Human Resources in China: “Accept what you’ve got and model them into what you expect them to be”

I hear a lot of people complaining about things that seem to be quite common in Chinese employees.

1. Not saying the truth / Or failing to deliver what they feel are bad news
This sentence sounds quite familiar to me by now: “Lying is not an issue. It is accepted and they do not even think they are doing something wrong”.
Or the “Truth Vs Courtesy” dilemma, a different dimension to the same problem that I read about in the book  ”Business Leadership in China” by Frank T. Gallo. It describes how employees often do not want to deliver bad news that may “hurt you”, “make you unhappy” or “make you lose face”.

2. Looking for a scapegoat
It seems a lot of managers believe that when a mistake is made, you need to find who is responsible and give an “exemplary punishment””.

Those are obviously behavioral patterns that you would not like in your organization…So the tip of the day could be something like:
“Accept what you’ve got and model them into what you expect them to be”

Or at least that is what entrepreneur German Torrado tries to do when he takes his new employees through their “in-job training”.

1.When it comes to saying the truth he tells me:
“Here you must acknowledge that an employee may not tell you the truth but still be loyal. Having said that, you really need to work on that, an eradicate that behavior because they may fail to tell you the truth on something unimportant today, but it may be something critical tomorrow”

“Once you identify an issue that has been hidden from you, you need to keep your cool and then deliver the message: “a director needs to be informed in order to be able to solve the issues that come up, and my expectation is that you will inform me to help me solve them””

2. And his tip for “scapegoat” syndrome:
“As part of my new managers induction, I always make a special effort to share my views/experience on how to work as a team and how to lead teams. I know middle management has been told that, when something goes wrong you need to look for the person responsible and give an exemplary punishment. That is not how I want my managers to work, so I put a lot of effort on showing them how to deal with that type of work situation.”

http://www.foreignentrepreneursinchina.com/

China Sales & Marketing Leaders: Make Your Promotion Happen

By Andrew Hupert

International companies in Shanghai and the rest of China are growing so fast that sometimes you can’t wait for management to notice you and make plans for your future. In fact, you are best off taking charge of your own career.

One way for young people on China sales and marketing teams to take charge of their jobs is to develop a specialty or valuable expertise.

Specialization #1: Client Orientation. Boost your career by building a client specialty. You will make yourself an expert in handling a specific type of deal, transaction or market – anything that brings you in contact with a specific, identifiable segment of your company’s overall market base. If you sell IT equipment, you could specialize in the “education and training market”, or the travel industry. Insurance and finance people could specialize in products for small and growing companies, or health insurance for families from other parts of China. The best choices are the ones other people don’t necessarily want – at least not now. It’s best if you are already doing business with these people.

Specialization #2: Product or Industry Solutions. Sometimes you’ll want to take a different approach, and become an expert at something that a broad range of your clients can make use of. Stockbrokers who can potentially sell to any investor will differentiate themselves by doing more research on a specific type of company or industry. They guy who can say “I am an expert in the semiconductor design industry in Eastern China” is going to get his call returned from people who are interested in hi-tech investment around Shanghai and Suzhou. Salesmen from almost any industry can also build up an unusual knowledge in some facet of their business.

When I worked for an investment bank in Taipei, I made myself an expert in the regulations for transferring funds between the US and the Taiex stock exchange. Every client of mine knew every single thing there was to know about technology and political risk – but no one knew about the boring details of a complicated regulation. So they would call me.

Create your own promotion:
Once you have a viable specialty in place and a few clients recognize you as a guy who knows something about anything, you’ll want to stake your claim. Young salespeople can suggest to their bosses that they be known as a “sales specialist” or “key accounts manager” – preferably on a new set of business cards. Your manager might object to you engineering your own mini-promotion, or he may be impressed that you are thinking about your future. He won’t be too excited about paying you more – but he might not object so much to a different COMMISSION RATE or PERFORMANCE-LINKED BONUS.

In other words, if you frame the discussion in terms of what HE gets out of it, you can easily negotiate more money for more performance. Remember – managers ALWAYS want performance first – which is ok, as long as you are clear on a % or amount and a TIME period. Keep it light and friendly at first – but end up with a clear agreement that if you can raise sales among a certain type of customer or product by XX%, you will be paid Y% or Z rmb by the end of the quarter. Or something close to that.

