Fight for the right sort of talent

As a human resources manager, when is the last time you talked to the leader of your company's sales department?

Chong Ng, Greater China managing director of talent recruitment solutions provider FutureStep, is often disappointed with the answer he receives.

One of the techniques his company uses is to set up a one-day workshop and make sure all the client company's business leaders - all its China-based CEOs, board of directors and senior HR leaders - are in the workshop.

Ng then asks them about their business strategy for the year, and the talents they need to implement it. His team will make sure they work together to come up with strategy for the year ahead.

"You'll be surprised how often this does not happen (in their own boardroom)," Ng said.

"Most often, a sales manager picks up the phone, calls the HR manager and says, 'I want to fill the position immediately, or we want to find a sales manager immediately'."

FutureStep calls this a "reactive" recruitment approach, one that leads to employers failing in the increasingly competitive talent market.

"China's talent market, especially in the high end, is becoming more and more competitive," Ng said. "Employees now have a lot of options. They can work for big US multinationals, big European multinationals or big Chinese companies. How can your company stand out in the market?"

According to Ng, to be strategic, employers have to have a very good workforce plan. Every business plan - from opening a research and development center to increasing sales by 20 percent - should be followed by a workforce plan. As business plans change, the workforce plan should also be flexible and change accordingly.

Ng compared this process to marketing strategies used by consumer goods companies. You have to know your target candidates' genuine needs and try to fit your company's features to their appetites.

Generally, potential employees want to know the company's culture, salaries and development prospects. The HR department should give them this information, in addition to other information that may suit them, such as certain traits about the company that match prospective employee's interests and likes.

Be attractive

These days, large Chinese companies, especially State-owned enterprises, are increasingly popular among China's young job seekers. In its annual list of the 50 best employers in China, recruitment website Chinahr.com listed 18 foreign companies. Chinese companies, most of which were SOEs, took up the rest of the list.

So what can foreign companies do in China to improve their popularity?

Ng said foreign companies should clearly demonstrate their commitment to China. This commitment can be shown by opening research and development or product development centers in China.

"It shows that they are not coming to China just to sell their products. They are also developing their products for China and for the world," Ng said. "When candidates see this, they will feel reassured."

Ng said it is also important for foreign companies to create a stable leadership. In the past, some multinationals' China branches saw a leadership reshuffle every six to 12 months. The frequent changes give employees a sense of instability.

In addition, foreign employers have to make sure growth and development opportunities are available to their local employees, he said. This commitment can be shown by making leadership as diverse as possible to break the perception of "glass ceilings".

Most-wanted talents

Upon being asked about the most-wanted professionals in 2013, Ng said he would rather talk about function than specific industries.

"In fact, except for a few technical people, talent requirements are more or less the same across various sectors," he said.

"For example, all companies need salesmen. Actually, the need for sales managers is rising strongly in 2013."

As markets in first-tier cities are becoming mature and saturated, multinationals have a robust demand for salespeople with a full knowledge of markets in second- and third-tier cities.

In this regard, multinationals have to put in much more effort to fostering their employers' brands in these cities and identifying the talent pools there, because local companies have an advantage in finding local talents, Ng said.

And as the Chinese market is departing from its previous linear growth pattern, corporations operating in China need a new type of leadership, which Ng described as "a shift from operation-oriented toward growth-oriented".

"The good old days are gone. Now not only do you need to run a business, you need also to fight a business," Ng said. "This means leaders should run a factory, but also find business to keep the factory running."

However, Ng said one of the most common mistakes foreign companies make is they expect the local talents they hire to be productive in a very short time, but it does not work that way.

"A lot of multinationals have a mixed organization. You get one boss in Singapore and the other in New York. So you have to be able to work on a global basis. Decision-making there is very different from local companies, so it takes time for new hires to adjust to that environment," Ng said.

Foreign companies should also provide local talents with the resources to be productive, he added. "You can't just send a manager to the office in Beijing and say 'good luck', with no backing resources, no coaching and training."

Throughout the interview, Ng stressed that the qualified talent pool in China is "not very big". To get them, foreign companies should prepare for a fight.

"In 2013, the war for talent, once ferocious, will become more subtle and focused. Businesses will not hire the volume of talent they once did, but against the current economic backdrop and the drive for growth, they will be focused on hiring critical talent," Ng said.