By Frank Mulligan

Brrr! Even though the sun is shining, it’s cold. It’s always cold when the economy slows, and it’s not just psychological.

Hiring freezes are in place in many of the world’s leading companies, and on a world-wide basis. This means that corporate staffers and line managers cannot hire anyone for a fixed period of time, or until an open-ended freeze is cancelled.

Here in China, where we expect the economy to ’slowdown’ to ‘only’ 8% growth next year, there has always been a way of getting around the freeze. But right now it’s getting harder and harder to keep the ice from forming. Read the rest of “Hiring Freezes” or post a comment

By James Hudson

I have an American friend who recently joined a Chinese PR firm. When I asked him how it was going he mentioned that the experience was ‘totally different’ to working for a PR company in the west. Although this is expected, he went on to talk about swipe cards that recorded his times of entry into the office and how the company would fine him half a day’s salary if his swipe card indicated he was just one minute late. This, along with being allocated new tasks as late as 8pm to finish ‘as soon as possible’, ultimately led him to feel dissatisfied with the company and resulted in a complete lack of interest in how the company operated.

Managers of Chinese companies frequently ask me why many of their employees show such a lack of commitment to their companies’ operations. Read the rest of “Want Committed Employees? Learn to Trust Them.” or post a comment

By Jack LeBlanc

As the Sichuan dishes entered in a well-orchestrated ballet of flavours, the waitresses started to take away the little cups and replace them with bigger glasses that could handle a more manly volume of rice wine. The drinking now took off in earnest, every toast demanding another, more bottles opened and circulated around the table. As the empty bottles started to clutter the little trolley, the heads of some at the table transformed into a wide spectrum of colours starting at cherry red, darkening into burgundy and finally dark purple.

To me the liquor tasted like fuel capable of powering a Long March rocket to the moon. The fifty-plus percent alcohol left an aggressive burning trace on the tongue and throat, but it seemed that the quicker you emptied your glass the easier it was to get rid of the heavy after-taste. Read the rest of “The great glass curtain walls of China. Part 4″ or post a comment

I tend to receive a recurring misconception about the Chinese labor market from overseas-based clients. This misunderstanding primarily affects overseas-designed provisional staffing budgets as well as the perceived value of quality of China-based recruitment agencies. In short, agencies are perceived to attempt inflating candidate packages for higher fees. While some rogue agencies do, there is a distinctive trend that the cost of Chinese talent is catching up with…

Read the rest of “No Free Lunch in China” or post a comment >>

By Andrew Reich 

Developing a QC Checklist will have an immediate and dramatic effect on your product quality and the understanding level of your Chinese suppliers. The QC Checklist is basically a written guide for your product’s: contents, packaging, color, barcodes, appearance, possible defects, functions, and special requirements. Such a checklist is generally developed with the assistance of a 3rd party quality control company, but by following the points below you can create a simple and effective one your own. The KEY to making your QC Checklist effective is providing it to the factory in a bi-lingual format that includes Chinese. So, once you have written the checklist based on the below suggestions, make sure you have it translated. Here we go… start with a blank excel spreadsheet and clearly organize the following: Read the rest of “Dramatically Increase your Quality and Communication Level with Chinese Factories - Develop a product QC Checklist” or post a comment