The Client Brief
The Chinese labour market is highly competitive as multinational and domestic firms scramble for few qualified graduates. Bearing & Boodles is most likely to face similar challenges during recruitment processes.
The Graduate Recruitment Manager will apply a combination of strategies to recruit the best graduates in the Chinese labour market. These strategies would include using social media and networking sites, liaising with the best universities and other institutions in China and the US for Chinese students, working with HR firms and recruiting agencies, providing internship and part-time opportunities to determine candidate employability. The company may send successful candidates overseas for skill developments and they must return to China on company’s assignments.
The Environmental Audit
Although China has a large pool of university graduates, less than ten percent are fit to work in foreign multinational firms.
Therefore, multinational firms already in China face a severe shortage of qualified employees, particularly in critical areas like service and managerial jobs. According to Diana Farrell and Andrew Grant (2005) of McKinsey Global Institute, there is a fierce competition for talent between foreign multinational firms and fast-growing domestic firms.
Juro Osawa and Paul Mozur (2012) acknowledge that employee recruitment in China is tough in a narrow environment with a battle for rare, but same talents sought by Chinese firms with global ambitions and Western firms that expand in China.
The severe shortage and fierce competition for talents imply that Bearing & Boodles might not recruit the best candidates in China.
Bearing & Boodles must acknowledge lack of skills among graduates in China for a global role. For instance, communication is a major challenge among Chinese graduates. Many Chinese graduates do not speak English, which is the international language for business. This may affect interpersonal relations and skills (Tayeb, 2005). While communication and interpersonal skills are the most sought-after skills, they also remain the poorest skills among Chinese graduates in China.
Many Chinese graduates lack prior job experience. In most cases, Chinese graduates lack industry-specific knowledge, job requirements and roles in the sector.
In addition, other Chinese graduates do not possess business acumen, which is necessary in a highly competitive global environment.
While job search services in China are evolving along with its firms, traditional models of job search might not work in the Chinese labour market today (Osawa and Mozur, 2012).
On the other hand, Bearing & Boodles might benefit from Chinese language skills, Chinese market knowledge, intercultural adaptability, professional capabilities and practical business knowledge (in case of graduates with the prior industry experience).
Best Practices and Current Situation
Best practices require the Graduate Recruitment Manager or the HR department to apply global talent management (GTM) in China (Farndale, Scullion and Sparrow, 2010). The Graduate Recruitment Manager must acknowledge that China is different from the US where recruiting firms have developed at the same rate to match requirements of businesses and technology firms.
Some firms use traditional modes of recruitment and HR agencies, but they do not yield effective outcomes as new forms of recruitment methods emerge.
Today, many domestic Chinese firms and foreign firms have turned to social media to attract the best talents. Consequently, there are specific Chinese social networking sites, which have evolved to facilitate recruitment for firms. For instance, Lenovo has relied on social media to search for talents. The company uses LinkedIn as its main social recruiting site, but it also uses Chinese-based sites like Tianji (similar to LinkedIn). Therefore, the Graduate Recruitment Manager will also rely on new forms of recruitment to attract the best Chinese graduates.
Some firms use internship to understand the Chinese labour market and identify opportunities, which are available for Chinese graduates. It would also allow the Graduate Recruitment Manager to determine employability of Chinese graduates. Firms collect data from interns and use them as pre-entry guidance platforms.
The Chinese labour market also encourages graduates to seek for some levels of work experience through volunteering and part-time opportunities to allow such graduates to demonstrate their skills and job specific qualities for potential employers.
Companies send successful graduates overseas to expose them to the industry best practices. Such graduates return to work in China on company assignments.
Proposal to Execute the Consultancy Assignment
Based on the environmental audit, best practices and current situation, the Graduate Recruitment Manager should consider these approaches when recruiting Chinese graduates.
The Graduate Recruitment Manager should rely on Chinese top universities to target the best talents. At the same time, the Manager should also focus on some institutions, which have provided the best candidates in the past for the industry. Chinese employees in Bearing & Boodles should encourage their previous colleagues to apply for available positions in the company.
