Newsletter Week 48

Dear Reader,

Attraction and Retention of Chinese Employees: A Legal Perspective

When entering the China market, many multinational companies assume that a country with a population as large as China’s would not have a labor shortage. However, the fact is that qualified labor is at a premium in China. Under the booming economy, the rising demand for Chinese labor has exceeded its supply. Hiring talented employees—young, upwardly mobile Chinese professionals with advanced skills and an understanding of international business—is even more difficult. Because of the limited availability of such employees, the competition for this talent is intense.

With tough competition comes a high turnover rate. According to a report by Hewitt and Associates, China has one of the highest (if not the highest) employee turnover rates in Asia, around 14% in 2006. It is no wonder that a recent poll by the American Chamber of Commerce-Shanghai revealed that  recruiting and retaining employees is the greatest challenge U.S. companies face in China. So how does one attract and retain the “right” Chinese employee—one who is both qualified and loyal—while remaining compliant with all applicable laws?

The Growth of China’s Service Economy

Now that we are counting down to the 2008 Olympic games, first-time and not so recent visitors to China are no doubt wondering what they will see when they land in Beijing next August. In the run-up to the games, we will take every opportunity to describe the changes that are taking place in China and paint the picture of how the country will look in another year.

With China’s continued economic prosperity and the increase in wealth it has meant for hundreds of millions of Chinese, one sector that is changing rapidly and is getting added impetus from the expected onslaught of visitors next year is services. China has made its mark so far as a manufacturing powerhouse, but some of the biggest areas of growth and the best investment opportunities going forward are likely to be in providing an upgraded and larger array of services to an increasingly affluent class of Chinese customers.

China Chapter Two: Apprehension and Trepidation

After twenty-five years of management experience with Johnson & Johnson (J&J), Bristol Myers-Squibb and Quadra Logic Technologies, (QLT), I became a “corporate refugee,” a middle-aged, middle manager who was downsized in the recession of the ’80s. There were thousands of us walking around in a daze. After years of education and successful corporate performance, we were out on the streets.

When you can’t get a real job, you become a consultant, which is why I founded Odyssey Consulting International Inc. I was doing for my own stable of clients what I had been doing for my corporate employers. 
 
My corporate management track record consisted of two elements:
I was a people person and had a talent as a change agent. When I graduated, I was hired as a pharmaceutical sales rep for Ortho Pharmaceuticals, a division of Johnson & Johnson. I became the guy they moved from territory to territory to clean up the mess made by a previous sales person, to help launch a new product or to work in the field with new reps.

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Introduction China Business Group

Hi everybody (and in particular Celina, John, Mayke, Christina, Louis-Bertrand, Denise, Hani, Rob, Benoît, Jorge, Jef, Nir, who did I miss?),

Thanks, to many of you, for sending me mail asking what the China Business Group on LinkedIn is about and what you can to do help make the group an overwhelming success! I – Michiel a.k.a. Michael – hope you will appreciate me answering some questions through this message to all members. As it will:

a) Spare me some time to answer everybody in person (copy-pasting makes it rather impersonal to me)
b) Share what this group is about with everybody