I recently had the great honor and pleasure of being invited to join a delegation of U.S. human resources leaders visiting fellow HR practitioners and leaders in China. The experience still has me saying “Wow!” It was both a personal and a professional goal of mine to be able to visit China, and I can’t believe it’s already over.
A number of years ago, I was challenged by a Chinese HR colleague to learn to speak Chinese. While I didn’t have the time then, I finally started taking classes a few years ago, and I continue to use Rosetta Stone software to enhance my learning. I cannot say that I am very good, but I had several opportunities to use Chinese during the trip — much to the amusement and amazement of the people there!
One of the most frequently used phrases was “Bu yao, xie xie,” a way to tell the street vendors “No, thank you” for the trinkets they were selling.
The best use of the language, however, came when I facilitated a discussion at a Society for Human Resource Management roundtable to learn and share insights about human resources in China. One of the participants was a gentleman from the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security. He corrected my pronunciation on one phrase, but he smiled and encouraged me to continue. I was thrilled!
Delegates represent varied interests
The HR delegates from the U.S. represented about 20 states, plus Singapore and Qatar. In terms of businesses represented, we came from quite a variety of institutions: universities, global shipping organizations, a national dental insurance provider, and even an organization that makes detonation devices used primarily for mining operations.
In China, we had the honor of meeting leaders from Lenovo (a firm that purchased IBM’s personal computer operations), CIIC (China International Intellectech Corporation), Peking University, the China Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, and CP Lotus, one of the largest grocery and shopping mall retailers in China. At each of these meetings, we had the opportunity to learn more about China and, in particular, the human resources challenges faced by representatives from these entities.
Despite massive population, hiring challenges exit
You might wonder what HR challenges a country with 1.33 billion people might have -— especially in terms of finding people to hire!
As with all statistics, the numbers don’t tell the whole story. Many of these people live in remote areas that are not easily accessible. Of the millions of others who might be in the larger industrialized cities, their education does not meet the level employers would like their system to produce.
This surprised many of us in the delegation. We know that many Chinese will come to the U.S. to be educated, and China hopes that these students all return to China (not all of them will, but most do). However, their struggle is between “book learning” and “creative learning.” Interesting? I thought so.
The New York Times recently had an article (Dec. 11, 2010, “China’s Army of Graduates Struggles for Jobs”) that highlighted another aspect of the issue: the disparity between the education provided in different parts of China. Yes, the new graduates have degrees, but depending on where they earned that degree, they may not be highly regarded by employers in places like Beijing and Shanghai.
In addition, China has a “population management” system known as the hukou system. Residents of each city/area are legally registered, and subsidized housing and other welfare benefits are enjoyed only by those registered. This system makes it very difficult for those populations to move with ease and to work between various cities.
Chinese seek to match education with workplace needs
The common refrain we heard at each host site was that Chinese employers must find ways to improve the overall level of education, particularly on the creative/imaginative side of the equation.
In addition to the education situation, some host organizations referred to the “one-child policy” as a potential issue in terms of creating customer service-oriented individuals. They explained that children growing up as only children in China are so doted on that as young adults entering the workforce, they are accustomed to being the ones catered to; they don’t necessarily know how to cater to others. I am over-simplifying this for the sake of this article, of course, but this is the gist of a number of conversations we had about this issue.
Of course, I do see several correlations of these two issues in the U.S. We, too, struggle in terms of our education system, although perhaps not as much at the secondary-education level as at the grade-school and high-school levels. Those of you who are familiar at all with the struggles of the Milwaukee Public Schools know what I mean.
As for customer service, that, too, is a common refrain here. Many articles, books, conferences, etc. have long talked about generational differences and how “young folks” aren’t as good at customer service as are more-seasoned workers.
Again, statistics and these generalizations don’t tell the whole story. We all can share examples of great customer service, but I wonder if I were to make some inquiries, could I find even more examples of when you’ve experienced poor customer service? I don’t think it would matter the age of the person involved; it would just be that you remembered it wasn’t good, period.
Great Wall is indeed one of Seven Wonders of the World
On a lighter note, I must share what are probably my best two memories of my time in China. The first occurred at the Great Wall.
I was awed by this wonder. It was a very cold day in the mountains, and frost was everywhere when I started the trek. When I reached the top of the nearly 3,500-foot level, I had to take my coat off. It was warm and sunny, and yet mist hung in the surrounding hills. Spectacular!
The second memory is from Shanghai. A crowd gathered around a group of older men and women who were dancing to music blaring from speakers — rock music. The ladies were shaking maracas.
One of the gentlemen pointed to me and came to get me by my hand and brought me into the circle to dance! I really didn’t have much choice but to join them. The crowd went wild (somewhere across China, I am in the videos and snapshots of Chinese folks who gathered to enjoy the moment). As I was dancing, an older lady standing at the side asked me, in Chinese, if I was American. I was so proud to be able to reply to her, in Chinese, “Yes, I am an American!” She about fell over in shock that I knew what she said and replied in her language. Our group had the most fun that evening.
I participated in this trip to learn more about the human resources profession, its evolution in a rapidly developing country, and to continue my language learning. I experienced all of these things and more.
While Chinese businesses have many things to learn from U.S. and other western businesses, we, too, must be certain to learn from them. I came away with a definite sense of “keeping your eye on the ball.” In this case, keep your eyes on China.