Recently, one CCTV
channel developed a TV show entitled “What Does the Chinese Workforce Dream of
Becoming?” One young Chinese citizen, born in the 90s, says that s/he dreams of
becoming a Chinese National Leader. The
news came across through social media quickly. The news media outlets discussed
this CCTV show one after another, generating a massive volume of articles
around the topic, which induced an increase in the number of comments about the
topic. What the young Chinese citizen dared to say once again aroused heated
debate.
The graduation season
will begin soon again this year. With this thought of graduating from college,
the Chinese youth, who were born in the 90s, are about to enter into the
employment arena. As more and more enterprises join into the competition to get
these young people to enter the ranks of leaders, the question that comes to
mind is that how those young people think of employment, what choices they will
make in campus recruitment, and how companies should win the favors of these
job seekers.
China Millennial Demanding Requirements for Reward in China
Zhang Lei, a millennial
and a senior Accounting Major at Jiatong University, signed an agreement last
winter with the Railway Bureau to work as an accounting professional in its
business units overseas. He reported that
“the working environment overseas is more comfortable, the daily working
schedule is fixed, and employee treatment in the workplace is more fair and
just. Along with the strong momentum of enterprise development, all the above
conditions serve as platform that can better help me to realize my own
potential and self-values”
Compared with Zhang
Lei, Jing, a college journalism major, is not as lucky. Jing has participated
in many recruiting events. After more than two months of job seeking, she has
not been able to secure suitable positions. There are many interviews and job
openings. But there are relatively few openings that interest Zhang Lei. She
told the reporter that she dreams of a working environment that has better
professional training and development systems and better organizational
cultures. She thinks there must be enough room for growth and development.”
After series of
interviews with other young professionals, we have found that Millennials share
similar psychological needs for professional growth and development. A
significant percentage of the millennial population is interested in working
for high-profile enterprises. The young professionals also would like to have
an organization that provides enough room for further advancement. Corporate
culture and prospect for growth and development are the young generation’s
interests.
In the past, people,
who were born in the 70s and 80s were concerned with the benefits and corporate
strengths. But now most of the Millennials are in better economic status than
the people a generation ago. With their basic needs met, they are more
interested in those employers that are able to provide better working
environments and opportunities for further advancement. A well-known teacher, who works in the capital
of China, has emotional feelings toward this psychological/professional need
for further advancement in their careers.
This new generation of Millennials
has strong demand for better working environments and opportunities for growth
and development; it has become more increasingly challenging for employers to
meet the Millennials’ needs in order to be in better positions to attract
talent.
Many HR professional
are becoming more puzzled with how to meet the career needs of the
Millenials. An HR director in a large
corporation complained, “the Millennial expectations for jobs are rather high
and the young generation tends to be more emotional with their needs. The management will give more consideration
to a number of factors, including office environment, corporate culture, and
even the detailed process of the interview; recruiters become more focused on
their personal feelings.”
Chinese HR experts say
that the changes in the new generation’s requirements from their employers are
reflected in the employers’ branding. To
compete for young talent, foreign enterprises should begin to construct
corporate culture and career development planning in ways that are more
attractive to the Millennial. Positive and stable employer branding influence
can undoubtedly become the key to quickly snatching this talent.
A leading human
resources recruitment website, based on a 2003 study on attention and employer
branding, ChinaHR (ChinaHR.com), did a study on employer attention and
branding. The results of this research were obtained through the investigation
of campus community. The results of this research indicate that the
Millennials’ demands from their employers can be grouped into four clusters.
The results of this research have helped ChinaHR to create universal and
comprehensive theoretical model CBCD service packages to provide guidance to
help the employers build better brand images that can attract more suitable
talent.
Talent is considered as
one of the important strategic resources enterprises can obtain to retain a
competitive edge in the markets. As competition for talent intensifies, more and more companies feel that “talent is
becoming harder to find.” Professor Lin Xinqi at Labor and HR of Renmin
University in China indicates that employers need to build more attractive
brands and become better employers in order to attract suitable talent.
Creating and attracting a more suitable talent pool will become a required
course for all first class enterprises.
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