Home-grown firms winning over more talent in China: report

SHANGHAI - More and more business leaders are turning to Chinese companies instead of multinationals while looking for new opportunities, according to a research report.

About 40 percent of business leaders who began a new job at a local company in China over the past five years came from a multinational corporation, according to the report by global consultancy Bain & Company and employment-oriented social media platform LinkedIn China. A similar report in 2016 showed that only around 33 percent of respondents made such a decision.

The observation came from an analysis of 66,000 business leaders in LinkedIn China's proprietary member database, covering 350 major corporations across 18 industries.

The report attributed the turnaround to the steady expansion of the Chinese economy and the abundant opportunities offered by growing local companies.

"Local Chinese companies are redefining our entire thinking of the talent market as they continue to attract leaders due to their experience, salary, training and opportunities, which go hand in hand with their fast growing operations and opportunities," said James Root, a Bain partner and co-author of the report.

The report noted that China's rising tech sector is playing an increasingly prominent role in shaping the country's business and recruitment landscape, as tech firms tend to have younger leaders, more global exposure and seek talent from within the sector.

"Multinationals need to rethink and adapt their value proposition to ensure that local talent feel they will have both opportunities and feel valued, thus ensuring that they don't lose out on this important generation of leaders," Root added.

While the turnaround of talent flow will continue in the coming years, a sustainable trend is not guaranteed, the report said, because young and untested leaders in local firms are inclined to change companies while lack of skills and experience might drag their firms' steps for overseas expansion.

"It's clear that both local firms and multinationals have areas to work on in terms of engaging with talent, but the future is bright for the market, so we expect the competition to intensify for local talent in the years to come," said Hua Lin, general manager of LinkedIn Talent Solutions at LinkedIn China.