Author: Frank Mulligan
(Ed: This is an ongoing series of posts that presents specific items of actionable advice for HR in China. Call it the Top 10 things to do, or not do.)
A friend of mine in China is a headhunter and we often swap stories about hiring.
Last year he told me about a client who emailed one of his Consultants with a demand to provide ‘at least 10 candidates for my position by next Friday’. I kid you not. Literally those words. The threat was that the company would end their partnership if the Consultant did not comply.
Of course my friend backed his Consultant and the client’s Recruiter nearly got fired. But it got me thinking, and that thinking led to the questions and answers below. I hope they will help explain why it didn’t make sense for the Recruiter to have sent the original email.
- Q: Why do HR departments in China have difficulty getting a retained headhunter’s attention?.
A: He has too much on his plate and wants clients who can definitely close candidates. Everything else he leaves on the table for contingency recruiters.
- Q: What happens when you work with a lot of contingency recruiters instead?
A: You get what you deserve ie. candidates thrown at you without any assessment of their fit, and a ton of interviewing that generates few successful hires. Meanwhile, your competitor works with a retained company that works with them in a partnership. Hiring is hard in China and success requires a partnership.
- Q: Why do headhunters have difficulty getting strong candidates’ attention?.
A: Strong candidates get 6 calls a month and always have a firm offer in hand. If the company calling them is not a recognizable ‘name’ they will think twice about continuing the conversation.
- Q: Why do headhunters have difficulty getting any candidate’s attention in China.
A: All candidates in China get ‘only’ 4 calls a month and often have 1 firm offer already in hand, or are close to getting one. Staff in China actually compete with each other to see who has the most calls from headhunters. The winner pays for dinner.
- Q: Why do HR staff and in-house Recruiters have difficulty getting their General Manager’s attention?.
A: HR is still seen as ‘just support’ in China. GMs want Recruiters to give them ‘more candidates’.
- Q: Why can’t line managers get HR’s attention with regard to their need for new staff?.
A: HR has too many requisitions. Hiring is the HR department’s No. 1 job and it gets more difficult by the day.
- Q: Why does HR have difficulty getting the IT department’s attention?.
A: There is always a budget for an ERP because the value has been proven by finance people who speak the language of the board ie. numbers and cash. But there is never a budget for an ATS or a Succession Planning System because HR tends to speak in vague generalities.
- Q: Why has online hiring technology, like Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS), been slow to develop in China?
A: ATSs are excellent in markets where there are thousands of candidates. In China there are few candidates for any given job and the need to automate the internal hiring process is less. The good news is that for the larger companies in China deployment of ATSs has started. Cost is no longer a barrier because there are new online ATSs that can be paid for on a monthly basis.
- Q: Why don’t we see more adoption of software systems for succession planning and performance management?
A: Everyone is too busy replacing the last person who resigned, and hiring for the next round of resignations.
- Q: When will this cycle end?
A: Hope that it never does because it will only end when there is a dip in the economy, and we are not ready for a dip in the Chinese economy. No one in China has actually had experience of falling stock markets, declining exports, collapsing real estate prices and so on. The consquences for employment will be very significant, to say the least.
It all comes back to jobs and hiring in China. That’s why the Recruiter should not have sent that email.
