I found the following blog article on our office providers blog and interesting reading it is......
China’s Talent Market Confronts Negative Effects of Large-Scale Key Talent Competences Shortage in 2010
Kelly Services together with Harvard Business Review (Chinese-language version) recently issued the Kelly China 2010 Talent Competence Study. Findings of the study are below:
China’s talent market is confronted with negative effects of shortage of large-scale key talent competences in 2010
92% of companies competitive power is “affected” by the shortage of key talent competence, with 23% being “greatly affected”

* The 3 industries with the highest total negative impact are Life Sciences & Pharmaceutical (100%), Retail (100%), Engineering (95%)
* Greatest Negative Impact is Life Sciences & Pharmaceutical (36%), followed by Transport & Distribution (33%) and Banking & Financial Services (32%).

- The Top 5 departments that witness the worst key brain drain of enterprises are: sales, manufacturing, engineering, marketing and finance.
The top 3 most important and most in shortage skills:
1)communication
2)problem solving and decision making
3)creative thinking
The top 3 most in shortage but unimportant skills:
a)strategic thinking
b)global mindset
c)initiative and enterprise

Communication competence ranks the first among the most important and rarest competences. Ineffective and Inefficient communication remains the biggest obstacle that impedes enterprise development. This answer seems simple but also complicated when you try to find out its cause. For example, management hierarchy, regional difference, departmental interval, specialization of work and appeal difference among interested parties lead to different understandings of enterprise’s strategies, decisions, processes, standards and responsibilities. Such differences are often neglected or disregarded, thus getting enterprise reform into trouble. Communication becomes more complicated, so communication competence is still ranked the one most highlighted and needed by enterprises.
Overall data of the Report shows that strategic thinking, global vision, entrepreneurial spirit and other capacities are highly rare and highly important. However, CEOs interviewed state that they expect intermediate and senior talents are able to play a more important strategic role. However, facing economic recovery, enterprises are currently committed to business expansion to achieve their business objectives. Due to insufficient talent reserves, many intermediate and senior talents have to spend most of their time dealing with issues that should be coped with by first-line managers, while employees who are promoted to manager from the grass roots are not competent in communication skills, problem solving, decision making and creative thinking. Therefore, enterprises think that the most important and rarest competences in the short term include the following:
1) communication
2) problem solving and decision making
3) creative thinking.
In the long run, enterprises will attach importance to
1) strategic thinking
2) global vision; and
3) entrepreneurial spirit for intermediate and senior talent competences.
However, as talents with these competences are rare, enterprises should strengthen reserve and development in this aspect.
The most important skills in five industries
Life Science & Pharmaceutical: creative thinking, strategic thinking, problem solving & decision making, people management, communication, work-related technical skills.
Banking and finance: initiative & enterprise, problem solving & decision making, strategic thinking, creative thinking, communication
- Manufacturing: problem solving & decision making, communication, creative thinking, teamwork, work-related technical skills.
- IT& Telecommunications: communication, creative thinking, problem solving & decision making, work-related technical skills, initiative & enterprise.
- Engineering: Work-related technical skills, communication, creative thinking, initiative & enterprise, problem solving & decision making, teamwork.
Reasons for competence shortage: The shortage of competences of enterprises’ key talents is attributed to such absolute factors and relative factors:
- Intensified talent competition causes increasingly higher brain drains rate, and enterprises’ key competences are confronted with drain.
- Increasingly intense global and local competitions bring high requirements for the core competences of enterprises’ key talents.
- Industrial restructuring and emerging industries bring new requirements for the competences of enterprises’ key talents.
- The economic expansion of enterprises in China results in talent dilution.
- As more foreign enterprises actively enter second-tier cities, local key talents are faced with requirement for competence enhancement.
- High flow of young talents leads to big difference between their specialized competence levels and job specifications of enterprises.
- Weak competence of grassroots employees causes more management personnel to spend much of their efforts to help first-line personnel.
Consequences of competence shortage
- More key talents in Chinese enterprises will undertake responsibilities for Asia-Pacific regions and the world at large, and competence shortage would slow down the pace that foreign-funded enterprises enter China.
- Competence shortage will reduce enterprises’ capability to meet customer needs.
- Sharp increase in salary in the short term would result in the increase in enterprises’ business costs.
- Rising brain drain rate causes reduction in enterprises’ productivity.
- Employee satisfaction reduces. 1) Shortage of key competences causes some new managers to undertake responsibilities beyond their ability, and sharply increased pressure would reduce satisfaction. 2) Weak management skills of intermediate and senior personnel would impose influences on other employees’ satisfaction.
- Loss and waste of resources will increase unit cost.
- Problems occur with succession plans.
- Growth of team is impeded.
Original Article and links here http://www.executivecentre.com/blog/2010/12/chinas-talent-market-faces-competency-shortage/
Recent Comments