Tag Archives: Talent

Career Builder: Exceptional Talent

CRI
What is a rising star? What does Talent truly mean?
In a competitive market for white-collar workers in China’s Eastern Coastal cities and now second and third tier cities, we hear a lot about the word ‘talent’. Talent, in the vernacular of the white-collar masses is casually taken to mean people who are very good at their jobs. We hear a lot of phrases like “Discovering Talent” “Asia Talent Conference” etc.However in truth, when people use the word talent in this casual way, what they are really referring to is ‘above-average’.
  • Q1: Firstly, can you describe what you mean by exceptional talent?
  • A1: Examples would be Sajid Javid a 47 year old British Cabinet minister, who at the age of 25 became the youngest Vice-President of Chase Manhatten Bank, and was a multi-millionaire soon after. An extreme example would be Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook and an obvious example would be Jack Ma in China. Steve Jobs of course would be a particularly good example (if you’ve read the books and films about him).
  • Q2: So in your view and experience [Robert], what are some of the characteristics, which are unique to people who have exceptional talent?
  • A2:Work hard; have a good education; turn up on time; get good reviews.
Follow-up questions:
  • Do we want exceptional people then if they’re so difficult to manage?
  • Do we want exceptional talent if it comes with an exceptionally poor attitude?
  • Should we build companies with a mixture of talent levels? And if so why?
  • How do we motivate exceptional talent?
  • What if you do not fit into the “exceptional talent” box? How can you still stand out and be (above average)?
  • Is exceptional talent something you are born with or is it related to the way you are raised / childhood? – Is it “trainable” (quite Chinese parenthood question)

Read more ...

Head-hunters marching into state-owned enterprises – HRM ASIA

Head-hunters marching into state-owned enterprises?

According to the China Talents-Flow Survey by RMG Selection, nearly a third(32%) of employees in state-owned enterprises(SOEs) had changed their jobs last year. Of those, half found their jobs through headhunting.

The survey found that 60% employees willing to change jobs through job head-hunters. Online recruitment and friends’ recommendation accounted for 24% and 13%. As seen in the flow of tanlens, the corperate head-hunter is playing a increasely important role.

Where preciously SOEs easily acquired their own staff, they now face tougher competition from the private sector. The survey found that 35% employees of SOEs choose to accept their roles via a heathunting connection. For employees in US and European firms in China, head-hunters and recruitment agencies are undoubtedly the preferred choice, accounting for 72% of the total jobs changes.

More than half of employees think that calls from head-hunters are professional oppotunities, and trust is extended even further for employees at larger firms.

Over 40% of employees in companies of less than 1000 staffs think that headhunters are credible job sources; while over 55% employees in companies of over 1000 staffs think the same.

Robert Parkinson, the CEO of RMG Selection thinks that the headhunting companies in China vary in quality, with only a small number of them having professional work  procedures and genuine guidance and training toward candidates.

“Although the business is becoming more and more mature, how to select professional partners will be a big challenge for most employers and job seekers in the future.” says Parkinson.

猎头开始进军国有企业?HRM ASIA在本期的文章中引用了罗迈国际商务咨询公司的最新调查,在其发表的中国人才流动报告中显示,已经有近32%的国有企业员工于去年跳槽。而在他们之中,有近一半的人是通过猎头找到的新工作。让我们跟随罗迈国际CEO Robert Parkinson先生来了解更多相关内容吧。

HRM Asia - TFS News(small)

Winning the Talent Wars – RMG CEO Robert Parkinson on China Daily

Companies urged to innovate to retain workforce and stay competitive

Despite receiving thousands of applications every month, Mei Yang-mille has been struggling to find the right talent to occupy some key positions in her company.

Yang-mille, who runs the Chinese operation of Karl Storz, the world’s largest endoscope manufacturer, says that as a multinational company, it has no problem in attracting talented people but often finds it hard to recruit skilled and qualified personnel.

“There are people out there, but the number of ‘A class players’ seems to have got smaller,” she says. “So we have to interview lots of people until we get the right ones.”

Yang-mille says the problem has become worse as the company has expanded its operations in China to meet the growing demand for high-quality medical equipment in recent years.

Along with the booming medical device market fueled by strong demand from Chinese hospitals because of larger purchasing budgets and planned infrastructure upgrades, the German company has also had to increase its number of employees.

“There is a gap between supply and demand of qualified medical graduates and professionals,” she says. “And it is unlikely that the gap will be filled in the next five to 10 years as the medical device market is booming in China.”

Yang-mille was speaking at the company’s China headquarters in Xujiahui, the central business district of Shanghai. The company, which has about 220 employees in China, also has bases in Beijing, Shenyang, Chengdu, Guangzhou and Hong Kong.

She says the entry barrier in the medical device market is very high and graduates from the Chinese education system often cannot cope with the global standards for medical talent.

“At the entry level, the graduates we need are those on the top of the pyramid,” she says. “They should have comprehensive product knowledge and technical expertise and the capability to work with doctors and medical experts. But in China it is hard to find candidates who meet all the requirements.”

Yang-mille says many Chinese graduates are not qualified because they are good at theory but do not know how to handle projects or work in a team.

“As many of them are from one-child families, they do have weaknesses in teamwork, critical thinking and analyzing ability,” she says. “Compared with their peers in the US and Europe, Chinese graduates appear to be less mature at their age.”

Yang-mille says she was astonished to find that a college graduate brought both of her parents to a job interview because she said she needed them by her side. “I’ve never seen this before, but clearly she will never grow up under the wings of her parents.”

She admits that the good side of Chinese graduates is that they are hardworking, intelligent and willing to learn, which are the qualities needed for any industry.

Because of young graduates’ lack of experience, she says, the company needs to recruit experienced medical professionals to fill mid-to-senior-level positions.

But fierce competition as multinationals poach from each other and a limited source of professionals are causing wage inflation and high turnover.

As a result, Yang-mille says, she has to invest in people to build an early pipeline, creating a culture of coaching, welcoming job rotation and internal promotion, as well as running a talent program for top performers.

She has introduced personality assessments into the hiring process and expanded the company’s recruiting efforts beyond major universities, especially for highly skilled positions such as sales, logistics experts or technical personnel familiar with their products.

“We are quite open-minded in recruiting talent, which means we don’t care whether they are from a certain top university or a less known college, as long as they are qualified for the position,” she says, adding that they have three “I” standards to measure whether the candidate is suitable for the job – integrity, initiative and intelligence.

Of course, there is a danger that the money spent on developing talent could be lost if the employee decides to join a rival, a common problem in many emerging industries.

Yang-mille says she understands the threat well, and the company has been focusing on career development instead of relying on compensation packages, which is a good way to reduce staff turnover, but unsustainable in the long run.

“If an employee is staying in the company only because of an offer of a higher salary, he or she will eventually leave because of that,” she says. “I think the most effective way to retain professionals is to care about their career path and guarantee them that there is no glass ceiling within the company.”

Karl Storz offers a range of career development programs, such as rotating people, combined with regular assessments of employees to determine a suitable career direction.

According to a report by Business Monitor International, the Chinese medical device market is expected to expand by about 15 percent every year over the next five years, while medical device sales are forecast to reach $42.8 billion by 2019.

But a lack of qualified medical professionals may be a continuing drag on business performance in China’s medical equipment industry, says Yang-mille, who plans to increase the number of recruits 15 to 20 percent annually for the next 10 years.

“An investment in staff training and development is a company’s critical success factor,” she says.

Read the whole article: http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/weekly/2012-08/31/content_15722773.htm

Read the magazine:  https://www.rmgselection.com/images/rmg%20news_cd_aug_client.png

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