Lucilleウー著

1. 学習の組織を作成しなさい
2. 有能なリーダーを任命しなさい
3. 適切な組織を確立し、中国のために培養しなさい
4. 競争の補償および福利厚生を提供しなさい
5. 右の人々を選びなさい。

学習の組織を作成しなさい
外国投資家および中国の国内会社は学習の組織の作成に重く投資する必要がある。 学習はそれらが教育システムの限定鋭くに気づき、有利な技能を得るために鋭敏であるので従業員のための優先順位である。 彼らはあまり成長が著しい経済で技術を更新しておかなければ、置き去りにされて得、二等のキャリアのために解決しなければならないようにことを確認できる。

学習の文化を作成するためには、組織は教室の基づいた訓練および研修会を従業員に与えることを越えて行かなければならない。 学習は従業員のに新しい技術を学び、ひとつひとつの日新しい経験を得るように毎日の活動」埋め込まれなければならない。 A culture of knowledge sharing can be developed by inviting outstanding performers to share successful techniques and experiences.

Foreign companies may have to develop management training courses, sometimes in collaboration with local business schools, to upgrade the skills of managers. Companies in China could also work with policy makers and university leaders to bring curricula more in line with the needs of industry. Microsoft, for example, is working with universities to help them incorporate Microsoft technologies into their curriculum to ensure that students are trained successfully and certified on Microsoft platforms.

Employer policies and training programs play a critical role in employee retention and engagement in China. Setting a clear career path for employees and identifying specific promotion criteria will inspire staff. Allowing employees to set their own development objectives will motivate them to take the initiative for their own development.

Organizations need to identify Chinese employees who have the right learning attitude and have the capability to change and adapt as fast as the organization requires. Organizations should nurture these people and increasingly promote from within, even when the employees’ experience or skills don’t fully match the requirements of the role. Organizations that enforce this through making people development an objective on senior leaders’ performance appraisals, or by making skill improvement a task for senior leaders’ team members, are likely to see the best results. Managers could also be tasked with ensuring a certain percentage of positions are filled with existing employees and that a minimum number of Chinese employees are always involved in special assignments. Motorola, for example, contractually requires expatriate managers to train a local successor within two to three years. As a result, 84 percent of Motorola’s middle managers in China are now Chinese nationals, up from only 11 percent ten years ago.

A leisurely approach to learning will leave Chinese employees dissatisfied; their hunger for knowledge is so great that they expect and want to learn at a much faster pace than is common in developed countries.

“At Rockwell Automation, it is the commitment of the leadership team to establish and foster a performance-driven and coaching-oriented culture. We use this culture to attract, retain and develop our talent. We have found that if we constantly promote, enhance and live this culture, we can increase our organizational effectiveness and capability to take us to the next level of excellence.” Eric Wang HR Manager, Rockwell Automation, based in China

Appoint competent leaders
Employees in China and the West have different perspectives on what makes a good leader. Chinese employees expect their leaders to be modest and humble, whereas employees in the West expect their leaders to either retain strong, central control and be bold, risk-taking characters, or they expect them to empower their employees by decentralising control and delegating authority to their managers. Managers in China are seen as highly respected authority figures to whom employees traditionally assign parent-like attributes. It is not uncommon for workers in China to seek personal advice from their supervisor, and white-collar workers might expect to be coached by their boss.

In China, leaders require a distinct set of skills. They need to be strategic operators at a macro level, but also able to manage at a micro level. Chinese employees respond best to hands-on leadership and having a role model to demonstrate what is expected of them, so that they may replicate their actions. Generally speaking, direct reports expect specific directions and detailed explanations from their managers, not broad goals.

Key skills for leaders are therefore coaching and communication; they need to establish protocols for providing feedback to employees and ensure strong internal communication.

“To achieve employee engagement and manage talent retention, as well as providing competitive pay, companies need to design jobs purposefully, ensuring that employees’ time is well used, recognize and value employees and their work, and provide opportunities for their advancement.

Efficient communications could be the key to help creating such desirable work environments… improve employees’ understanding of the work element and how the company invests in employees; enhance mutual communication by delivering company news/strategies, etc and provide a platform to let employees freely communicate opinions and ideas to executives. It is essential to always communicate openly and honestly…” Katherine Deng HR Manager, American Standard, based in China

The results of the survey by Right Management reinforce the point that companies which employ leaders whom employees believe are competent and who provide employees with immediate feedback are likely to strengthen employee engagement.

Chinese companies typically have many levels of management and are run in a hierarchical way. Employers will rarely hear an employee say: “I have a problem” or “I don’t understand”; in fact the most typical response to a request is “no problem”. Chinese culture dictates that a worker will never openly admit to a senior manager that they don’t understand something. Chinese society places a high value on the concept of face, ‘mianzi’, or public reputation. To admit defeat is to lose face and means failure not just at work, but also socially. In business dealings, this means avoiding open disagreement and politely making alternative suggestions. Chinese employees are unlikely to refuse someone directly and will instead make polite excuses or express criticism or concern through an intermediary.

