Talent Strategy Behind Made In China Going Out To Sea: Demand Is Increasing Against The Trend And "Going In" Is Still To Be Upgraded

The outbreak of Xinguan has disrupted the pace of global economic development, but it has not hindered the enthusiasm of Chinese enterprises to go abroad, as can be seen from the talent recruitment.

Recently, China International think tank and LinkedIn jointly launched the white paper on overseas talent development of Chinese enterprises (hereinafter referred to as the "white paper"). According to the white paper, 91% of the 100 Chinese enterprises surveyed said that they had not laid off staff during the epidemic period, and 23% of them even expanded their recruitment. Chinese enterprises at sea have not been disturbed by the epidemic, but also contributed to the stability of employment in the host country.

In addition to the special impact of the epidemic, according to the data of overseas talents in recent three years, Chinese enterprises have a strong demand for foreign talents. According to the white paper, from 2017 to 2019, the total number of overseas employees of Chinese enterprises has increased year by year, with an increase of more than 10% in 2019 compared with 2017. In addition, according to the data of the Ministry of Commerce, the proportion of Chinese enterprises employing foreign employees in the total number of overseas employees has increased from 50.4% at the end of 2017 to 60.5% at the end of 2019, and the localization rate of overseas employees of Chinese enterprises is also increasing.

"From the perspective of future development, Chinese enterprises' demand for overseas talents will continue to rise." In an interview with the media including the 21st century economic report, Zhao Ping, vice president of the Research Institute of the China Council for the promotion of international trade, said: on the one hand, China's foreign direct investment has not been affected too much by the epidemic, so the demand for overseas talents will be stronger; on the other hand, the level of China's outward development is also continuously improving, and the internationalization level of headquarters and the pace of internationalization will accelerate One step is to increase the demand for overseas talents.

Affected by the epidemic situation, there are new changes in the recruitment of overseas talents in manufacturing enterprises. IC photo

Reverse cycle recruitment

At present, the trend of anti globalization and unilateralism is prevailing, and the impact of the new epidemic situation is superimposed. The world economy is in deep recession, and the situation of Chinese enterprises going to sea is also facing great changes.

According to the statistics of the Ministry of Commerce and the State Administration of foreign exchange, from January to June 2020, China's foreign direct investment in the whole industry reached 386.05 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 0.8% (about US $54.9 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 4.4%). Among them, China's domestic investors made non-financial direct investment in 4089 overseas enterprises in 159 countries and regions, with a total investment of 362.14 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 0.7% (about 51.5 billion US dollars, a year-on-year decrease of 4.3%).

This will inevitably affect the overseas talent strategy of Chinese enterprises. According to the data from LinkedIn platform, as of June 2020, the number of overseas jobs released by Chinese enterprises has dropped significantly, with a decrease rate of 32%.

"From the beginning of 2020 to may, the number of overseas jobs released by enterprises on LinkedIn has continued to decline, and it began to rise in June, but it began to show a sharp decline in October, reaching a new low. Since then, it has recovered slowly again. " Wang Qian, general manager of LinkedIn China Talent solutions division, pointed out.

In addition, in 2020, there will be new changes in the recruitment of overseas Chinese enterprises. Wang Xi disclosed that in 2020, the number of recruitment jobs in Europe of China's offshore enterprises was basically the same as that in 2019, while the number of recruitment in North America showed a significant decline, with the overall proportion falling from 58% to 30%. Asia, on the other hand, has attracted more attention from China's offshore companies, with its share of recruitment jobs rising to 27% from 6% in 2019.

Although the number of overseas jobs of Chinese enterprises fluctuates as a whole, it does not mean that there will be large-scale layoffs in overseas Chinese enterprises. In fact, among the 100 enterprises surveyed by the white paper, 23% of the enterprises said that they would continue to expand their recruitment during the epidemic period, 68% of the enterprises basically kept the number of existing employees, and only 4% - 5% of the enterprises indicated that they intended to or had laid off staff.

