What can Europe learn from China in relation to Talent Acquisition? If China has 2,000 foreign companies moving in every month with the need to hire thousands of employees, how can we relate this to finding talent in Europe?
Our perception is that countries more advanced or experienced in an area should automatically be more sophisticated and better at it. Usually, in emerging markets, we adopt best practices from developed economies and apply it. We rarely apply lessons from younger markets into the Western world!
On the other hand, perhaps a country dealing with high volume, high growth and a higher concentration of younger people may make us more aware of the multigenerational segmentations. General segmentations are clearer since time has not blurred the lines together which may enlighten us on how to integrate the labour pool of new entrants into the European Union. Both China and Europe have a similar emerging class and the key is to determine how to access and attract them.
So lets discuss Europe and the challenges we are currently facing. Candidates are in the market, but are they the most qualified candidates? Perhaps Europe has become too comfortable with their current processes and methodologies and relies too heavily on the internet in hope of touching some of the passive talent market. Organisational inertia may mean that the majority of employers are slow to adapt and due to being risk averse, they may tend to hesitate on the big decisions. By contrast, in China, due to no accepted practice, Talent management has been developed from first principles and has made the giant leap straight to Resourcing 2.0 and is now starting to reap the benefits.
If we did take notice of our global partners, the worst thing that could happen is we walk away with a few ideas and perhaps a sourcing approach that accesses 78% of a qualified market audience!
I will share some lessons I have learned from China which will directly impact Talent Acquisition challenges in Europe.
This paper will discuss 3 main points from China for reapplication into Europe.
First, in order to learn and benefit from the wisdom of others, one has to understand the DNA of the Chinese and more importantly the misconceptions made about the Chinese.
We all struggle to understand the talent paradox of how a country with 1.3 billion people has a shortage of quality staff. I have several reasons why I believe this may be the case:
a) Education
b) Language
c) Mindset
a) Qualifications stem from education and even though the Chinese government seeks to increase higher education participation from 10% to 15% by 2010, many students opt to study abroad or work for their families. Due to a massive expansion and an economic growth of 9% per year, new universities are being developed but the physical infrastructure has not caught up with the educational demand. In addition, the Chinese educational system is still very much based on "rote learning" and hard study rather than critical thinking and problem solving. The Chinese nature stems from “Chabuduo”, which directly translates to “close enough”, meaning the Chinese do not aspire to have leadership qualities but as a norm prefer to do what is necessary to learn something but never volunteer to go the extra mile or raise their hand to take on additional responsibilities. This directly affects quality of work and is having a direct impact on quality control standards in companies, especially within the manufacturing business where recalls are taking place due to poor adherence to quality standards. In addition, “Mianzi” (face value) causes both challenges in the education and work environment since it prevents a team member to go the extra mile and stand out among their peers due to the possibility of losing face and not acting as a team member. Education is key to a qualified talent pool and whether in China or Europe, senior management personnel are expected to have a degree in higher education.
b) Chinese is a difficult language utilising tones to differentiate sounds and meaning. Due to the many dialects, it is rare to find Westerners with fluent Mandarin. On the other hand, unless a local Chinese has been educated abroad there is a limited pool of potential candidates that speak Business English. Besides the language barrier and hundreds of different dialects, the Chinese have a “contextual” language and find the Westerners direct communication style difficult. They tend to not feel comfortable with an “open door policy” where they are expected to share their concerns or ideas to improve upon company policies.
Chinese as a rule are not comfortable with negotiation and confrontation and tend to say ”yes” to everything without really agreeing to anything. Respect is crucial and therefore they tend to not challenge authority or their elders as a rule. Unless a Westerner understands these cultural differences and adapts their communication style accordingly they will not get the most out of their local employees.
c) Limited “Western mindset” for business practices.
The inner pole of Confucianism was reformist, spiritual and idealistic. Family interaction and respect for seniority and age stems from the core. The younger generation grew up with authority and are accustomed to expecting direction and strong leadership from their elders and superiors and not comfortable with ambiguity. The customer is viewed as "King" and never questioned. Guanxi (who you know) is the establishment and maintenance of relationships which are mutually beneficial. The culture is driven by relationships and networks. Coupled with everyone under the age of 28 years old being an only child tends to have influencers that dictate a spoiled and egocentric nature stemming from their child rearing experience. These “little emperors” expect companies to become surrogate parents and take care of them in ways which go beyond traditional compensation, training and benefits. Hence, understanding the child and parent relationship is beneficial to conducting business in China but causes complications when blending with Western practices.
