Rich Brubaker, a fellow T-Bird Alumni, wrote a post “How to Succeed in China” at his blog All Roads Lead to China
At the end of his post, he invited commenter to add their “rules”. Here is my response:
I’m not one who usually creates rules… I rather look at each situation… each day … and determine the best path forward according to what’s in front of me. Anyway…
I’m an HR-specialized management consultant, so naturally what I always see are HR problems which turn into operational problems. What I often see are companies and managers who don’t know how to lead people. So… my rule for succeeding in China:
Always think HR. Meaning… always think about how to develop your staff, and think of how you will keep them after they have developed (and have a higher perception of their own value). Always think about systems which motivate and retain the right people, as well as the systems your organization would need to let go of people without lawsuits and labor unrest (ie. Performance, C&B).
What types of failures do I usually see? Employees leave because the C&B system was not set up properly. Employees who don’t develop, and therefore have no desire to grow with a company. Managers…often expat managers… who don’t care about their employees nor understand them. Employee dismissals leading to lawsuits (and much much worse) because the company management didn’t adopt basic, common-sense performance appraisal systems. Quality problems and lack-of innovation, because management does not know how to make people care about their work. Managers who hire relatives, who take bribes, who refuse to get involved. All these problems are can be managed. But it requires a company’s top-leaders to think in terms of “people issues” instead of “operational issues”.
2 Responses to “Rules for Success in China – blog discussion”
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Great post. I can see two major obstacles to the desire for Western Companies in particular to forgo a lot of employee development of local hires. Both have to do with loyalty. Often Western managers are suspicious that once taught and trained, there’s not a lot of incentive for local employees to stick around and not work for a competing Chinese company. When I was working in the US and as long as working for my employer didn’t suck, the very fact that they invested time and money in assuring that my skills and knowledge were advancing, I showed my appreciation by not entertaining offers from competing companies. Many Chinese engineers would, were they in my position, see that as now their own competitive advantage.
The other is the dream that many Chinese have of going into business for themselves. It does not necessarily matter if their business is related to the skill set or not. My husband has had an employee leave to start a blue jeans export company, for instance. From automotive supplier to blue jeans–quite a leap, but importantly for her, it was her own company.
I do believe also that it is more common that, as you wrote, expat managers don’t care about or don’t understand their local hires. However, the Western way of leveraging employee development to keep employees loyal doesn’t seem to work as well here, so it is hard for a foreign company to get the pay-back for the investment. My husband has somehow defied that with several engineers that used to work for him at one company and followed him (or Skype him once a month to ask if they can follow) to his current employer. But that really only means he’s been able to develop personal loyalty, which he then uses for the sake of his employer.
Wow Ja, you are the first person to leave a comment on my blog. Hooray! And thank you.
To tell you the truth, I’m not really loyal to any company either. And that is because companies, generally speaking, have not been loyal to me. Only people have been loyal to me. But I don’t go hopping around because I understand there may be more that I can gain from staying than just a salary.
I don’t really know what is the Western way to leverage employee development. But I think a big part of getting people to stay is succession planning and career coaching. Make people think that there is a way for more growth that does not involve someone suddenly dieing and leaving the position for you to take. Unfortunately, no one seems to do career coaching here in China.