The point is, you have to take the initiative and have a plan to get that promotion. If you wait for someone to notice you and plot out your career for you while your company is doubling in size every year, you may be in for a very long wait.

Andrew Hupert, Chinese Negotiation

http://www.chinasuccessstories.com/

A Disturbing Trend in Asian HR

By Mike Threatt

As an HR professional in China I know that I am often insulated from the latest methods of western interviewers. I am familiar with the “Angry Interviewer” method when working with CSRs; however, this method is now spreading to Asia with the level and intensity of anger being intentionally raised in the mistaken belief that this will guarantee a more refined screening process.

Playing the role of an angry customer has always been a standard way to gauge a candidate’s suitability to customer service. What is becoming more prevalent is the interviewer intentionally angering a candidate during standard questioning and determining their suitability only from the responses given in this stressful situation. While this may work in most (some?) cases, cross-culture (Asian) interviewing ensures this will fail miserably due to differences in reactions based on business/social culture and the circumstances of the exchange.
As an example; we arranged a phone interview between a young Japanese candidate and a western HR manager. The HR manager began the interview with standard questions and very quickly became annoyed, then angry with the candidate. At the conclusion of the interview the candidate was upset and refused to discuss the details of what happened. There were three ways to respond, each of which will make the interview an exercise in futility.

1. Reciprocate (to a lesser degree) and fail the interview in which case the company may have lost a very self-confident employee who could have brought strength to a department. In all fairness, this response would be an extremely odd response for most of the younger Chinese and Japanese candidates with whom I have worked but common with anyone above a certain age.

2. Speak openly and directly to the interviewer and ask why they are being so rude. At this point the interviewer has two choices, come clean and explain the method or continue the charade. If the interviewer comes clean he has learned absolutely nothing about the candidate other than they are not stupid (and the candidate now knows the company has no qualms about being deceitful); if the interviewer continues he has lost the justification of any decision made based on future responses. (“I want to hire her but the interview was a bust since she knew what was going on.”)

3. Refuse to respond to the anger and answer as the interviewer would expect a successful CSR to respond. – While this is what the interviewer is seeking to evoke, an Asian candidate might go this route but would most likely turn down any job offer no matter how attractive. (Which is what happened in this case.) She may have needed the job but to a young Asian if the first contact is like this imagine an office full of people with the same attitude; a room full of discontented, angry coworkers. Anyone who does accept a job offer after this type of interview is almost certainly going to be a meek office drone who brings nothing to a company beyond a warm body with the ability to parrot responses.

I think this is one of the main reasons foreign companies are disappointed in their hires. Often it’s not the candidate’s lack of skills but the company’s misperception of responses based on their own culture. The very employees they are looking for, courteous people who enjoy working with the public and want a job where they can make a difference, will respond differently to a rude interviewer (perceived as a work superior) and a rude customer (the focus of their work) based solely on the situation they are in at the time.

To people in most cultures of Asia, an interview is a chance to check the possibility of beginning a ‘relationship’ with a company. It is not a test to be passed, tests are written on paper and grades are given. Success in ‘angry’ interviews comes only when the candidate is aware that they are participating in a role-play where the interviewer is direct and open about difficulties that may be encountered.

Primary interviews are meant to be short and direct so interviewers can save time by weeding out the majority of incompatible candidates under the broadest terms such as skill level, language ability, or attitude. Just as we expect candidates to answer questions truthfully, HR professionals cannot make snap decisions based on the results of deceptive cross-culture interviewing. To be a successful recruiter cultural awareness is more necessary than almost any other skill when it comes to rating foreign candidates.

I truly believe that any HR person who cannot get a good sense of a candidate’s basic personality, integrity, character, and suitability for a specific position after 15 minutes of open and honest interaction (in person OR on the phone) should not be allowed to interview. Companies need to have a rule that interviewing across a cultural divide needs to be limited to HR people who have extensive experience in both cultures.

http://www.chinasuccessstories.com/

Want Committed Employees? Learn to Trust Them.

