The Hiring Report

THE HIRING REPORT the state of hiring in china 2015

THE TOP 9 What professionals in China really want in a new role in 2015 THE NEW KING Why work life balance is now the No 1 priority of senior executives A CHANGING WORLD How smart businesses are changing the way they hire — and winning

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who’s in the market?

Hiring in China has never been more challenging, nor more interesting. The diversification of media, the rise of digital and the evolution of networks mean the quest for talent is now a complex pursuit. Is more digital the inevitable path? Or is a more strategic solution required? Surveying 1,262 Chinese professionals and hiring managers, Hudson set out to find out — starting by mapping the overall talent market.

IN 2015, THE Chinese WORKFORCE IS OPEN TO change.

Ninety seven per cent of the workforce are open to being approached by recruiters, over seven in 10 (74 per cent) have an up-to-date CV and almost half (46 per cent) have an up-to-date LinkedIn profile, according to our research.

From one perspective this signals a natural propensity to be curious: what

other opportunities are out there and how are others being remunerated, rewarded and motivated?

It’s human nature for individuals to be curious about new opportunities and to wonder whether there could be something better for them.

Yet what starts as curiosity could lead to a more serious issue for employers: retention. If almost all professionals in China are open to hearing about new

almost all open to talking

97% of Chinese professionals are open to being approached by a recruiter or employer about job opportunities.

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job opportunities, how confident are employers of their people’s loyalty?

Organizations and team managers who want to avoid staff turnover and retain top talent in 2015 need to ensure they offer a strong employee value proposition.

The quest for top talent is far from over and organizations that don’t make their people feel important, that don’t help them stay engaged, grow their skills and unlock their potential, will lose them.

almost all have b e e n approach e d 95% of Chinese professionals have been approached in the last six months.

a market ready to move

HIRING MANAGERS RealizE THEY NEED TO TAP INTO THIS largE — but passive — talent pool to get the right hires. Over eight in 10 (85 per cent) Chinese hiring managers feel they need to look beyond active job seekers to find the right candidate. They know that the best talent may not be in the group applying for jobs. They know they are instead out there, somewhere.

What’s more, many people may be open to moving but roles are becoming

increasingly specialized (a company will seek not just an accountant, but a business partner with stakeholder management skills). So while the pool of talent is large, how do you go about finding that one person?

For a hiring manager, this is today’s ultimate hiring question: the perfect talent fit is out there and likely interested, but how to go about not only finding them but actually bringing them into the organization?

The answer lies in the rationale that in order to win a person over, you must first know what they want.

Before you seek talent, you must first know who that talent is and then how to attract them.

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what job seekers want In 2015, any successful hiring process should begin with mapping the ideal candidate an employer wants: their roles and responsibilities and therefore skills and experience, aptitude and traits. From here, the focus must switch to what that ideal candidate wants. is a better benefits package, at 55 per cent. That these two are both in the top five is a clear sign that compensation is a key priority for job seekers. Hiring managers should therefore ensure they regularly review their salary and benefits packages to be in line with competitor offerings in the market.

ENSURING SALARY BANDS AND BENEFITS ARE CORRECT and competitive should be an absolute priority for employers in China in 2015.

Our survey results show that a higher salary tops the wish list for what professionals want in a new role this year, at 66 per cent. Also in the top five

Aside from finances, work life balance has emerged as a high priority for Chinese professionals in a new role.

That it is in second place this year shows the concept is now a serious discussion point for what job seekers want, and organizations should define what work life balance they can offer and be open

The top 9 things Chinese professionals look for in a new role 1

higher salary

2

Work life balance (including flexible arrangements)

3

career progression/training opportunities

4

better benefits

5

Cultural fit with the organization and/or team

6

A company whose values are closer to mine

7

strong manager

8

better brand

9

better job title

61% 60% 55%

45%

43% 33% 28%

Age: 20–35 Higher salary: 75% Career progression: 71% Work life balance: 61%

Age: 36–50 Work life balance: 62% Higher salary: 58% Career progression: 52% Age: Over 50 Company values: 50% Work life balance: 47% Higher salary: 41%

44%

Work life balance tops wish list for senior executives.

The top 3 priorities of senior executives when seeking a new role, according to our data:

57 56 51 %

Work life balance

4

who wants what?

66%

This data does not add up to 100% as respondents were asked to give more than one response.

%

A company whose values are closer to mine

Higher salary

%

to refining it for individual candidates.

Interestingly, work life balance is a key priority for all ages in the workplace — although different ages put different emphasis on it.