As highlighted in the survey undertaken by Right Management, organizations’ leaders need to ensure that their employees understand how their personal work goals are linked to the business objectives of the organization. In China, most local employees are motivated to perform by social expectations and external factors, unlike in the West where a strong sense of individuality leads employees to set their own personal standards as guides for achievement. Therefore leaders should ensure that individuals and groups have clear development goals and performance objectives. A three month performance review after an employee’s appointment is the ideal opportunity to provide feedback to employees on their strengths and areas for improvement and to outline expectations of the employee. In delivering the results of performance reviews, foreign managers must recognise that communication in China is more indirect.

“Clearly setting out your expectations and specific performance criteria as well as giving feedback to employees is probably more critical in China than it is elsewhere, because of the way Chinese people work.” Senior Manager - Engineering, a global electronics company in China

Senior leaders should be encouraged to succession plan which is another tool to motivate employees to keep developing. Chinese people, influenced by traditional culture, may be unwilling to coach others because they perceive it as a threat to their own position.

Management teams need to be educated in succession planning concepts and can be motivated by having succession planning included as a performance criterion. Failure to develop successors may prevent them achieving higher career objectives themselves.

Establish an appropriate organization and culture for China
It is critical for companies to appreciate and respect Chinese cultural norms and practices and to align certain characteristics with management practices and organizational behavior. Foreign-owned and multinational corporations will find that trying to impose Western business practices and management techniques in China, which are typically more decentralised, direct and consultative, could damage employee relations, and create stress and frustration. Organizations will ultimately find it easier and more cost-effective to adapt to the local market.

“The worst thing you could do in China is to storm in and try to make your local employees work in the way that people do in the West. Most of them don’t know how to do it and it conflicts with their culture and values. It’s so much easier to adapt to the Chinese way of doing things in the first instance.” HR Director, an oil and petroleum company in China

Matrix reporting structures common in Western companies are unfamiliar to many Chinese employees. Many have only had experience of reporting to one person, so organizations should provide a simple structure that boosts knowledge transfer and the development of staff.

Even if they have good qualifications and English language skills, Chinese employees are often cautious about taking the initiative and can be risk averse. Some Chinese employees might choose not to take any action rather than risk making a mistake. HR professionals in China will need to articulate regularly the culture of the company to encourage open communication, allow employees to make mistakes and show initiative. This culture message should be repeated not only to candidates but also current employees.

A saying heard everywhere in China is: ‘Do more, risk making more mistakes; do less, make fewer mistakes; do nothing, make no mistakes.”

China has an embedded relations-based culture, known as guanxi, which creates a distinctly Chinese business style based on ‘who you know’. Relationships take time to develop and require input from both parties; it will only work if the relationship is of mutual benefit to both sides. This is in stark contrast to business relations in America, for example, which are more typically short-term and results orientated.

Developing guanxi (connections) is therefore important for manager-employee relations as it will help foster employee loyalty and respect, and linking personal goals and business objectives is essential in this sense. It is not uncommon for employees in Chinese companies to be promoted on the basis of guanxi, rather than on their own merit or achievement. Employers should therefore create a culture that drives performance and results. To enhance the ‘loyalty’ built from guanxi, an open and fair performance review will earn the highest degree of support for the employer.

Most Chinese people want to work for an organization that has a distinct work culture and values, but it is the organization’s responsibility to communicate those values clearly and simply. Developing a strong brand that describes a company’s unique work culture will help
attract and retain talent. Chinese employees enjoy talking about their employers in terms of these values and can become a powerful army of ambassadors for their company.

But companies cannot just ‘talk the talk’; they have to live and breathe those values. Leaders need to embody the values in their actions every day. Chinese employees will not stay loyal when they realise that there’s little substance beneath the glossy façade.

Increasingly, organizations will have to make hard decisions about senior employees who do not embody the company’s culture and values, even if they are top performers.

Provide competitive compensation and benefits packages
Foreign-invested companies can easily struggle when it comes to setting pay and benefits packages for their middle to senior level employees, because of the mismatch between demand and supply. It is not uncommon for some managers to receive an annual two-digit percentage salary rise in some positions.

Organizations should disregard developed countries’ global guidelines for salary reviews, which will be irrelevant in developing markets. Frequent salary reviews are essential to keep track of the market rate; employees themselves will be aware of what their market value is.

How often salaries should be reviewed will depend on how sought-after the employee is likely to be; for hard-to-fill positions it could be more than twice a year, or employees should be given a big annual increase in their salary package. Organizations that do not review salaries promptly will find employees defecting to more generous companies.

“When it comes to salaries, you can’t just replicate what you do in the West with what you do in China. You have to review salaries much more frequently and keep on top of what your top people’s market rate is. ” HR Director, a multinational chemical company in China

But it is not just about money. Although it is important to junior staff, they may also be looking for tuition reimbursement, staff outings and fun activities that should be viewed as an opportunity to reinforce the company’s values. Bonuses, incentives, meals and a company car are all becoming common perks. A housing allowance or fund can also be included in companies’ benefit schemes, which is popular among mid-level employees who want to set up a home for their family.

