News

Recruiters – take it easy on HR

HR Departments

Recruiters: Take it easy on HR professionals. These are THEIR issues! In my previous article, I pointed out to HR people how they could establish more productive working relationships with their clients and in particular the HR departments. In this article, I turn that theme on its head and point out some of the things that most recruiters are not aware of when dealing with their clients, and perhaps should be. 1.      HR Departments have a tough job to do. Theyare not regarded nor treated with the respect they mostly deserve by their internal clients; and particularly in China are regarded as a ‘supporting’ function rather than a business function. Companies who truly embrace HR as a profession have an HR […]

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Beijing Recruitment Agency: RMG

RMG: Beijing Recruitment Agency covering the whole of China and beyond Since it’s inception in 2010 RMG Selection has always chosen to base itself in one main location. This means all of our staff have a central base to communicate in person. We then travel to meet our clients. Other companies have staff spread out in 2-3 person locations. We think this is not conducive to teamwork. At the time of writing (November 2016) RMG Selection has shown itself time and again to be a resilient and well-placed business partner. We cater to clients throughout greater China. Here are some of the reasons that clients give us for working with “RMG – Beijing Recruitment Agency”! The owners are actively involved […]

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Junior HR in China: Here’s some help!

junior hr in china

It’s better to be friends – honest! – read on….      In my 11 years running recruitment businesses in China (latterly my own RMG Selection) and almost 20 in the recruitment consultancy business I have encountered numerous ‘clients’ – that is to say – those hiring candidates via us, who seem to think behaving with explicit rudeness, dishonestly and lack of speed; with a sense of superiority and often with a lack of information is the way to show their importance and seniority. This is particularly true of junior HR in China. I have also worked with some lovely clients. One German lady was a real pleasure to work for. One Frenchman became a very close friend, one Chinese […]

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Making Best Interviews

In a recent radio show, China International Radio’s Career Builders, I was asked to talk about the volume of Chinese job changing around the Spring Festival time and spoke mainly from the point of view of Chinese employees. It was a very interesting discussion. Unlike the situation in China, British employers barely worry about the “festive employee loss” issue. On my way back I thought about the topic from the different angle. HR Managers either recruit to fill a new role or to replace someone who is about to leave. In the busy hiring season I notice that the majority of HR managers are often so eager to interview candidates that they misjudge a lot of job applicants’ performance in the interview process. To make the best of interviews, efforts shouldn’t just come from interviewee. I think that it is a good idea to give some potentially-can-succeed candidates a second interview opportunity.

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Leadership tips for young managers

Manager, a sacred word in business which has connotations of hope and trust, is a very serious job title in the West, where the average age of managers is between 30 and 40 years old. The development of the Internet has changed some traditional industries dramatically in recent years. A senior manager in logistics might be good at managing the whole business process, but does he have any idea about operating a modern overseas warehouse? That is probably an area where his strengths are useless. Nowadays, more of the bright and talented young employees who have required knowledge and skills are promoted to be managers. But excellent as many young leaders are, they usually face a lot of challenges during the first big step up in their career. This article explores some of the pitfalls they may face and suggests some of the better ways of dealing with difficult situations.

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Create Good Relationships in China (really good).

“Oh Can you PLEASE stop banging on about relationships!” By Robert Parkinson, CEO & Founder RMG Selection In the last article, there was a nice piece written by one of my team on how to create good relationships. I want to give a different perspective this time, and suggest why, in my view actually everything is becoming less and less about relationships, and more and more about substance; and of course how all this fits in to the prism of “Human Resources”. First of all though, don’t you get sick of people talking incessantly about how important it is to have “good relationships”? -all the time! It never stops in China! If you ask someone what will make them successful […]

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离职管理也是系统

作为人力资源咨询方,我在过去15年和数千雇主以及HR交流过。说起人力资源方面最头痛的问题,大多数人以为是招不到合适的员工。其实不然,每每沟通到最后才会发现“员工离职”是雇主和HR内心最深处的痛。
招不到人,可以打广告、可以提高待遇也可以聘请第三方支持,然而员工一旦提出离职,仿佛再做什么都有些为时过晚的尴尬。正因为这种现实的无力感,导致绝大多数企业在处理离职这个问题时漏洞百出。
漏洞百出的离职管理;离职管理从员工入职开始;人性化的离职系统

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Retail-giants prepare to enter the global freight forwarding industry

Since the economic crisis of 2008, the responsibility for the challenging environment in the logistics service sector has primarily been attributed to a weakened global economy, shipping overcapacity and the lack of regulations. However, the true challenge for the world’s oldest service sector might come from a completely different direction: E-retail. Within the last 12 months, the freight forwarding industry has been the stage for some major mergers and acquisitions. DSV acquired UTI, increasing its presence in North America and Africa. SDV and Bollore Africa globally merged as one Bollore Group. Japan Post entered the forwarding industry by acquiring Toll Group and is expected to take over DHL Global Forwarding in the near future. Meanwhile, DHL’s forwarding arm is losing […]

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The Squeezed Middle or the 100-per-center?

Economists and advisers I know well have said to me that a realistic guesstimate for China’s GDP this year is 0-1%. In other words approaching recession. There’s really nothing that’s ‘new normal’ about that. Whether or not this is actually accurate, it’s certainly true to say, based on anecdotal evidence of conversations from the last four months that there has been significant slowdown in the economy after the stock-market turmoil of the summer. So, as a specialist in Human Resources, with 10 years work experience in China, I am often asked what this means for the employment market for those who – for whatever reason – are actively looking for a new job, and what does this mean for passive […]

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Executives! – listen up! Stop turning your Admin staff into HR staff!

Last month I was sitting in my garden in the UK enjoying the beautiful sunshine and clear air scanning my email messages when I saw a note come through from a client instructing my company to find them the position of “HR & Administration Director”. The fact that giving people instructions as opposed to a polite request, was not really the main source of my bemusement (although symptomatic of what needs to change in the “supplier/receiver” relationship in China) the main source of my eye-raising was the job title. This article aims to describe one of the issues which wastes billions of RMB a year, causes huge disruption within companies, and contributes to massive churn in white collar labour markets: […]

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