By James Hudson

I have an American friend who recently joined a Chinese PR firm. When I asked him how it was going he mentioned that the experience was ‘totally different’ to working for a PR company in the west. Although this is expected, he went on to talk about swipe cards that recorded his times of entry into the office and how the company would fine him half a day’s salary if his swipe card indicated he was just one minute late. This, along with being allocated new tasks as late as 8pm to finish ‘as soon as possible’, ultimately led him to feel dissatisfied with the company and resulted in a complete lack of interest in how the company operated.

Managers of Chinese companies frequently ask me why many of their employees show such a lack of commitment to their companies’ operations. Employees change jobs like they’re going out of season and show little, if any, interest to the company’s wellbeing. The truth is, poor management breeds generations of poor employees who feel disillusioned by the lack of independence they receive from their managers.

No employee feels empowered if they are treated like a junior school student and very few employees will feel more committed to a company if they are fined because they have a morning dental appointment or their trusty alarm failed to wake them up on time.

Towards Trust

Trust is the foundation of any human relationship yet for some reason many people seem to assume that, because employees are paid, trust is not essential in the employee/employer relationship.

The swipe cards are an ideal example of how many employers in China fail to trust their employees and give them the independence and space to feel valued by their company.

The horrible truth is, and I hate to be blunt, if you don’t trust your employees in China, they really shouldn’t be working for you. If you genuinely worry that your employees will not be more committed if you unblock social networking sites or scrap swipe card systems, do you really think that these are the best people suited to work for your company? Most people in the world are good, decent and trustworthy. Managers need to trust their instincts: identify the employees they can trust and make other plans for the ones they can’t.

In general, untrusting management results in untrusting employees, trusting management results in trusting employees.

A Results-Oriented Workplace

Many companies in China measure their employees’ performance by how many hours they spend in the office. This may, from the outside, seem like a good way to keep people working but it doesn’t work. Some people I know who have forced working hours in office jobs seem to spend the vast majority of their time on MSN or finding the latest fad to buy on Taobao. There is nothing enrolling about being cooped-up in an office and forced to sit in front of a computer against one’s will.

If you are one of those companies that order lunch packs in for their employees instead of giving them a much needed break, they, unlike employees who are given flexibility, end the day exhausted with little energy.

Companies in China need to shift their perspectives and focus on the output achieved by employees instead of measuring performance by looking at the number of hours spent in an office. This requires good management and the implementation of strong systems that measure the quantity and the quality of output from employees.

It’s simple. Trust your employees, give them freedom and measure them by what they achieve and not by how long they stare at their computers. The result will surprise you.

James Hudson, Yaxley Education is a corporate training company based in Beijing, offering business skills and English language training.

http://www.chinasuccessstories.com/

Understanding the differences; Acting on the commonalities…

By Patrick O. Courtois

The common practice, when looking at the prospects of selecting the right individual for an overseas assignment, is usually to focus on the individual’s technical/functional skills, with the assumption that it will be sufficient to operate successfully across borders. I recently collaborated with Brian Sun, Managing Partner from Orion China, on a presentation to visiting US EMBA students, from Purdue University (Chicago), aimed at highlighting the characteristics of leaders who can seamlessly navigate across borders. It was interesting to compare the challenges a manager is facing at “home” and overseas.

There is no place like home…

On the path to delivering results, a local manager is faced with a set of challenges usually expressed in 2 dimensions.The internal environment, on one hand, requires an individual to decode, adapt and manage communications and interactions patterns with peer employees and business partners, as well as adjust to the headquarters “way of doing things”. On the other hand, the external environment poses the challenges of day-to-day management of the competitive environment, the clients/customers element, as well as complying with the local regulatory environment. 

In the local context, assuming we are referring to western economies, such as Western Europe or the US, with consistent and clearly-defined regulatory systems in place and the added value of operating in a “native” environment, where cultural and language barriers do not exist, the challenges are minimal and coping with it is down to an individual’s ability to fit or find his/her place within the system. A “system” within which one has grown up and been educated, where communication patterns and general value basis are shared or, at least, understood.

Apart from the language aspect, a candidate bound to a US expatriation from France or a UK manager on his/her way to Italy for 3 years, will face little challenges adapting to an environment articulated around similar values and common cultural anchors: the commonality of the alphabet or social “landmarks” like a Tesco, Carrefour or Wall-mart, around the corner, for example… In this perspective, the transposition of an individual’s performance and efficiency from a posting location to another can be a smooth and rapid process, yet, with a little effort from the candidate.