Senior Chinese managers will expect their benefits to be the same as their associates in the company headquarters, including stock options and a retirement plan. So a long-term incentive plan can become part of the package. Supplemental insurance and medical programs are influential while China continues to reform its benefits system.

As talented employees in China become increasingly aware of their own value and the talent shortage gets worse, companies will have to be more generous and creative to retain their employees.

Select the right people
Careful attention to job placement increases retention by ensuring an optimal fit between the applicant and the skills and aptitude required for the job. It can also help a company identify the top performers.

But how can employers determine whether a job candidate is a top performer and will suit the role? The answer begins with defining success and top performance in the specific job. For example, top performance in a sales role in the next two years may look very different than that of the last five years. Employers need to anticipate what their expectations will be of employees in the future to ensure that they create a realistic job description.

Some FDIs have had their fingers burnt in China and a common concern among candidates is how secure their job will be. Chinese candidates expect that many companies will have to metamorphosize as the economy evolves, so organizations expecting to go through significant changes should be honest and say if employees will need to demonstrate adaptability and flexibility to thrive in the workplace. In a rapidly expanding business environment which may well be quite chaotic, these soft skills and high levels of self-motivation will be as critical for the business as employees’ work experience, and are not learned in the same way.

Suitable candidates can be found through company and job profiling by the recruitment specialist for each position before a candidate is taken for interview. If he or she understands the organization’s culture, business plan and a possible career path, the candidate is more likely to find a job that suits them and the organization will benefit from having a more stable employee. Candidates should also be given an in-depth interview to allow the recruitment specialist to build a complete picture of their employment expectations. Giving candidates a profile of possible future employers and briefing them on the organizations’ cultures and values will prove whether they are aligned with the organizations’ views. It is critical that the company is presented realistically. Employees will leave if the organization does not live up to the expectations set during the interview. Employers need to be circumspect and look beyond perfect English or American accents and well written résumés; employers need to understand candidates’ values and motivation. It is not unusual for a Chinese employee to leave a company because his or her values are not aligned with those of their employer.

“We are open with candidates about the type of organization we are, our purpose as a pharmaceutical company, our long-term contribution to society and how passionate we are to have business growth in China. The worst thing in hiring is attracting people without a good understanding of their motivation for joining the company (of course sometimes money is one of the motivations), or without a good understanding of the culture and values of the organization they are going to join.” Jennifer Jin, HR Director, Novartis, based in China

Secondly, candidates need to be given competency-based and behaviorally-structured interviews, which provide a good indication of a candidate’s suitability for a role and their potential for future growth. A first interview should be undertaken with the recruitment specialist and then a joint interview undertaken by the line manager and specialist, so that the specialist can observe what the line manager wants from the candidate and ensure a good fit. The interviewer should take into account Confucian values and be patient to get a real insight into the candidates. Since most Chinese people express their feelings indirectly and try to avoid direct confrontation, harsh interviewing techniques will be counter-productive. Conducting interviews with both Western and Chinese managers will ensure a balance of Western and Chinese interviewing styles.

A number of research studies have reported that the multiple assessment approach is significantly better than interviews alone in predicting job success – 45 percent better according to a recent study.

Assessments and aptitude tests will help ensure that employees are placed in jobs that are aligned with their interests and help them feel that they are undertaking meaningful work.

Trainee programs are an effective way for organizations to increase their talent pool. Assessments for young Chinese trainees born after 1980 are particularly beneficial as they are typically the only child in the family. Growing up in this environment, they have greater demands and expectations on their careers, and may not have a clear and objective judgement of their own competency. Providing assessments and regular performance reviews will help them better understand themselves, their development path and give them reasonable career objectives.

10 steps for effective hiring in China
1. Develop a resourcing plan with contingency plan, milestones, timelines and review dates all defined at the start, which will drive urgency.
2. Produce a Candidate Engagement Brief on the sector, company (global), company (China) today and in the future.
3. Ensure internal alignment to define job responsibilities, career opportunities and 180 day Induction Plan, with owner (or buddy).
4. Develop a candidate profile of competencies and qualifications – essential and desired – all competencies that can be taught easily go into the desired column to widen the candidate pool.
5. Understand the talent market and be prepared to review the proposed terms and conditions, based on 2-4 above.
6. Get local people to interview local candidates.
7. Communicate openly and honestly with candidates about the company’s situation and its future potential.
8. Speed up the recruitment process by providing feedback to candidates within one day.
9. Compare candidates using the following criteria in this order of importance: (i) essential competencies & qualifications; (ii) right culture, attitude and development potential match to company; (iii) desirable competencies & qualifications.
10. Always do due diligence – check references and qualifications carefully.

Lucille Wu, Managing Director of Manpower Greater China

"Talent Management Insights for China" is part II of the Manpower White Paper "The China Talent Paradox". Next week we will publish part III.