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Shanghai, 14 Mar 2008 - PricewaterhouseCoopers China is aiming to recruit people with the right skills by implementing a new "China Sourcing Initiative" aimed at recruiting overseas-Chinese who have international experience to help deal with the current market demand in China.
Introduced late last year, the programme has seen managers sent from China to London, New York, Los Angeles and Sydney offices of PricewaterhouseCoopers who are tasked with recruiting new graduates as well as experienced people who have international experience along with valuable local Chinese knowledge and language skills for the mainland China and Hong Kong firm. This initiative is in addition to PricewaterhouseCoopers China's extensive localisation strategy that continues to recruit over 2,800 people locally each year.
Returning to Shanghai for one of his regular visits to China, Samuel A. DiPiazza Jr, Global CEO of PricewaterhouseCoopers, said "the firm understands that high economic growth rates over many years in the Asia Pacific, particularly China, has led to a shortage of suitable professionals, most prominently middle managers with the right skills. Therefore, China-based CEOs must develop talent strategies that attract and retain the right people. The 'China Sourcing Initiative' is one of the firm's strategies," he said.
According to the findings from the recently-unveiled PricewaterhouseCoopers 11th Annual Global CEO Survey, creativity and innovation ranked as the highest skill set (at 75%) most wanted by CEOs in the Asia Pacific.
Also valued by CEOs in the region was the ability to change (73%), combined technical and business experience (72%) and the courage to challenge (69%). Among the global research sample, CEOs in the Asia Pacific were the most concerned over the availability of key skills, with nearly four-fifths of CEOs citing this as a concern despite substantial working-age populations. Reflecting this finding, 78% of CEOs in the Asia Pacific agree that their organisation needs to change the way they develop talent.
"This issue is traditionally prominent in western countries, but it is clear that emerging economies such as China are not immune to this world-wide problem. Indeed, globalisation has led to an increasingly borderless labour, as well as capital, goods and services and this clearly fuels a talent shortage as people are more mobile than ever before," Mr DiPiazza said.
The Global CEO survey reveals that overall, the confidence of CEOs in the Asia Pacific remains strong (increasing to 56% in 2007, compared to 49% in 2006), while globally confidence levels dropped for the first time since the 2003 survey (falling to 50% in 2007, compared to 52% in 2006). However, Mr DiPiazza points out that the talent shortage will pose a major threat to the pace of economic growth in the region and therefore the confidence of CEOs in China and across the Asia Pacific region, unless the right steps are taken now to address the issue.
"At present, it appears that chief executives are responding to the talent crisis by focussing on internal training and development of the existing workforce, but they need to ask how effective these programmes are and how they connect to the overall talent strategy," Mr DiPiazza said. "CEOs need to better understand, as well as clearly define and communicate, why their people issues are matters of crucial strategic importance and to embed their 'talent strategy' as an integral part of their overall business strategy. They need to change the way their organisation recruits, motivates and develops their employees to maintain competitiveness."
As part of an overall plan aimed at nurturing people at all levels, globally PricewaterhouseCoopers has implemented an extensive Performance, Coaching and Development (PCD) programme that is now being rolled out to over 9,000 employees across mainland China and Hong Kong. PCD is an approach focused on quality coaching and timely feedback in the everyday work of our people, that enhances value and performance, as well as professional development.
Nora Wu, PricewaterhouseCoopers Shanghai Office Lead Partner, highlighted the importance of the PCD approach:
"Our leadership team understands they have to lead by example, and our PCD programme has begun to clearly make a positive difference when it comes to developing our people. Every partner in the firm has spent two intensive days receiving specialised skills training in coaching, to ensure our leaders in the firm have the right skills to lead this important programme."
According to the Global CEO Survey, 73% of employers in the Asia Pacific indicated that they value people who have the ability to develop and lead others.
"A workplace culture that nurtures the development of its people will without a doubt help to retain as well as attract talent," Ms Wu said. "We are actively building our corporate culture through changing behaviours, meaning our culture will be brought to life through well-defined behaviours, with our partners taking the lead."
PricewaterhouseCoopers China invested close to one million hours in staff training in the 2007 financial year, and this will continue to grow each year. The average training hours per employee was around 100. The educational efforts are not only confined within the firm. The PricewaterhouseCoopers Scholarship was established in 2001 to encourage excellence in accounting among university students in mainland China and Hong Kong.
"This level of commitment and dedication to people will continue with our next intake of graduates, when we expect to bring in a further 2,000 graduates later this year," Mr DiPiazza concluded.
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