For those aged 20–35 and in the early stages of their career and earning potential, it is not as important as salary and career progression. For those in their late 30s and 40s who are heavily ensconced in family and financial responsibilities, it is the number one priority. And for those in their 50s and above who are either at the peak of their career or coming to the end of it, work life balance is more important than a higher salary but not as important as a company whose values tie in with their own. As each group has different priorities at different times

of their life, so their demands for work life balance change. the rise in importance of cultural fit we also see as significant.

That this once relatively unfamiliar concept is now seen by many Chinese professionals as a ‘top five’ priority is noteworthy.

Cultural fit means different things to different people — team fit, ethics fit, team behavior, organizational values — but at its heart, it’s about belonging.

For hiring managers, it’s never been more important therefore to not only understand what individual candidates want and value but to define and hone an organization’s own cultural offering, its own employer brand.

GENERATIONS & WORK LIFE BALANCE In China today, work life balance is the number one priority for those in their late 30s and 40s. This age is the peak time for family responsibilities, from child rearing and family finances to caring for elderly relatives. Yet at the same time it’s an important phase professionally. For those in this age group then, getting the right balance between work and family life is their number one consideration.

does brand matter?

Rise of the employer brand

98 2

%

of Chinese professionals say a company’s brand is important to them in deciding whether or not to apply for a role. say a company’s brand doesn’t matter when deciding whether or not to apply for a role.

%

Employer branding has emerged as a critical factor in attracting not only clients and customers, but quality talent. Companies risk losing candidates if they are not able to position their brand and clearly articulate the benefits they offer to potential employees.

Salary still dominates as a priority but the fact that work life balance is now second on the wish list for a new job in China is significant. Work life balance is now a mainstream attractor.

Mark Steyn, Chief Executive Officer, Asia Pacific 5

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how to connect with talent Digital technology may have forever altered the market but the new best practice in hiring is far from a digital-only approach.

Instead, our data reveals that hiring managers in China are relying on a more complex, multi-pronged and people-focused approach to finding and connecting with talent. cent and LinkedIn at 31 per cent fill out the top five.

What is significant here is the variety in the top five responses. While technology solutions like online job boards are important, what is seen as more important in China today are solutions around people: personal networks, recruiters and internal referral schemes. What is also significant is that

HIRING MANAGERS IN CHINA HAVE DECLARED THAT HEAD HUNTERS or recruitment agencies are their most effective sourcing strategy for talent in 2015, according to our survey.

They are significantly ahead of others at 67 per cent, with the next most effective methods being internal referral schemes at 50 per cent and personal networks at 46 per cent. Online job boards at 43 per

chinese HIRING MANAGERS TELL: headhunters no 1 Hiring managers in China on their most effective sourcing strategies

My personal network 46%

Own company’s database 13%

Headhunting 67%

Other social media 6%

hiring managers are using a variety of techniques and channels — from head hunters to personal networks to job boards — to source top talent, and an increasingly more complex and strategic sourcing plan.

WHAT THIS SUGGESTS IS HIRING MANAGERS CANNOT AFFORD TO take a simplistic approach to hiring. There

Is social media the solution? not on its own: Only 6% of hiring managers say ‘other social media’ is very effective when sourcing talent.

Own company’s database 27%

SO WHAT IS THE RIGHT MIX? Advertising/Print media

Online advertising

LinkedIn Microsites

Social media Associations/ Groups Networking Open web sourcing

Referrals

Print media, e.g. newspapers 3% 6

Online job boards 43%

Internal referral schemes 50% LinkedIn 31%

Conferences & events

SEO Blogs

can be no one method to suit all situations. Instead, hiring managers should take a tailored approach that navigates the multitude of channels now available. According to additional research from Hudson, 21 per cent of hiring managers say job boards are less effective than they were two years ago. And it is not social media that is necessarily filling the gap or providing an easy answer on where best to source talent: only six per cent of hiring managers said that ‘‘other social media’’ (excluding LinkedIn) was very effective when sourcing talent.

INSTEAD, IN 2015 AND ONWARDS WE WILL SEE a new norm evolve: multipronged and complex sourcing strategies that may

be the result of several years’ foundational work. That foundation may be a mix of contacts nurtured over years, networks developed and expanded, new groups found and daily social media and personal contacts harvested.

Hiring managers who engage a mix of strategy, people knowledge and networks will ultimately be those who win the best talent. And the key here is ‘mix’; for one job the sourcing strategy will be a multiple channel campaign, for another a recruiter’s market connections will result in a candidate being sourced on the spot.