Reality check…

Things start to get complicated when an individual is assigned to operate within a completely foreign environment. Foreign in all aspects from value system, culture, to language and where one finds him/herself immerse in what can be referred to as an alien setting. The process of adaptation to life and work in a foreign culture, like China, can be difficult. It can roughly be divided into four phases, of very variable lengths: honey moon, cultural shock, reconciliation, adaptation.

During the honey moon phase, everything appears fascinating and new, the individual feels somewhat similar to a tourist. He/she discovers, with curiosity and excitement, a new country and the new lifestyle that can led.

After a short while, however, the more an individual immerses him/herself in day-to-day life, the more differences become apparent: differences with one’s own references, the person’s way of thinking and doing things, in contrast with the ways of the local people. Everyone reacts differently to this situation: anxiety, doubt, frustration … An individual can be tempted by isolation or be prone to adopting a defensive or rejective attitude toward the host country and its inhabitants. This is the phase of “cultural Shock”; a difficult, however important, experience, part of the adaptation process to life and work in a foreign setting.

For most expatriates, the cultural shock comes to an end with the individual’s familiarization to the language and culture: this is the reconciliation phase.

Day by day, the adaptation process goes on. The individual becomes more confident, more sensitive to positive aspects of the new environment. Events and people’s reactions are no longer a surprise, the expatriate has re-established his/her marks, and has gained enough awareness to navigate local codes of conducts and lead a more comfortable life.

The rapidity of the adaptation and integration process in the host country is not bound to any fixed rule. The country, the personality of the individual, the availability of expat communities, his/her marital situation, prior expatriation experiences, …are all elements influencing this, where one’s expatriation experience can be different from another one and where each phases of the adaptation process can sustain its own agenda.

You have just crossed over into the Third Dimension…

While operating in a country like China, a third dimensions needs to be taken into consideration, in terms of the challenges facing a manager. The issues an individual faced in his/her home country, are accentuated by cultural differences, language barriers, differing value systems and, in some cases, obscure regulatory systems. Reactivity of the headquarters is impacted by distance, business ethic takes an entirely different shape, communicating with peers redefines the meaning of lost in translation, and simply trying to settle down, living a comfortable day-to-day life can, as aforementioned, be a frustrating experience. The risks of not managing properly these 3 dimensions are obvious for both the employer and the individual. Selecting the right candidate for expatriation should therefore be done through the careful examination of 3 essential elements.

The essential mix…

There is no magic formula to a successful cross border assignment, still, professional qualities, that is, the technical and functional as well as managerial expertise, are key. If an individual does not have this foundation, there is no added value for an employer to “risk” or even justify an expatriation. Having some sort of international experience through language study, travel, and such also helps in forming the necessary aptitudes for an overseas assignment. A second important ingredient is somewhat linked to an individual’s “Global” qualities.

The knowledge and understanding that many routes lead to the same destination, but most importantly, that in different places, people do things in a different way, is an essential part of what can be defined as a multicultural mindset. There is no universal way to do things: trying to introduce a new or foreign perspective when looking at problems is good, attempting to impose a foreign way can lead to poor and even dramatic consequences in some places. Empathy, a strong commitment toward learning, the ability to reassess and realign constantly one’s ways in order to make the most out of the systems and culture in place, are among the few additional signs of sound “Global” qualities.

Lastly, country-specific cultural qualities are also an important element to take into consideration when considering expatriation. Some can be developed on-site, others have to be deeply embedded in an individual’s personality. In China, humility, patience, reactivity, an open-mind, flexibility and guanxi-building talents are among the essential traits an individual must have in order to smoothly settle down, professionally as well as personally.

Times have changed since the opening of China 30 years ago… The era of the “missionary” expat manager is long gone, with a local managerial workforce now having solid and up-to-date technical skills (I am not going, willingly into the Leadership in China debate, in this article). An employer aiming at filling a managerial / leadership role in China needs to look at a much broader picture while considering the necessary requirements for the appointment, of a foreign professional, in order to properly assess the real added value of the foreign appointee, on the long run, as well as minimize the impact on productivity generated by the appointee’s potential cultural shock and length of the adaptation process. Behavioral interviews, peer feedback, or personality assessment, could all be a good start…

http://www.chinasuccessstories.com/

Downturn Tools for HR – Reassure Your Chinese Employees

By Frank Mulligan

After a few weeks of not listening to the endless doom and gloom on CNN and the BBC (I was on holidays), I seem to have removed the monkey from my back.