All of these misconceptions fuel the hiring challenges for foreign companies looking to expand into China; nevertheless, to every problem there is a solution. So what can we learn from a nation where the average multinational is hiring in the hundreds and thousands with minimal internet access and a lack of sophisticated sourcing strategies?
My organization was fortunate to be awarded one of the first end-to-end RPO projects in China. Due to the lack of market knowledge, we developed a research centre to give us the market intelligence needed to identify and attract the targeted market. Our strategy was a blended process of research, attraction, sourcing and engaging:
This paper will explore 3 main points from the blended strategy to implement into Europe:
1. Developing resourcing strategies from first principles - getting back to the basics
2. Talent acquisition through targeted attraction campaigns to appeal to the current labour pools
3. Break the walls of having a passive talent database and embrace Web 2.0 to build long term relationships
Developing resourcing strategies from first principles and going back to the basics.
So what are the basics or first principles?
Direct cold call
External referral program
Professional associations: to build up client “employer branding”
“Candidate care program” to warm passive candidates
Proactively source internal candidates across client’s organization
Internet-data mining
Employee referral program
Dedicated client Career site
Job boards
On and off-line advertising campaigns
PSL Agents; existing and sourced
Proactively network candidates for additional referrals
Direct sourcing techniques
Local job fairs
Mobile recruitment drive
The answer is picking up the phone and dialling for market intelligence!
Due to limited internet access, advertising campaigns and sophisticated attraction strategies, our number one sourcing channel was the labour intensive channel of “direct cold calling”. We were responsible for actively identifying where that talent was located in order to engage them.
Our conclusion was that before we could target the talent we needed to get a clear understanding of the talent market.
We developed segmented surveys targeted to a specific market that matched the criteria of our client.
The survey comprised the following market information:
· Composition (who?)
· Location (where?)
· Current status (what are they doing now?)
· Size & distribution (how large?)
· Mindset (what do they think about...?)
· Drivers, motivation
· Interests, needs
A roadmap needed to be created to find, attract, recruit, hire & later retain talented employees. Having the ability to benchmark our client’s own recruitment programs against other firms who compete for the same talent pool was a valuable tool.
Our approach consisted of utilizing the tools of business intelligence and market research to provide hard facts about the talent market.
The Content of the information contained:
A. Candidate Profiles
· Title
· Tenure
· Job Scope
· Education Level
· Past Experience
· Language Skills
B. Compensation
· Base Salary
· Bonus
· Allowances
· Fringe Benefits
· Annual Leave
C. Needs & Motivations
· Employee Satisfaction
· Distinguishing key motivations at both the current and future employer
D. Perception / Insights
· Perception of the client's employer brand
· Perception of the client's brand compared to the competition
· Preferred employers
· Information about recruitment activities among competitors
· Perception of the client's employer brand
· Perception of the client's brand compared to the competition
· Preferred employers
· Information about recruitment activities among competitors
E. Assessments
· Personality types
· Work style
· Social style
· Leadership traits
· Generational categories
F. Industry Profile
G. Competitive Benchmarking
We entered all the information into our Applicant Tracking System and built a database populated with a targeted talent pool of passive candidates specific to our client’s expectations. This also enabled us the ability to present “opportunity hires” to our client since we knew the market and were able to identify exceptional talent which met the culture of the organisation.
The research also helped our recruiters to assess the needs and motivators of the preferred candidate population, enabling them to better tailor the “candidate experience” to reflect their needs.
Once we had the market intelligence, we were able to assist our clients create targeted attraction campaigns to appeal to the current labour pool which brings me to point #2. Believe in the power of branding – but recognise the differences in a multigenerational / multicultural workforce and refine the message and delivery channel accordingly.
Since the surveys identified the needs, motivations and vulnerabilities of our targeted talent pool, we were able to develop attraction campaigns specific to the identified vulnerabilities and generations. For example, most Chinese are responsible for their elders and it is a strong financial burden on the younger workforce. We turned this into an attraction strategy and formed a partnership with an insurance group to insure not only dependents but the parents of the employee. This was seen as a substantial benefit to the targeted candidates and created a unique selling point for the client. Once you know your target market, you can develop the campaigns to attract them.
