Chinese employees less attracted by foreign companies according to Manpower

April 21, 2011 | admin

Manpower recently warned that multinational companies with operations in China need to improve their talent attraction and retention strategies or face losing out to Chinese private-owned companies in the battle for senior level talent, as local workers begin to favor Chinese private-owned companies.

”China’s rapid growth means the talent landscape is changing as non-native companies, previously regarded as highly desirable places to work, are no longer considered the country’s best employers, Esaid Jeff Joerres, Manpower Inc. Chairman and CEO. “As local firms build stronger employer brands, multinationals will find it increasingly challenging to attract and retain managers. The war for talent will only intensify due to an aging workforce and more foreign companies increasing their focus on the Chinese market. E

Manpower’s new Fresh Perspectives Paper: Winning in China: Building Talent Competitiveness, based on the findings from the 2010 Foreign and Chinese Private-Owned Companies Talent Competitiveness Survey, shows that of job seekers who wish their next job to be with a Chinese private-owned company, 61 percent of these are at the manager level.

This rapid rise in the appeal of Chinese private-owned companies is due to increasing compensation and benefits packages, more training and learning opportunities, and the perceived “glass ceiling Efavoring overseas employees at senior executive level over local talent within foreign companies. Skills shortages in China are most severe among senior managers, according to the 2010 Manpower Talent Shortage Survey.

While 60 percent of human resources managers at foreign companies based in China are already feeling the effects of competition from Chinese private-owned enterprises, few companies are actually doing something to respond to that challenge.

Manpower advises multinationals to leverage human resources as strategic partners, aligning their workforce strategy with their business strategy to ensure they have the talent needed for business expansion. They must ensure local executives receive pay parity with their foreign counterparts, as inequalities have a serious negative impact on local employees Emotivation to work for foreign-owned companies, especially as Chinese private-owned companies now offer more attractive remuneration packages.

While attractive compensation packages are important, managerial personnel often put an even higher premium on training and development opportunities. As Chinese-owned firms put more focus on career development, foreign companies must respond to this challenge by leveraging the advantages they have, such as offering high performers the chance to experience working in a different country, as well as committing to employee development.

“China has long been seen as a land of opportunity for foreign companies, but business leaders need to make sure that developing a workforce strategy that is agile enough to be future-proof and allows them to achieve their business objectives is at the top of their agendas, Eadded Joerres. “Foreign-owned companies operating in China need to adapt their talent strategies to protect their employer brand and ensure a healthy talent pipeline to execute their business strategy. E

Despite their progress, Chinese private-owned companies still face challenges to lure the best talent. They lag foreign-owned companies in terms of having a strong employer brand and compelling corporate culture. Management at Chinese companies has traditionally been extremely hierarchical and they also have difficulty retaining foreign talent. Targeted strategies for retaining non-native managers should take into account the importance of cultural fit.

As China continues to undergo rapid growth, both foreign and Chinese private-owned companies will need to adapt in order to stay ahead. Employers must be alert to the shifts in China’s economy and understand the challenges as well as opportunities that this will bring, as the companies who implement the best talent strategies will differentiate themselves and gain a competitive advantage.

 

Access to talent is the key competitive differentiator in Asia according to Manpower group

April 18, 2011 | admin

Manpower Inc. (NYSE: MAN), world leader in innovative workforce solutions, warns that businesses in Asia will need to increase their talent attraction and retention efforts in the face of a fiercely competitive labor market as economic growth in the region accelerates, in an environment where access to talent is now the key competitive differentiator.

Manpower’s recent Fresh Perspectives paper, “Winning in China: Building Talent Competitiveness,” explains that China’s rapid economic growth is resulting in an escalating war for talents between multinationals and Chinese private-owned companies with the country’s working population aging and talent shortages becoming more acute.

Manpower’s latest Employment Outlook Survey revealed that employers in the region continue to lead the global economic recovery  Ewith employers in India and China reporting the strongest hiring intentions globally for the first quarter of 2011, yet that recovery is under threat due to a lack of the right people with the right skills being available in the right place.

“Employers across Asia tell us they are feeling the effects of the talent mismatch,” said Jeffrey A. Joerres, Manpower Inc. Chairman and CEO. “Manpower is helping to address this problem in the region by working with employers to identify future potential talent pools and develop their workforce strategies to best support their business needs.

“Our survey shows that growth in Asia Pacific, and more specifically in China and India, is showing no signs of slowing, so employers must identify and leverage untapped talent pools to ensure they have the people they need to drive business growth. This means not only developing attractive training or benefits packages, but also offering clear development opportunities to their existing employees and considering leveraging social networks, virtual working and flexible work practices to attract and retain business-critical talent from traditional and undertapped labor pools.”

In addition to increased mobility, the rise in access to technology across Asia, and in India and China specifically, is also having a transformational effect on the way people live and work in the region. Use of mobile technology and social networks has sky-rocketed and enabled technology to become an effective leveler. Skilled individuals vault traditional restrictions such as physical location and are liberated to dictate how, when and where they work.

In the past, ignoring the rise of technology and in particular social networks, could be considered a missed opportunity. Today, however, not leveraging social networks as commercial networks for organizations should be considered a business risk.

“Employers should become familiar with domestic social media platforms; social media usage in Asia is growing fast and is significantly ahead of other developing countries, partly as a result of increasingly disparate populations, both within and outside of country borders and particularly in China - where rural to urban migration, and coastal to inland migration continues to rise, resulting in millions more people each year turning to social networks to connect with friends, family, and potential employers,” added Joerres. “Demographic changes in the region also contribute to the need for employers to act quickly if they are to have the talent in place to meet their business needs. Nowhere is this more prevalent than in China, where the number of people aged 60 or over is expanding rapidly, and already forms 12.5% of the nation’s population.”

 

Try hard without fear of failure by Yoshiko Shinohara, CEO of Temp Staff

April 14, 2011 | admin

I was my parents’ second daughter, and I have two brothers and two sisters. My father died of an illness in 1943 after serving as the principal of a national school. Since then, my mother, a licensed midwife, raised us. I was strongly influenced by my mother, a wonderful woman, beautiful and modest, who worked hard as a professional. I liked English and belonged to an English club as an extracurricular activity when I was a high school student. I entered Mitsubis

hi Heavy Industries and did general clerical work until I left the company when I was about to get married. In the end I didn’t get married then, but later on, I married another man but got  divorced. Although I had continued to work, but not as a professional like my mother, I felt impatient. So I went to Switzerland to learn English and trained as a secretary. I then landed a job with a marketing company in Austria. In that company, women were working as actively as men, at a time when only men were the main workforce in Japan.

After returning to Japan, I decided to launch a temporary staffing service company like one I had observed in Austria. I gathered seven investors, including my mother and relatives, to found the company, which I named Tempstaff. We had a small office in the Roppongi area of Tokyo and started to visit companies every day, sometimes as many as 20 a day, to explain and promote the service. Although there was little business for the first three months after the company was established, it gradually improved as I my social network grew. Three years after the company’s

founding, I was warned by the government many times that my business may be against the law. At that time, private companies were not allowed to receive money for sending temporary workers to companies. This depressed me, but I was encouraged by companies and temporary staffers to continue the service.
More workers are needed particularly in service areas involving the care of senior citizens and infants, and I would like to introduce more temporary staff to this area and others to meet the social demand.