Tips To Help Top Managers Lead A Multinational Team To Success In China

Hiring professionals belonging to different nationalities and cultures has become a norm for most modern business organizations. This holds true even for a country like China, which is believed to be an extremely conservative marketplace. However, despite having adapted the trend of multinational hiring, a large number of Chinese organizations have yet to enjoy the expected levels of success. This is due to the fact that in most such cases, the top managers have no idea about the best ways to harness the differences between team members. In this context the top headhunting firms in China advise the managers to follow the below discussed tips to lead their multinational teams to success.

Work Towards Building Trust

Trust is one of the key driving forces that inspire the members of a multinational team to perform their best. The individual team members should feel that their leaders and peers sincerely care about them. Lack of such trust leads the team members to become sceptical, suspicious and distrustful about everything that the leaders do or say. Here it is important for the managers to understand that they need to work towards building trust on both a personal and professional level with their team members. This means that they need to invest time and effort in understanding the diversity of individual team members and learning about their strengths and weaknesses. The team leaders also need to take the initiative of establishing strong and open lines of communication with the team members so that they can put forth their ideas and opinions freely and frankly.

Gain An Understanding Of The Cultural Differences

While working with a multinational team, handling the cultural differences between team members is often quite challenging. For this the team leaders need to first educate them about the various cultural differences in their team and how they affect the concerned individuals. The next step is to gradually overlay these differences with a common company culture. At the same time the managers need to eliminate words and phrases that might remind the employees of the differences in their cultures, from the organization vocabulary. As the managers become aware of the work culture and dynamics of their team, they can use different ways to engage with different cultural groups. The managers also need to familiarize themselves with aspects that help in bringing out the best in each group and how to find a common ground for the entire team.

Unite The Team Under A Single Corporate Culture

The leading recruitment firms in China stress on the importance of managers never loosing focus of the corporate culture. This culture should be based on working as a unified entity towards attainment of organizational goals. In this cultural the success of one is celebrated by all and the responsibility of failures is also not laid on the shoulders of a single individual. The culture helps the teams in moving from the concept of me to us. This type of culture helps in improving the level of trust and transparency within the team. Most importantly it helps in blurring the differences of nationalities amongst team members and strengthening their bonds of unity.

Learning The Truth About Hiring Independent Contractors In China

The number of foreign businesses seeking to set up operations in China is still fairly large. This is despite the fact that many such businesses do not possess the resources or the funds to set up a big operational base in the country. This lack of resources leads many such organizations to hire the services of the so called “independent contractors” in China. Hiring such contractors seems to be the best way to cut down the operational costs of the business set up in China. Sadly, most organizations opting for this solution are ignorant of the fact that it makes their China operations completely illegal and exposes them to the risk of losing their assets.

Key Facts About Independent Contractors In China

The first and the most important thing that foreign business organizations need to understand is that hiring independent contractors in China is illegal. Sadly, rather than opting to believe the professionals from the best executive search firms in China, most overseas business organizations take the advice of their Chinese lawyers on the issue. Hence, it is not surprising that such companies often end up unwittingly breaking the law as Chinese labour law does not support any form of employment where the employer can avoid paying minimum benefits. In fact over the past several years, China has adapted an increasingly aggressive approach towards establishments that are following such practices.

What Drives Foreign Businesses To Hiring Independent Contractors

One of the reasons that drive foreign businesses to consider hiring independent contractors is that it cuts down their operational costs considerably. For a small organization with 12-15 employees, this can prove to be a major boost. Such organizations do not register themselves and they do not have to pay the usual employment benefits to the local people working for them. They also get to save a considerable amount of money in taxes as well as the rent for setting up a formal office for the business. Most importantly they do not have to go through the formalities of forming a WFOE in China, which is mandatory for every legal business set up.

Risks Associated With Hiring Independent Contractors

As any professional executive search firm in China informs its clients, the risks of hiring independent contractors are far greater than any benefits that may be obtained. The most obvious risk of hiring independent contractors is that it makes the business operation totally illegal. Opting for this method of recruitment also puts the China IP assets of the business at a huge risk. This is because contrary to what their belief, the business organizations do not actually own these assets and they can be seized by the government in case of a crackdown. They face the constant threat and stress of being shut down any time and losing all their investment and credibility. The businesses might also have to pay a huge penalty in lieu of the taxes that were evaded by the business during its operation. In addition, the businesses operating in this manner are not able to carry out their day to day operations in a free and fearless manner, which can affect their profitability and growth in a significant manner.