It’s a liberating feeling to leave the downturn behind, even if only momentarily.

But not everyone is in this fortunate position. Most staff in China have never had to deal with an economic downturn before, and they are likely to go through a process of denial, anger, bargaining, depression and finally, acceptance. HR’s job is to get them through the stages faster than they can by themselves. It is not helping that the Olympics in Beijing happened so recently, but there is little you can do about this.

The faster you get them from denial to acceptance, the quicker you can tap into their inate abilities, and get them to contribute to solving the particular downturn in your company. But what could you do to help them through?

Here are a few suggestions:

A.  Open up the communications channels for them so that they can see the effect of the current crisis on China businesses. This will help them get past the denial stage, and overcome Beijing Olympic Delusional Syndrome.

You might want to look at the usual TV news bulletins as sources of information, but a better source would be the industry-specific websites and blogs that go into detail on what is happening in your industry. The more sources that are telling them that there is a crisis in China, the more likely they will move out of the denial stage.

If you have been reticent to report bad company news because it is seen as confidential issue, report bad company news. If you have an internal ban on staff blogging, remove the ban. Let staff tell each other how serious this crisis is.

B.   Make cost cutting efforts the responsibility of the entire staff and not the management. Those who get the current crisis will inform those who don’t why it is that cost cutting measures are being taken. Staff who are still at the denial stage will get the message, and those at a later stage will see a way for them to contribute to your success.

C.  Offer staff training on personal finances. Suggest that this is being done because they may need it soon. This effort will get across the seriousness of the situation and the possibility of terminations, but it will also help at all stages. The graduates of this training will understand the consequences of the crisis better, but also feel much more in control of their future.

D.   Make a significant sacrifice on the company’s part with the objective of getting across the seriousness of the situation. This should help the anger stage because it is hard to be angry towards someone who is making a sacrifice.

E.   Consider other sacrifices, for example, paying the employee portion of social insurance ie. The 4 Funds. Put this across as an attempt on your part to get cash into the hands of all staff. This cash, you can honestly suggest, may be needed in the very near future.

You could also take a more symbolic approach and cancel the big, annual management meeting in Hainan, again even if you can afford it. The objective here is to get the message across that the current situation is not sustainable.

F.   If the self-sacrifice approach does not work, you could look at a more punishment oriented model. Consider the possibility of cancelling this year’s CNY bonus, even if you technically you can pay it. Put it aside for payment later in the year so that you don’t feel like a complete heel, but get the message across that the bonus is contingent on increased market share and individual performance. If you think that, for whatever reason, most of your staff are at the anger stage, skip this measure.

G.   The bargaining stage will be difficult to handle, and you can expect to see many, many staff come to you with sob stories about how difficult things are for them, and by implication how they should be the last to be laid off. They are not lying.

The best approach would be to make it clear that all issues in the company will be dealt with on a professional basis ie. no special pleading allowed. Train your managers to deal with this issue, and show them how to keep a professional distance from their subordinates.

H.   The depression stage may be the easiest to deal with because staff just need to see that you care, and that there is a way out of this crisis. Together we can do it!

One of the many solutions you can try here is to create a wellness program. As a good corporate citizen you want to help staff improve their health, so that they will be able to weather the storm better. Many of the larger companies around the world offer the relatively cheap solution of influenza shots but it is too late for this now. You might want to look at general programs that include exercise and changes to the food in the company canteen.
If the money is available you could look at in-company annual medical checks that include blood pressure, cholesterol, X-ray, cancer markers etc.

I.  Transform your bonuses (the one you were not going to give), or excess cash, into training vouchers. The vouchers should be redeemable for training that can be shown to enhance the person’s company-related skills. This will help staff get through the depression stage.

J.  For whatever little recruiting you are doing, use the downturn as an opportunity to increase the quality of your workforce. More importantly, signal to existing staff that you are bringing in strong, experienced people to drive the business. Advertise this!. The good staff will see this as a solution, and the not-so-good ones ie. the non-contributors, will know where the door is. Specifically identify teams that need stronger management, and go get it for them.

