Chinese firms hungry for talent

In the 1980s and most of the 1990s, almost all talented Chinese students wanted to study abroad. And those who were lucky enough to be able to study in advanced countries such as the United States or Japan would make every effort to remain there after graduation, reluctant to return to China.

But times have changed. Because of rapid economic development, living and working conditions have dramatically improved in China. In recent years, more and more Chinese citizens studying overseas are returning home to work or start their own businesses.

An increasing number of multinational corporations have set up operations in China, providing job opportunities for returned overseas Chinese students. Although multinationals have helped to lure back and retain domestic talent, they also pose great challenges to domestic companies and research institutes.

Wu Yikang, senior adviser for the Chinese Association for International Science and Technology Cooperation, said more and more local talent in China has flowed to multinationals because they tend to be engaged in cutting-edge high-tech research and offer generous salaries.

"It is a fact that multinationals in China have created a large amount of job opportunities for Chinese graduates, and also attracted many Chinese students studying abroad," he said.

According to government statistics, since 1979, when China opened its doors to let students go abroad for further study, more than a million students have left the country. Thirty percent of them have returned to China.

But this is far from enough to meet market demand. There is still a huge demand for overseas-trained Chinese with international vision and management expertise. The shortage of such talent is a big challenge to Chinese companies planning to expand their business overseas, as well as to multinationals operating in China.

Many multinationals understand that they could train local people to meet their growing demand for labor, but this takes time and money.

Early reports said almost 40% of China's educated talent worked in foreign-invested enterprises. A survey in Shanghai also indicated that the ratio of Chinese researchers to expatriate research-and-development staff reached nearly 40:1 in foreign-invested research organizations based in China, Xinhua said.

However, Wu Yikang points out that Chinese research and development people tend to have a very good academic background but very little practical experience. "The training provided by multinationals can help improve Chinese researchers," Wu said.

But multinationals are also afraid that once they invest in training local talent, their rising stars will be lured away by their competitors - "job-hopping" is now commonplace in China because of a shortage of talent.

Wu said: "The well-trained talent in multinationals are actually potential human resources for the Chinese companies, when the companies grow stronger."

And with fast social and economic changes in China, there have appeared new occupations, such as supply-chain and risk management, for which it is hard to find qualified personnel locally.

Therefore, it is easier for multinationals in China and Chinese companies to recruit foreign-educated Chinese students with work experience overseas.

According to the global head-hunting firm Whitney Group, China's financial industry is particularly hungry for Chinese with overseas work experience.

"Although there is an increasing trend of foreign-educated mainland students returning to China, the market is still in short supply," said Whitney Group managing director Harry O'Neill.

Whitney has about 400,000 people in its database but candidates suitable for the Chinese market account for only a very tiny percentage.

The expansion of multinationals in China has further boosted demand for experienced executives with world vision.

Human-resources consultancies, including Whitney, have predicted that in a couple of years, one out of every four managers working for multinationals will be a returned overseas Chinese student with work experience in overseas developed markets.

With the Chinese economy becoming increasingly globalized, big Chinese enterprises are also wooing overseas Chinese with attractive offers. Even the Chinese government opens some posts to lure foreign-trained Chinese and offers incentives for returnees to set up their own businesses. According to the Ministry of Education, some 110 special investment zones with incentives for returned Chinese talent have been set up in various regions.

By the end of 2005, more than 5,000 enterprises had been set up, ranging from high technology and finance to consulting, creating annual value of more than 10 billion yuan (US$1.28 billion).

Beijing also makes an effort to attract overseas-educated researchers, many of whom are now leading major national scientific research projects, according to Xinhua.

At Peking University's prestigious China Center for Economic Research (CCER), salaries for returnee economists range from $30,000-$50,000 per annum, excluding housing and other perks. A foreign PhD is a minimum qualification for a job at the CCER. On average, there are now 10-15 applicants competing for every opening at the CCER.

Among the major cities that a significant number of returnees are heading for, Shanghai seems the most proactive in attracting overseas Chinese professionals.

In August 2003, Shanghai launched an ambitious three-year campaign to lure 10,000 overseas Chinese to work in the city by offering preferential policies including a Shanghai residence card, which entitles the holder to the same rights as locals and government subsidies for those who start their own businesses in the city.

By the end of November, Shanghai met its target ahead of schedule and attracted 10,203 Chinese from 110 countries and regions to work in the city.

However, not all returned overseas Chinese students are welcome in the job market at home. This suggests that the problem of human-resources mismatching, a result of economic and social change, is becoming increasingly acute and needs to be addressed.

After a few months of unsuccessful job hunting, Ying, 25, who has a master's degree in mass communications from a British university, became depressed. She went for further study in Britain soon after graduating from a university in Shanghai in 2005, with the hope of earning more than her home-educated colleagues when she returned to China, but she now finds it even more difficult to make her dream come true.

"Some big companies don't like me because I don't have working experience or the professional knowledge they require, while small companies offer me salaries [that are] even [lower] than a fresh graduate with a bachelor's degree from a local university [would get],'' she said.

More than 35% of foreign-educated Chinese students find it difficult to get a job when they return to China, according to a survey of 1,500 returnees conducted by the State Council's Development and Research Center.

A few years ago, returned overseas Chinese like Ying began to be called haigui (returned from overseas) , which sounds the same as "sea turtles". By contrast, locally educated people were called tubie (local soft-shell turtles). Thus the term haigui suggests that returnees are respected.

But now many of the returnees are called haidai, "seaweeds", or job-searching returnees, because of their difficulties finding work. Most haidai are those who have gone abroad to study immediately after completing their high-school or undergraduate education in China and have returned to the country without the overseas work experience or communication skills employers require. They are treated no better than local students. Some haidai have trouble finding jobs because the overseas degrees they hold are not in demand.

Employers in China are more rational and practical now. What they look for are candidates who understand both Chinese and Western cultures, are fluent in both Mandarin and a foreign language, and have overseas work experience. A degree from a foreign school is no longer everything.

Sea turtles who plan to swim back home must be prepared for the new environment.

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