Headhunters go for auto and insurance executives
By Wang Zhuoqiong (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-07-23 07:13

Managerial personnel in automobile and insurance businesses, Japanese or Korean speaking IT engineers, and experienced manufacturing directors were the most wanted employees in the job market in the first half of the year, according to one domestic recruitment firm.

"Multinational car makers and domestic insurance companies have been looking for high-and-medium level employees," said Xu Hexiang, director of the headhunting department of Zhaopin.com. One of China's leading human resources websites. The Beijing based company conducted research based on its more than 2.2 million job applications and offers on the company's database.

Xu contributed increasing recruitment in the two sectors largely to the changes of their industry policy. The car market, for example, was boosted by WTO regulations, which allow foreign car corporations to manage their distribution and service businesses instead of relying on domestic agents.

As a result, to build their own team, car companies are fighting for talent in various fields including sales, marketing and customer service, said Xu, who predicts a higher return for managerial personnel in the auto industry.

Meanwhile, with approval for launch of more than 10 domestic insurance companies last year, Chinese insurance dealers joined their foreign rivals in heated competition for winning medium-level management staff.

"People who are skilled in individual insurance, group insurance, customer service, training, actuarial and compensation sectors are highly desired," Xu explained.

But there will be no direct conflict in the hiring of top managers between the Chinese and foreign insurance companies, Xu said, referring to the fact that most of the foreign corporations invite their executives and CEOs from abroad.

Unlike foreign players, the domestic insurance companies are reluctant to hire top staff because they will have their executives assigned by the upper management.

In addition, some professionals remain popular due to scarce supply in the job market.

"There has always been a shortage of experienced manufacturing managerial people for positions based in the second tier cities or cities in the west of China," Xu added.

Also on the wanted list are IT technicians who can speak Japanese or Korean as multinationals set up their Asian Pacific headquarters in China, offering technical support to these two countries.

Headhunting and PR staff are in great demand, thanks to the booming businesses.

Despite the unpredictable factors in headhunting, Xu said popular jobs in the first six months may retain their demand later into the year.

In a separate development, the survey also shows 74 per cent of employees who take on-the-job training during the summer pay tuition by themselves.

A total of 8 per cent received training jointly sponsored by the company and themselves while others surveyed were offered education by their company.

(China Daily 07/23/2005 page2)

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