Par Nannette Ripmeester

Dans cette question j'ose au delà des frontières européennes en Chine, un marché à croissance rapide. Mais commencer des opérations sur un marché n'est pas facile. Déplacerez-vous vos propres personnes au nouvel endroit ou vous commencent à louer localement ? Et si vous louez localement, comment attirez-vous les meilleurs candidats et que ces nouvelles recrues attendent-elles ?

Recrutement de campus

NG de Kevin, associé au bureau de Pékin de Deloitte, est clair au sujet du type de cibles de Deloitte de diplômés. « Nous approcherons seulement les universités de premier-rangée en Chine à assurer des diplômés de qualité, » il dit. « Nous conduisons le recrutement de campus pour présenter notre société et les attributs des diplômés que nous recherchons. »

Le rang d'université est extrêmement important en Chine et est directement lié aux espérances de salaire. Les diplômés des universités supérieures peuvent commander des salaires beaucoup plus élevés par rapport au reste du marché gradué. Un aperçu par le bureau de sécurité de travail et sociale de Changhaï conduit dans 2003 a montré que la plupart des diplômés frais d'université à Changhaï gagnent un salaire mensuel d'entre 1.500 renminbis de yuan (abr. Yuan) et yuan 2.500 - la moyenne de la ville est le yuan 1.100.

Compétences techniques de `moins appropriées'

Cependant, seulement un pour cent de diplômés gagne des salaires supérieurs - commandant entre quatre et six moments autant que le repos. Quoiqu'il y ait une différence importante entre les salaires, et les diplômés des universités moins prestigieuses s'attendent au salaire inférieur, Deloitte vise seulement les étudiants supérieurs. “We make use of various methods such as written tests, group discussion and one-to-one interviews to assess the quality of the graduates. For us technical competence is less important, we focus on their personality,” said Ng.

‘Explain the process’

ICI has taken a slightly different approach. “We have initially focussed our attention on Chinese nationals studying in Europe. Only now we are going to market oncampus in China as well,” says Esther Penketh, who is a member of the international recruitment team at ICI, based in the UK.“Our first experiences in China have made us realise that it works best if we give prospective candidates more information upfront on how to approach the selection process,” says Penketh. “We tell them what we are looking for with regard to the on-line application, the telephone interview and the competencies we seek. Being very clear about the package on offer is also essential.”

Market Intelligence

Ng agrees how crucial it is to invest time and energy before starting to recruit in China:“Market intelligence is essential, be patient and diligent in hiring the right candidate — it can be quite painful to dismiss a person in China!”

Recruiting in China – How to make it work

The application letter
For Chinese graduates an application letter, or cover letter, is not customary. They are more used to application forms.

The Curriculum Vitae
The Chinese do not use the term CV, but resume. Usually this document lists their education and experience in a very detailed manner. In China it is not unusual to see a resume of more than two pages. The resume is usually typed, but hand-written documents are still surprisingly common. Chinese resumes are usually set in a reverse-chronological order, listing the most recent first. Education plays a prominent role and references are not normally included.

The job interview
The Chinese are very modest people, and do not like to show off, or over-impress others. Be aware that it might not be easy to get through to a Chinese candidate at a certain level as they are educated to behave in a self-effacing manner.
  

Nannette Ripmeester, the author of ‘Looking for work in China’ (ISBN 90-5896-052-8), a guide which looks at how cultural differences affect the recruitment process in China as well as examining the differences in management culture. Ripmeester is managing director and founder of Expertise in Labour Mobility (ELM), a knowledge broker on issues related to mobility on the international labour market. ELM has recently helped many companies, among them ICI, to get to grips with the recruitment market in China.