K.  Start a Succession Planning program and signal to your key staff that there is light at the end of the tunnel, and that they are part of the solution.

Once you have gotten your staff to the acceptance stage you should see a big change in behavior. Your efforts will have given them the belief that the company cares, and the hope that a solution has been identified. It should also have made clear that they are part of the solution, and will specify their contribution.

I realize that this post is insufficient to the task of dealing with your particular version of the economic crisis. If you don’t have many more thoughts and suggestions that would get staff to the acceptance stage, I would be very surprised.

http://www.chinasuccessstories.com/2009/03/04/accept-downturn-company/

Risk-Taking Among Chinese Employees

By Frank Gallo

Chinese employees are often accused of not being willing to take risks and therefore fail to be innovative. And yet, many firms in China are trying to do new things and therefore require innovation. In my view, risk-taking behaviour in China is quite similar to other countries. I believe the reason that China has the reputation of not taking risks is because of a few cultural patterns. One is the fact that Chinese employees are generally not very quick to speak up. Westerners often see this behaviour as a sign of fear. I think however, it is more about caution and a very strong desire to get something “just right.” Getting something right is more important to most Chinese than being first.

The following two sayings are often used to show an apparent difference between Westerners and Chinese. “The early bird gets the worm” is a Western proverb that is taught to Western children from a very young age. The idea is that you are better off in life if you try something early. On the other hand, the Chinese proverb “Qiang da chu tou niao” (“The first bird out gets shot.”) implies a need to be cautious. But as noted, this does not mean that being early is unimportant. Rather, in my opinion, being early is secondary to being right. Furthermore, as I have written in earlier columns, Chinese employees tend to be deep thinkers and will do more preparation than Westerners before stating a position or taking a risk. Chinese also tend to see some Westerners as too fast-talking and too fast-acting. Most people in the world, including Americans, believe the current world economic crisis is the result of American investment bankers taking risks that they should not have.

Next to consider is the Chinese concept of “tao guang yang hui”, (hiding your capabilities) especially in State Owned Enterprises. While we do not see this often in private firms today, it is still quite common in SOEs. The more you show of yourself, the more likelihood that there will be a mistake. While this is a very old Chinese concept, it is still sometimes seen today as an example of why Chinese employees will not take risks.

During the past ten years or so, a sub-culture has arisen in China businesses, especially in multi-national firms. These people, mostly the younger population of workers, have become very westernized in their thinking. These people see the need for more innovation and risk-taking. Not encumbered by past history, but rather encouraged by their Western-thinking bosses to take risks, they are less afraid of failure than their predecessors. This is a good sign for China.

What Can be Done to Improve Innovation and Risk-Taking in Your Firm?

China is becoming more innovative than before. But leaders cannot allow too much time to pass before innovation and risk-taking are a significant part of the business culture. Here are a few best practices that will work in China.

• Make it clear that innovation is a requirement. Put innovation and risk-taking competencies as part of everyone’s development plans.
• Hire people who are risk-takers. Train your human resources staff to look for examples of innovation and risk-taking in the new hire interview. The presence of these competencies for a high tech firm is more important than the school that the candidate attended or the companies he or she worked for before.
• Reward people for innovations. I am not only talking about payments for patents of royalty payments. I am referring to a special program that empowers managers to grant bonuses to employees who take calculated risks, whether or not they bear fruit.
• Comfort people to know that there is no penalty for a mistake if made while trying to be innovative.
• Encourage the newest employees to take risks and to not feel shame if they do something wrong.

I have no doubt that the perceived lack of innovativeness in China will soon be a thing of the past. I remember very clearly when, forty years ago, as Japan was rebuilding its country and on the road to becoming an economic superpower, the idea of something with the label “Made in Japan” was a joke. It meant that the product was probably cheap, poorly made, and copied from somewhere else. Today, Japan is among the leaders in innovation from automobiles to appliances to high tech gadgetry. There is no question that the same fate will hold true for China. Until we are there however, it is the job of the business leader to prompt employees with the right programs and incentives to get there as quickly as possible. This will only help your company to be more successful and will guarantee your success as a leader.

http://www.chinasuccessstories.com/