Campaigns may include:
■ Branding themes for a multigenerational / multicultural workforce
■ SMS campaigns and linking http sites from web enabled handsets
■ Research for universities
■ Advertising and digital campaigns
Lastly, break the walls of having a passive talent database and embrace Web 2.0 to build long term relationships
Point no #3 is Relationship Strategy - embrace Web 2.0 and become a technology adopter. Take advantage of stretching the relationship with a candidate over a longer period of time so that the candidate may come to you over the long term. What a luxury to be able to directly interact with candidates! In addition, be conscious of who the decision makers are for your targeted market. In China, it was often the parents that determined which job a candidate would select. Who is involved in the decision making process in Europe? If you do not know who is involved, how can you engage them in the process?
Know your target market and speak their language, understand their communication channels and lifestyle habits. Write Blogs, show your expertise, newsletters, client press releases to keep the candidates engaged over the term of the relationship.
Move from associations to social networking and unlock the power of search engines by utilising aggregators, data, social networks and job boards. Keep on top of your database, contact candidates every 30 to 90 days, set up alerts and RSS feeds and track your results.
In summary, due to China’s extensive growth and need for volume hires, lessons can be learned and applied to Talent Acquisition in Europe.
Integrating a blended approach dictated by research and mapping campaigns to truly understand your targeted talent market, refining your message and delivery channel to target the select audience as well as adopting relationship strategies and technology to be the communication mechanisms to reach the multigenerational workforce will increase your applicant to hire ratios and in turn delight your client!
Special thanks to Andy Dolby, Tony Dickel and Jam Mariquit for sharing their views and knowledge.
We entered all the information into our Applicant Tracking System and built a database populated with a targeted talent pool of passive candidates specific to our client’s expectations. This also enabled us the ability to present “opportunity hires” to our client since we knew the market and were able to identify exceptional talent which met the culture of the organisation.
The research also helped our recruiters to assess the needs and motivators of the preferred candidate population, enabling them to better tailor the “candidate experience” to reflect their needs.
Once we had the market intelligence, we were able to assist our clients create targeted attraction campaigns to appeal to the current labour pool which brings me to point #2. Believe in the power of branding – but recognise the differences in a multigenerational / multicultural workforce and refine the message and delivery channel accordingly.
Since the surveys identified the needs, motivations and vulnerabilities of our targeted talent pool, we were able to develop attraction campaigns specific to the identified vulnerabilities and generations. For example, most Chinese are responsible for their elders and it is a strong financial burden on the younger workforce. We turned this into an attraction strategy and formed a partnership with an insurance group to insure not only dependents but the parents of the employee. This was seen as a substantial benefit to the targeted candidates and created a unique selling point for the client. Once you know your target market, you can develop the campaigns to attract them.
Campaigns may include:
■ Branding themes for a multigenerational / multicultural workforce
■ SMS campaigns and linking http sites from web enabled handsets
■ Research for universities
■ Advertising and digital campaigns
Lastly, break the walls of having a passive talent database and embrace Web 2.0 to build long term relationships
Point no #3 is Relationship Strategy - embrace Web 2.0 and become a technology adopter. Take advantage of stretching the relationship with a candidate over a longer period of time so that the candidate may come to you over the long term. What a luxury to be able to directly interact with candidates! In addition, be conscious of who the decision makers are for your targeted market. In China, it was often the parents that determined which job a candidate would select. Who is involved in the decision making process in Europe? If you do not know who is involved, how can you engage them in the process?
Know your target market and speak their language, understand their communication channels and lifestyle habits. Write Blogs, show your expertise, newsletters, client press releases to keep the candidates engaged over the term of the relationship.
Move from associations to social networking and unlock the power of search engines by utilising aggregators, data, social networks and job boards. Keep on top of your database, contact candidates every 30 to 90 days, set up alerts and RSS feeds and track your results.
In summary, due to China’s extensive growth and need for volume hires, lessons can be learned and applied to Talent Acquisition in Europe.
Integrating a blended approach dictated by research and mapping campaigns to truly understand your targeted talent market, refining your message and delivery channel to target the select audience as well as adopting relationship strategies and technology to be the communication mechanisms to reach the multigenerational workforce will increase your applicant to hire ratios and in turn delight your client!
Special thanks to Andy Dolby, Tony Dickel and Jam Mariquit for sharing their views and knowledge.
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