Recruiting has evolved into a complex endeavour; in 2015 a multi-pronged, people-focused approach will be the key to connecting with great talent.

Finding great candidates is becoming harder.

To find great talent today you need tailored sourcing strategies that use a mix of appropriate channels to reach out and connect.

Lily Bi, Joint General Manager, Hudson Shanghai

on the rise Search Engine Optimisation (SEO): The nature of writing job ads has changed forever

86

%

4 10 %

never do

%

of hiring managers always or sometimes use keywords in job ads

don’t understand what SEO is

Mobile: Chinese job seekers are applying by phone

81

%

81% professionals in China SAY it’s very important that they can apply for jobs over their mobile phone. And age impacts this — the younger you are, the more you want mobile accessibility.

The percentage of age groups who say being able to apply for roles over their phone is very important:

83 80 76

%

Age: 20–35

%

Age: 36–50

%

Age: Over 50s

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SCREENING, Tests & INTERVIEWS Across China, screening is evolving. What we are now seeing is a gradual evolution in how the business sector views and assesses a person’s aptitude and fit for a role, team and organization.

TRADITIONAL SCREENING methods remain strong in China, with cover letters and face-toface interviews still highly valued: over eight in 10 hiring managers (85 per cent) say cover letters are important and just one per cent describe face-to-face interviews as ‘not important’.

Yet the data shows signs of change.

One in five (21 per cent) say they would be open to non face-to-face interviews in certain circumstances, a sign that video technology may come more into play. What’s more, 43 per cent of Chinese professionals say they are

CVs AND COVER LETTERS CVs Not everyone is tailoring Few professionals (14%) tailor their CV for every job application.

COVER LETTERS Still essential: Cover letters still matter — today over 8 in 10 hiring managers (85%) say cover letters are either very or somewhat important in the job application process.

THE SOCIAL FACTOR

60

%

of professionals in China are comfortable with future employers seeing their online footprint.

That’s a good thing.

As who wants to risk appearing unprofessional?

Almost four in 10 hiring managers (39%) look to social media when evaluating a candidate.

seeing more psychometric testing compared to two years ago.

As organizations recognize the benefits that great talent offers, so the focus is on ensuring they have quality candidates in place. More rigorous screening measures are therefore increasingly being used; the best businesses know it’s not just about filling a job today, it’s about building a strong workforce that will stay and perform. How do you know you have the best candidate for not just the job, but the business? You test for what drives them, what motivates them, what will make them happy and what will help them succeed.

Interviews Most likely number of interview rounds for professionals in china: 3 3 interviews: 2 interviews: 1 interview:

39% 32% 10%

Non face-to-face interviews: a new option 21% would be open to non face-to-face job interviewing in certain circumstances.

But face-to-face interviews still crucial Only 1% say face-to-face interviewing is ‘not important’.

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Test scores

Psychometric testing is on the rise 2015 marks a shift IN PSYCHOMETRIC TESTING IN China. Already highly valued in other countries, our findings suggest it is becoming more widespread locally.

What our findings also reveal is that senior executives value it more than others, which should be a signal to all.

Most senior executives have been through an assessment process themselves and understand the value it can add. Test results help you understand yourself: who you are, what drives you and where your opportunities lie. How do you leverage your strengths? Work on your gaps?

Develop a career strategy?

Psychometric testing reveals these things and more; it’s the ultimate guide on getting ahead.

It’s also the ultimate guide for team managers. Knowing the psychological profiles of their team enables them to lead better, making the most of their employees’ strengths and managing with motivations in mind.

Psychometric testing ensures hiring managers select candidates based not only on their skills and experience, but also on their cultural fit and potential for growth — and given the rise of cultural fit

in today’s workplace agenda, this has never been more important.

Identifying the connections between competencies and personal qualities allows companies to select those candidates who are likely to both perform better and stay longer. Cultural fit, often difficult to ascertain through interviewing alone, can prove to be a major component when it comes to selecting and retaining the best people.

Psychometric testing on the rise: 43% of professionals say they are seeing signs of psychometric testing use increasing compared to two years ago.

43

Understanding what motivates people is one of the most critical levers to organizational success.

Cherol Cheuk, Joint General Manager, Hudson Shanghai

52

%

Senior executives value it more than the norm: 52% of senior executives say psychometric testing has merit as part of the hiring process.

% 9

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15 WAYS TO HIRE IN 2015 Hiring has changed. To get the best talent today you need to look beyond active job seekers, beyond standard advertising practices, beyond yesterday’s screening techniques. To define, find and source great talent who will help your organization succeed, in 2015 you need to think smarter.

