HONG KONG (MarketWatch) — Headhunters recruiting in China say they’ve rarely seen busier times.
Domestic and multinational companies seeking to bolster staff as part of bold expansion plans in the Chinese market have sparked frenzied bidding to attract qualified personnel across a broad ranges of industries, recruitment experts say.
Candidates with the right level of education and skills are typically seeing inducement offers that include salary increases of 40% to 50%, in addition to enhanced responsibility.
"I think China is the hardest place right now to secure talent and to retain talent,” said Christine Greybe, president of recruitment firm DHR International in Hong Kong.
She estimates that about 30% of candidates who plan on leaving their companies receive counteroffers which match or even exceed the rival offer, as companies grow wary of the loss of personnel through poaching.
"A lot of attention is going towards finding ways to keep talent, which is very unusual to anything we saw before,” Greybe said.
The hiring drive reflects ambitious plans among multinationals to secure opportunities in China. In some cases, companies are seeking to double or even triple managerial staff within a few years, cramming growth that would normally happen in a 10-year window, experts say.
"There’s been a redoubling of growth imperative of by multinationals trying to head into Asia, because companies are finding it hard to grow in the U.S. and Europe,” said Mike Game, the Hong Kong-based Asia chief executive officer for multinational recruitment.
Mainland Chinese companies are also offering more competitive wages for their senior executives, shrinking what’s been traditionally a gap with compensation packages offered by multinationals.
In some cases, Chinese companies are now paying salaries and packages that meet or beat those offered by Western companies, says Greybe, adding executives in technology companies — such as Chinese Internet giant Tencent Holdings Ltd.
