We are entering one of the busiest recruitment periods of the year and candidates are advised to focus on developing their EQ skills to make the most of the increased opportunities coming to market.
This is one key finding from the Hays Quarterly Report for the April to June quarter, which identifies trends in recruitment.
“The period after Chinese New Year is always busy for hiring but this coming quarter will be particularly strong especially for candidates in compliance, accounting & finance, digital marketing, cloud computing and education,” says Simon Lance, Managing Director of Hays in China.
“As China’s businesses and enterprises continue to grow in sophistication as well as global exposure, we are seeing increasing demand for candidates with a high EQ as well as IQ,” says Simon.
“EQ, or emotional intelligence, includes social skills, self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation and empathy and can often make all the difference in landing a job,” he says.
In accountancy & finance for example, successful candidates for many roles need strong non-technical skills such as persuasion, collaboration and also excellent senior stakeholder management skills including dealing with business leaders across the region.
In IT, cloud architects are red hot but those in most demand have good interpersonal skills to help them develop solutions for customers, partners and colleagues.
With the high number of young Chinese students wanting to study abroad, this is creating demand for university admissions counselors and application managers in education. These are roles that require good listening and empathy skills to be successful.
Hays advises candidates to put some effort into developing their EQ as well as their job interviews technique, so they can showcase the fact they possess these highly sought after skills.
According to the Hays Quarterly Report for April to June, demand is highest for the following skilled professionals:
·Hays Accountancy & Finance:
- Commercial FP&A – Candidates able to use data to help sales & marketing colleagues understand losses and find new opportunities.
- Compliance professionals – Large employers need talent with Big 4 or similar experience to bring more rigor to controls/compliance.
·Hays Banking & Financial Services:
- Consumer and internet finance – While activity in traditional areas remains sluggish, hiring in this newer area is steadily increasing.
- Consumer finance specialists – A hot area of activity with Chinese companies leading the way but foreign-based firms are also hiring.
- Investment professionals – Strong start up activity looking for talent able to work on IPOs, preparing M&As and source overseas funding.
·Hays Education:
- Study Abroad specialists – This area remains strong partly due to stronger interest from younger Chinese students.
- Online education talent – Digitally savvy candidates needed for range of roles from marketers, big data specialists, mobile apps and social.
- Sports training – China’s schools are set to develop this area and need PE teachers.
- K- 12 Education – Primary and middle school projects are driving up demand as well as salary packages.
·Hays Human Resources:
- HR Business partners – Shortage of quality business-minded candidates to fill rising number of openings particularly in MNCs.
- HR Directors/HR VPs – Chinese companies are looking for senior talent with global MNC experience to provide strategic direction.
- Talent development - Companies need help to identify, develop and retain top talent to give them an edge over competitors.
·Hays Information Technology:
- Cloud architect – This role is always hot and will continue to be highly sought after particularly due to the shortage of local talent.
- Technical sales – Technical sales talent are the vital bridge between R&D and internal business teams and also clients and partners.
·Hays Legal:
- Legal counsel – Business-minded candidates with corporate experience are in demand to support commercial teams.
- Compliance – Many firms are creating a specialist compliance role in their legal department for the first time and hiring to fill it.
·Hays Life Sciences:
- Business/Sales development manager – Still in very high demand to build strategic partnerships with distributors and find new markets.
- Biotechnology and IVD– A repeat inclusion in our quarterly reports, this area is generating new roles across sales & marketing and R&D.
·Hays Manufacturing & Operations:
- Operation and technical – This is an exciting time of year for candidates with more new and replacement roles coming online.
- Sales Manager/Senior sales engineer – Sales leadership talent are an all-season hot candidate to drive new revenue opportunities.
- Marketing manager – Specialists are need to leverage the enormous growth in the use of digital platforms, social and apps.
·Hays Sales & Marketing:
- Digital marketing manager – Digital marketing jobs are booming as e-commerce spreads across a range of sectors.
- Sales and key account manager – Growing businesses need top sales leaders to motivate their sales teamsHays, the world’s leading recruiting experts in qualified, professional and skilled people.
Hays, the world’s leading recruiting experts in qualified, professional and skilled people.
- Ends -
About Hays
Hays plc (the "Group") is a leading global professional recruiting group. The Group is the expert at recruiting qualified, professional and skilled people worldwide, being the market leader in the UK and Asia Pacific and one of the market leaders in Continental Europe and Latin America. The Group operates across the private and public sectors, dealing in permanent positions, contract roles and temporary assignments. As at 30 June 2016 the Group employed 9,214 staff operating from 252 offices in 33 countries across 20 specialisms. For the year ended 30 June 2016:
– the Group reported net fees of £810.3 million and operating profit (pre-exceptional items) of £181 million;
– the Group placed around 67,000 candidates into permanent jobs and around 220,000 people into temporary assignments;
– 22% of Group net fees were generated in Asia Pacific, 45% in Continental Europe & RoW (CERoW) and 33% in the United Kingdom & Ireland;
– the temporary placement business represented 58% of net fees and the permanent placement business represented 42% of net fees;
– Hays operates in the following countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Chile, China, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UAE, the UK and the USA