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PROFILE the person, not just the role Mapping the role description, skills and experience required remain vital in hiring. But to truly find great talent who will not only stay but excel, smart businesses are profiling the kind of person they want: the psychometric attributes and motivational drivers that match the job description and will complement the team and organization.

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Know what your target wants The better you know your target market, the better chance you have of creating, and selling, an offering that will appeal.

CANDIDATES: STAY PROFESSIONAL ON SOCIAL Four in 10 hiring managers (39%) told us they check social media in their hiring process. To give themselves a fair chance, candidates must ensure their digital footprint is clean and professional.

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SHOW THEM MORE THAN money Money matters, we all know that. And professionals in China have indicated that as a group, higher salary tops the wish list. Employers must have the right salary bracket in place, but they should also realize that for candidates money is a balancing act with other factors.

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Define YOUR role value proposition What are the three key selling points of the role?

Is it a learning opportunity, a chance to lead, a certain path to skill development?

A strong and clear candidate value proposition equals a strong likelihood of sourcing best fit candidates.

target niche skills and BUSINESS NEEDS Roles have never been more specialized, so you need to understand the niche skills required to address your industry’s specific needs — know, for example, where to find marketers with analytics expertise and technology talent with strong people skills.

Create a sourcing strategy In 2015 candidates are everywhere, but not necessarily in one place regularly or for a long time. To find them, successful hiring means building a sourcing map: defining the best places to find your candidates, and then carrying out a sourcing strategy.

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Embrace the job ad rule of four Use our IDEA principle in your job ads: ● Stimulate Interest ● Create Desire ● Generate Enthusiasm ● Compel the reader to Action

The EVP era arriveS Only 2% of Chinese professionals say a company’s brand doesn’t matter to them when applying for a role. EVP — the employee value proposition — has arrived in 2015 and hiring managers need to ensure their EVP is strong enough to attract the best candidates.

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Recognize that sourcing is now deep …

Today’s sourcing channels include: blogs, SEO, conferences, events, referrals, networking, associations, LinkedIn, media, online advertising, job boards, personal networks and databases — for a start. Today, great talent is scattered and can remain elusive so sourcing strategies may need to go wide and deep.

… Yet personal networks are MORE IMPORTANT than ever The top five most effective sourcing strategies in our survey included just two purely technical platforms — online job boards and LinkedIn. The rest were all people-based. As our world becomes more digital and socially connected, so we reach more to our personal networks, to the bonds that connect us and in which we trust.

UNDERSTAND SEO 86% of hiring managers now always or sometimes use keywords in their job ads. To compete, you must too. SEO is not just a technology initiative, it’s about writing high-quality, compelling and search-friendly ads.

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Consider psychometric testing 43% of Chinese professionals say they are seeing this increasing. Psychometric testing benefits the role: it increases longevity and results. It benefits the team: fit the right personality and improve team dynamics. And it benefits the organization: hire for motivational and cultural fit and you get innovation, creativity, perseverance — the keys to organizational success.

prioritize WORK LIFE BALANCE & CULTURAL FIT Professionals in China nominate work life balance as their second top priority in a new role in 2015, with cultural fit their number five priority. Most of us want to work hard, make our mark and achieve in our jobs — but increasingly we want to do so with balance in our life, and with like-minded peers in an environment where we feel valued. As work encroaches on our personal life with extra hours at night and on weekends answering emails, we start to wonder, ‘What’s it all for?’ A common purpose, shared beliefs and united vision can make the difference between a disengaged employee who works to live, and a passionate one who loves to work.

THE COMPETITION FOR PASSIVES IS GROWING Eight in 10 Chinese hiring managers now feel they need to look beyond active job seekers to find the right candidate when hiring. Your competitors are scouring for the best. If you want to find the right talent, you need to engage the passive market.

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Methodology For this report we canvassed the views of 1,262 professionals and hiring managers across China.

We asked them their views on all aspects of hiring, from what they think of cover letters and how confident they are with their own social media presence to whether they use psychometric testing in their recruitment practices. From these results we collated this report, a combination of the survey findings and our own knowledge, learnings and insights into best practice hiring in 2015.

about hudson

Hudson is a global talent solutions company with expertise in specialized recruitment, recruitment process outsourcing (RPO), talent management and contracting. We help our clients and candidates succeed by leveraging our expertise, deep industry knowledge and proprietary assessment techniques.

Through relationships with millions of professionals in 20 countries, we match talent with opportunities by assessing, recruiting, developing and engaging the best and brightest people for our clients.