Special Topic: Finding and Keeping Jobs in China

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Special Topic: China Visa Guide

In these troubled times employment is on everybody’s minds and expats are no exception. While the job market for foreigners in China is still relatively strong, visas, taxes, and the ins and outs of doing business in China continue to elude most foreign managers and employees. Tim Burgess of Access Financial Counsel LLC and Access Business Counsel took the time to explain his work and the challenges facing Chinese companies and expat employees. He had so much important information to share that rather than cut it down we split the interview into two parts for your viewing pleasure.

What brought you to China?
A good friend of mine moved to Shanghai in 2003 and he spoke of it so highly and with such excitement that I began to visit to find out what all the fuss was about. It was clear to me that China was a dynamic and exciting place with many opportunities - and amazing food!

What do Access Financial Counsel LLC and Access Business Counsel do?
Our specialty is Contractor Management with a focus on Cross-Border (International) Assignments. In simple terms we act as a bridge between an individual freelancer / interim / contract worker and the end client. In most of our locations we work closely with Contract Recruitment Agencies. We handle all the administration: work permit, residency, insurance, invoicing, payroll, expense processing, tax returns, etc. For the individual it means no administration, plenty of support and most importantly the best legal net return on their billable rate. For the agency and end client they can rest assured that their contract staff are fully compliant with local immigration, employment and taxation legislation. Obviously they also enjoy the reduced administration!

Your company Access Business Counsel LLC works in 60 different countries, what is different about doing the same kind of work in China?
In China our role is a little different. The contractor management industry here is still quite young and so part of our job is to educate customers of the benefits in using the service and in using contractors. It’s a refreshing challenge.

Why isn’t China producing enough IT people?
It’s an interesting question and I still don't have a good answer. Their are several factors at work
- Brain drain overseas
- Lack of graduate opportunities
- Rapid churn in the employment market means employees move companies and roles very quickly, don't develop skills for a long time, and tend to try to move into leadership and management positions as their priority.
Bear in mind its not just IT where this problem is occurring. It’s also a big issue in Finance, Law, Education, Engineering, Management, Healthcare.

Is it because the qualified Chinese finance and technology personnel are working abroad?
Certainly this is a big factor. I think the most exciting opportunities for Chinese finance and technology people (as for many other countries) will tend to be overseas. At the moment places like USA and Europe are where the most interesting, cutting edge technology projects are. But with the rapid growth of China there is a strong argument that in fact the most exciting opportunities in the world are now here.

What is being done to in China to address the problem?
In the short term employers can bring skilled staff in from overseas and in fact it’s essential if growth isn't going to stagnate. For example if there aren't skilled accountants and auditors then how to rectify the ongoing issues with corporate governance and financial disclosure from big business? Companies cannot wait for a long term solution, they should be bringing in specialists to go over their books now.

But there are misconceptions about the cost and effectiveness of this. Because of the history of expat managers on huge packages it’s assumed that to use foreigners is a major expense. However with the global financial crisis it’s never been more affordable to get well experienced, highly capable skilled workers from the international pool. Additionally foreign workers are much more open to contract/interim roles than their Chinese counterparts meaning that it’s not necessarily a huge overhead for companies. Employers can bring in a skilled resource for a fixed period, make full use of their experience and maximize the skills transfer to their existing staff to raise their companies intellectual capital. It’s a short term strategy, but also one that benefits the medium and long term.

Special Topic: China Visa Guide

 

In my mind the only successful long term solution starts with graduates. The government has made enormously positive moves in the areas of training graduates, but it hasn't resulted in a very successful take up of graduate level employees. Employers focus on the pool of existing skilled workers to meet their needs. Now they have started looking a little wider - at the returning sea turtles and the Chinese diaspora in S.E. Asia and USA. But these are still stop gap solutions. If employers don't make the commitment to develop and retain staff internally then they will never solve this problem.

Of course there is a secondary problem in recent years which was the huge pressure on employers to retain staff. A manager would think "Why should I invest in training these staff when they will leave me within 6 months to join a competitor!” This will change to an extent as things cool down, but perhaps the government can make more incentives for companies to train and develop staff internally. For example a golden handcuff - where employers and employees get tax breaks for undergoing further training and development, but it’s tied to them staying with the employer for a certain period of time afterwards. This would encourage more stability and internal growth.

But ultimately the responsibility lies with the employers to be proactive. The downturn gives a great opportunity for companies to refocus their policies.
- Recruit the right people, not just skills. For critical positions where skill and performance is most important then use specialist staff. Contractors and Interim staff can meet these needs and buy the time.
- Invest heavily in training and development of your own staff. In China, staff are especially drawn to opportunities to learn and improve - it’s in the best interest of both employer and employee to make this happen.
- Work hard to offer all staff career paths & development opportunities
- Offer competitive salaries as it’s significantly cheaper than losing staff and having to hire new ones
- Foster an atmosphere and reputation of being a preferred employer. People want to work for companies which show loyalty during bad times, which engage and involve their workers in company policy, which work hard to find and keep good staff.

Our interview with Tim Burgess continues next week with a discussion of the benefits of being contract workers, the oft-abused H-visa, and surviving the economic downturn in China

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