throughout the school
system, the full effect of this will not be felt for some time. One
strategy for foreign businesses is to provide English lessons for their
employees as part of a wider skills training program. Additionally,
the government, often in conjunction with foreign tech companies
as mentioned earlier, is seeking to boost the technical skills of the
country’s workforce. These programs are already starting to bear
fruit as can be seen from the sizable investments that companies,
such as Samsung and Intel, have made into Vietnam.
Additionally, companies may find it difficult to transfer employees
(especially women) to different cities or areas because of their
strong local connections. This has the potential to put a drag
on a company’s expansion plans as it may struggle to relocate
experienced employees. Thus, finding the right partner to aid in the
recruitment process is crucial.
Due to the complexities of the labor market, many companies in
Vietnam rely primarily on outsourced providers when it comes to HR,
particularly for advice related to recruitment, training and payroll. In
fact, many multinationals report that they would like to outsource
more of their operational HR practices to a regional shared services
function.
Vietnam in 2014
Male
Population (in millions)
Population (in millions)
Age Group
Female
5
5
4
4
3
3
2
2
1
1
0
100+
95 - 99
90 - 94
85 - 89
80 - 84
75 - 79
65 - 69
60 - 64
55 - 59
50 - 54
45 - 49
40 - 44
35 - 39
30 - 34
25 - 29
20 - 24
15 - 19
10 - 14
5 - 9
0 - 4
0
For more information on wages and employment in Vietnam,
please email