Five Tips Offered By The Best Outplacement Coaches

One of the key responsibilities of outplacement coaches is to provide the right guidance to the outgoing candidates for finding career options that match their skills and experience level. For this the professionals offering outplacement coaching in China need to work not only towards enhancing the confidence level of the trainees but also the way they present themselves to future employers. In this context, the best outplacement coaches may offer the following five key tips that can help their clients to ensure a fair and satisfactory exit for their outgoing employees.

Clearly Establish Their Needs

It is important for the outgoing candidates to have a clear understanding of their needs with respect to their career.  They should be well aware of their strengths and weaknesses and interacting with their other professionals from their current organization can prove extremely helpful in this respect. Most organizations offer a lot help and support to their outgoing employees and are willing to share any information that can help improve their job prospects with other employers. So, case the candidates do not have a enough knowledge about what would suit them the best, they can learn about the same by taking to their current colleagues and managers.

Being Vocal About Their Key Successes

The outgoing employees should make sure that they seek written proof of their key successes within their current organization. A simple statement about the same on office letterhead signed and stamped by their immediate superior will suffice in most cases. They should make also make sure that any prospective employers are made aware of these successes as these can deeply influence hiring decisions.

Promote And Enhance Their Skills

It is extremely important for the outgoing candidates to not only promote their niche skills but also gain new ones. They can seek advice from their organization’s career partner in China about the skills that are currently in demand for their specific role and level. Some organizations might even provide help and guidance about the best ways for their outgoing employees to enhance their skills as per the market needs.

 

Be Frank About Their Likes And Dislikes

For overseas employees in China, ensuring a cultural fit within a new organization can prove to be a major challenge. One way to overcome this challenge is to be frank about their likes and dislikes with the people around them. This aspect should especially be taken care of while considering a new work environment, which might be completely opposite to that of their present company. The outgoing employees should also be willing to make minor adjustments to avoid losing a good position.

Communicate Directly And Honestly

Direct and honest communication with is the key to ensuring a smooth and successful job transition. Most business organizations seek feedback from their outgoing employees and this it is important for them to offer the same in a straightforward and honest manner. The outgoing employees should make sure that they do not let their emotion of anger or disappointment to cloud their honest opinion about the company they have been working with. Even if they have some negative feedback to offer, it should be given in a direct yet polite manner.

The Secrets Behind Training Chinese Workers Successfully

One of the key challenges faced by overseas organizations operating in China is that of coaching and training the Chinese workers to work as per their specific corporate culture. While this does not mean that the local workforce is not willing to enhance its skills, they are averse to the idea of using formal training methodologies imported from outside the country. Even the professionals offering services of executive coaching in China have acknowledged that training Chinese workers is no easy feat. Further proof of this fact can be found in that even the best trainers in China rarely change the age old methods of imparting training followed within the country.

In view of the above facts it would not be wrong to state that Chinese workers are unwilling to learn unless the strategies adopted for training adhere to their own training practices. However, since this might not always be possible the professionals from leading ICF coaching firm in China advise the overseas business organizations to adapt the following methodologies for training.

The Secrets Behind Training Chinese Workers Successfully

Five Interviewing Goals An Organization Should Have To Ensure A Good Hire

One of the key parameters that hiring organizations seek in a good candidate is for them to be truthful and honest. While almost every candidate claims to possess these key qualities, only a handful of them actually do so. That is why the professionals from the top leadership coaching firm in China advice their clients to ensure that they make learning the truth from the candidates an interviewing goal. For this the interviewers might ask twisted questions which might force the candidates to reveal the truth unwittingly, in case they are lying. The interviewers might also use the strategy of making the candidates feel somewhat uncomfortable.

When it comes to hiring good candidates as per the needs of a specific job position, most hiring organizations focus on the skills and capabilities of the prospective candidates. However, it is not uncommon for candidates to lie about these two key aspects that the recruiters tend to focus on. Thus finding the right candidates can prove to be a major challenge. In order to help their clients overcome this challenge, the top retained executive search firm in China stress on the importance of setting interview goals. The five key goals that the organizations need to set up in this context are discussed below.

1) Understand Candidate Response To Challenging Situations

2) Gain An Detailed Information About Their Career History

3) The Reason Behind Them Trying Too Hard To Impress

4) Learning The Truth From The Candidates Themselves

5) Learning The Truth From The Candidates Themselves