"As a whole, we can see that although the overseas recruitment of Chinese enterprises going to sea is affected by the epidemic, the vast majority of enterprises still have a firm pace of going to sea, and there are many opportunities to go abroad." Wang Qian pointed out that "Internet and high-tech enterprises, facing emerging markets such as the Middle East, Southeast Asia and Africa, can find more and better opportunities in terms of business model innovation, industrial advantage extension and core technology application."

Specifically speaking, among the talents urgently needed by China's offshore enterprises, technical talents are the first, followed by management talents. In addition, talents in the fields of language, R & D, government public relations, law, front-line operation, procurement and logistics are also in demand.

However, in the process of going abroad, Chinese enterprises are facing many challenges in the process of overseas talent recruitment. How to change from "going out" to "going in" still needs to continue to invest. "On the one hand, it is difficult to identify talents; on the other hand, these enterprises lack effective channels for overseas talent recruitment; at the same time, in terms of overseas talent management, Chinese enterprises also need to improve their overall cross-cultural integration ability." Wang Xi said.

Therefore, she suggested that China's offshore enterprises should attach great importance to the overall strategic layout of overseas talents, and at the same time, they need to invest in building their own employer brands for a long time, so as to achieve accurate and effective talent matching. In addition, in the face of the current rapidly changing economic situation, enterprises should create flexible organizations to match market changes.

"Offshore enterprises should consider the regional characteristics of different markets, respect local laws and regulations and culture, and cooperate with the headquarters and overseas branches to formulate flexible plans with both one game of chess and different market characteristics." Wang said.

Made in China "going out"

From the industry point of view, Chinese manufacturing enterprises in this round of sea, showing a strong demand for talent recruitment. According to the white paper, 34% of the enterprises surveyed said that there is a great demand for talents in the future. Among these enterprises, 41% are involved in manufacturing industry and 17% are involved in infrastructure construction.

In fact, from the data in recent years, China's manufacturing enterprises have shown a relatively strong momentum. According to the data of the Ministry of Commerce, in 2017, China's foreign investment flows to the manufacturing industry of US $29.51 billion, up 1.6% year-on-year, accounting for 18.6% of the total flow of that year, 3.8% higher than that of 2016; in 2018, China's outward investment flowed to the manufacturing industry of US $19.11 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 35.2%, accounting for 13.4%; and in 2019, the flow to the manufacturing industry was $20.24 billion, with a year-on-year increase of 6%, accounting for 14.8%.

In terms of talent recruitment, Chinese manufacturing enterprises present their own characteristics. "China's domestic manufacturing industry ecology has been formed, so the most needed talents for manufacturing enterprises to go global are the talents needed in the process of domestic manufacturing transformation and upgrading." Zhao Ping said to the 21st century economic reporter.

For example, the upstream R & D design of many manufacturing enterprises needs to integrate global resources, especially to cooperate with the upstream supply chain. Therefore, it has become an important overseas investment direction to set up R & D institutions overseas to absorb high-tech and manufacturing related R & D talents. At the same time, the overseas investment of some Chinese enterprises focuses on the downstream of the industrial chain, such as channel distribution, supply chain management and other related talents, which is conducive to their own enterprises to go out to expand the overseas market, so the demand for relevant talents becomes urgent.

It should be noted that, affected by the epidemic situation, there have been new changes in the recruitment of overseas talents of manufacturing enterprises. "From the data of LinkedIn, after the reshuffle in 2020, the whole manufacturing industry shows signs of recovery in 2021, including the release of jobs and the creation of digital talents. After experiencing the epidemic, these enterprises pay more attention to digital talents." Wang Qian told the 21st century economic reporter.

Zhao Ping also believes that the future demand for digital talents is very strong. "From the perspective of global economic development, economic globalization, trade liberalization and social informatization will inevitably lead to an increase in the demand for digital talents by enterprises, especially in the process of the global economic recession caused by the new crown epidemic, digitalization has become an important direction to go out of recovery in the future. In terms of the general trend, Chinese enterprises will need more and more digital talents in the process of foreign investment. "