Recruiting Professionals in China

The profiling stage is a critical planning phase in the recruitment process to develop a resource-efficient, fast and effective approach to ensure the suitability of a new hire within an organization. The cultural and experience gaps between Chinese and foreign managers in companies operating in China often results in conflicting assumptions with  regards to job content and candidate qualification criteria during the hiring process. A well-executed profiling exercise will serve to bridge these gaps to minimize misunderstandings and avoid hiring unqualified employees. Throughout the profiling stage the HR representative should maintain close contact with the hiring manager, as strong communication is necessary when specifying the company needs, job content, job title, candidate profile and compensation details. Especially when the HR manager and hiring manager have different cultural backgrounds, good communication ensures that assumptions for the position are aligned and complications throughout the recruitment process are minimized.



Analyze company needs

In order to assess a company’s recruitment demands, an inventory has to be conducted of the functional areas which need to be covered. The defined functional areas are then broken down into specific job content. Clusters of job content are then categorized into distinct positions. Finally, the number of professionals needed is determined by the output required on the demand side as well as the market availability of professionals with the skill sets to cover areas of the pre-defined job content.

In China, companies have resorted to hiring more staff to counter high fluctuation of employees. Additionally, a prevailing scarcity exists for Chinese professionals with the necessary skill sets to fill senior technical and management roles. Accordingly, companies have been observed to hire a larger number of employees to fill such positions as compared to other more mature markets such as the United States and Europe. For example, a German engineering manager tends to have more years of experience, is more versatile and is able to handle a larger variety of tasks compared to a Chinese equivalent. This often results in a company separating what would be done by one manager in other markets  into two or more distinct positions in China.



Specify job content

Job content should include the job’s objectives, responsibilities and duties. Due to the scarcity of versatile Chinese professionals, it is common in China for the originally defined job content to be adjusted after having reviewed the availability of skill sets in the labor market.



Define job title

Defining the right job title will have a significant impact on how well a company will be able to attract qualified candidates. For instance a multi-national company in China might be restrained by their internal policies to design a job title as a “team leader” or “senior engineer” which would otherwise be designated as a “manager” at a local Chinese company. A problem arises when candidates who would have considered the job opportunity for its content and compensation would decline it simply because they would have to downgrade themselves from a “manager” to a “non-manager” title. Many international companies have therefore implemented a unique system for job titles in China, in which the title “manager” is integrated in more positions and even new “job titles” are created, which do not exist in any other country.

Generally, candidates in China expect faster promotions. Therefore, to facilitate this demand a company might consider adding more intermediate hierarchical levels. For example, whereas a company’s home market may only have “account managers,” this role could be split into “junior account managers” and “account managers” in China. In China, a lower level of standardization exists when it comes to job titles and their related job content. This provides a certain flexibility for defining job titles within an organization.



Define candidate profile

It is increasingly common that companies in China are employing a mix of local and foreign staff for reasons such as communication, managerial experience and trust. The right mix of employees can positively enhance efficiency and create a better working environment. A general categorization will help employers in China to come up with the optimal mix for their workforce (see Employee Types).


At present, many foreign companies in China are forced to hire professionals with less practical working experience and lower technical qualification compared to employees in their home country who fulfill the same role. The solution implemented by numerous foreign companies in China lies in hiring comparatively younger high-potentials who are able to handle a steep learning curve and eventually under take the required responsibility on their own while initially receiving guidance from a more experienced foreign professional.



Scrutinize each qualification criteria

Besides listing candidate qualification criteria for a vacancy in an ideal candidate profile, it is advisable to scrutinize each qualification criteria by asking the following two questions:


1. Is the qualification criteria kick-out, required or preferred?

Kick-out criteria = candidate should no longer be considered if any 1 is not fulfilled
Required criteria = candidate may still be considered if only 1 or 2 are not fulfilled
Preferred criteria = candidate will still be considered even if criteria is not fulfilled


2. What is the relative importance of the qualification compared to other criteria?


These additional qualifying questions will provide a clearer picture of the vacancy internally and through-out the selection process. A key benefit is that individuals responsible for the selection of suitable candidates will have a clearer frame work within which they can assess candidates.

Below you will see an example of a candidate profile in which the two above mentioned candidate qualifying questions have been integrated.







Continue:
> Employee types
> Candidate identification
> Headhunting
> Candidate selection
> On-boarding process