The Graduate Recruitment Manager will work closely with other Chinese HR companies, job fairs and recruitment agencies to gain access to the wider Chinese job market.
Given the shift in recruitment practices, the Graduate Recruitment Manager will consider social media, such as LinkedIn and other specific social sites for recruitment purposes. This would attract recent graduates, who prefer social networking sites and the ease of finding job opportunities through the Internet. In most cases, potential candidates display their qualifications and other important details. The Graduate Recruitment Manager will use such information to select the best candidates for further interviews.
The Graduate Recruitment Manager may also recruit Chinese students directly from the US universities. Such candidates may offer advantages associated with communication barriers, interpersonal relationships and cultural adaptability. It would also be critical for Bearing & Boodles to tout itself as the best employer in the industry. Establishing strategic links with Chinese institutions of higher learning and conducting direct recruitment drive would ensure that the company acquires some of the best talents in China.
Summary
The environmental audit reveals that both foreign firms and fast-growing domestic industries in China scramble for few graduates with suitable qualifications, particularly in service and managerial positions.
Today, the best practices and current situations require firms or HR departments to adopt different approaches in graduate recruitment in China for a global role. These may include the use of traditional recruitment methods and new forms of recruitment associated with social media and networking.
Individual Reflection
Summary
I realised that consulting projects require knowledge of a professional adviser. Apart from HR management knowledge and skills, a consultant must possess communication skills, interpersonal relationship skills, IT skills, analytical abilities and tendencies to ask questions.
I will need to develop knowledge and skills in different areas to succeed in HR consulting.
An Overview of the Experience
As a consultant in HR, I noted that specific knowledge in the field was imperative for success. While anyone can become a consultant based on required skills, a great and successful consultant in any area must develop certain skills and qualities that relate to the industry.
Specific skills, knowledge and information in HRM practices would ensure that a consultant improves organisational core HR functions.
A consultant requires skills to work well with others because in most cases people work in groups. I noted that one must possess abilities to listen, ask and manage other people to consult successfully. This means that a consultant must have exemplary communication skills.
The job also requires service-oriented attitudes. A consultant must have the necessary motivation to complete a client’s task as scheduled. Therefore, time management and ability to use resources effectively are imperative in HR management consulting.
I also realised that consultants work with culturally diverse individuals and must develop leadership skills to meet their unique cultural orientations. Abilities to generate and use new ideas are critical skills in consulting services. This is imperative because a consultant must improve HR practices in an organisation. Executives depend on a consultant to improve their businesses.
Therefore, a consultant must be able to solve problems within his or her area of specialisation. While generating ideas might be simple, a consultant must have the ability to execute their ideas to achieve intended outcomes.
Personal Learning Goals
My major goal is to acquire all necessary skills in HR practices beyond my current knowledge. These skills will include IT, writing, reporting, business acumen, HR laws in different locations and presentation skills for senior executives.
I believe that these skills would allow me to join any HR consulting firm.
Reflection on the Experience and peer feedback
Currently, my strength as a consultant includes ability to listen and gather necessary information for a specific task. I have also developed specific knowledge necessary for succeeding in HR consulting. However, these skills might not be adequate.
Therefore, there are some areas, which further need developments. For instance, I noted the importance of abilities to speak other foreign languages. HR managers require such skills in countries where English might not be the business language. Cultural adaptability and effective communication are also areas, which require further developments.
Developing these skills will require further studies, practical experiences and interaction with other professionals in HR practices because the industry is socially challenging, service and people oriented.
Reference List
Farndale, E, Scullion, H and Sparrow, P 2010, ‘The role of the corporate HR function in global talent management’, Journal of World Business, vol. 45, no. 2, pp. 161–168. Web.
Farrell, D and Grant, A 2005, Addressing China’s Looming Talent Shortage. Web.
Osawa, J and Mozur, P 2012, In China, Recruiting Gets Social. Web.
Tayeb, M 2005, International Human Resource Management: A Multinational Company Perspective, Oxford University Press, Oxford, England. Web.