It is a little out of date now but the Xmei Conference offered up a treasure trove of thoughts and analysis on hiring issues in China. One of those treasures was the sheer number of useful graphs.

 

If a picture could tell a thousand words, this is what it would say:

 

 

Turnover rates in China are consistent with a War for Talent, across all industries and all functions. Peak rates, for those companies that take their eye of the retention ball, are much higher. Anecdotal reports of 80% turnover rates can be confirmed by HR practitioners on the ground. However, there are some signs that things might ease off next year.

 

The high rates in sales are also consistent with high expected salary increases in excess of 50% per annum. Other positions, such as Chemist or Engineer are normally in the 25%-30% range.

 

 

 

 

Onboarding rates are disappointingly low. Fesco's figures above, courtesy of Jim Yang of ChinaHR, show how things are getting worse. This illustrates the issue well but underneath there are other issues that rankle.

 

The hardest to accept is the sheer number of people who get 'lost' on the way to the office. Between the time that a Chinese professional accepts a Job Offer, and their expected date of onboarding, there exists a time that in China is known as The Dead Zone. Many, many job candidates accept Job Offers but then do not turn up, and without explanation.  

 

Sendouts ratios are also a challenge to the point where the normal Executive Search model of presenting '4-6 candidates in 4 weeks' has been supplanted by a model where candidates are presented as soon as they are identified and screened.. The hiring company is then pushed to interview them as fast as possible. Before they find another job ie. tomorrow morning.

 

 

 

<Graph of foreign employers in China   Source:  FESCO>

 

 

The retention problem is likely to continue if foreign companies  invest in China at the rate they have in the past. Like all issues economic in China, the figures for investment have been exponential for more than 10 years.

 

The recent slowdown above is only a slowdown in the rate of growth. Newly opened up industries, like banking, are currently ramping up fast and skills shortages are emerging there already.

 

 

 

 <Motivations for Changing Jobs, By Age Group>

 

Salary is the major motivating factor for younger professionals to change jobs (see above). With the expected 30% bump in salary that can be achieved by moving this may be masking an underlying desire for better prospects and career development. We would only hope.

 

The logic of this is that if the person in the cubicle next to you has a salary that is 70% higher than yours, simply because they changed jobs twice in the last 3 years, then the necessity of your changing jobs may simply to achieve parity. So your changing jobs is a hygiene factor. The new job will not necessarily motivate unless it has the true motivating factor, which may be different for every professional in China.

 

 

Sincere thanks to all the presenters at the conference for their systematic thinking and analysis. There were many other insights on show but they were not presented as graphs or images.

 

Credit where credit is due: the graph sources were Hewitt, Hudson, Fesco and ChinaHR.