How are candidates sourced in China? Candidates are sourced in China in ways similar and totally different than the West. Chinese private companies have always relied on relatives and college friends and such to staff their businesses. They are quite aware that Chinese people are tricky, so try to get people that will not steal the whole business from them. These friends and relatives may not be ideal, but they solve the trust issue, and trust is low in China.
Western companies have no relatives in China, so often have a Chinese person on staff, and they send him or her to China to take charge. This mostly ends poorly for a number of reasons.
Now if the Western Company has not fallen into this hole, they may be in the market for an HR Manager for their first hire. Unfortunately HR in China is too cost focused, and so, usually they are only suitable to hire entry level staff.
How Are Candidates Sourced in China Professionally?
Finally, they turn to a Chinese head hunter who speaks their Western language or at least English. Unfortunately, they are the HR managers who tended to make a mess in their own company. If they get a Western head hunter with a name like the one back home, they get a company that uses Western thinking to solve Chinese hiring which is not best. However, they can get you high priced people better than HR usually.
Finally, you can get a focused China focused Recruiter like SHI Group. Our system is developed by us in and for China without any reference to Western Recruiting methods. That is what helped get us to over 95% successful placements, and we keep getting better.
So, you see there are many ways, and each of them may fill a slot on the organization chart. We at SHI Group, definitely swear by our China grown method to guarantee a good hire.