Hays Architecture
January - March 2012
CHINA Hotspots
Designers and Design Managers with fluent bilingual skills and China experience will be most in demand this quarter.
Overcoming skills shortages
Employers are more willing to pay higher salaries than before to overcome skill shortages. Previously they hired overseas expatriates to help with the talent shortages but candidates without China experience have found it more difficult to fit in and the longer periods of time they require to adapt to the nuances of the market are perceived as very costly to employers. Therefore, companies would rather spend more to hire local staff who require less training or internally transfer senior management when a suitable local applicant cannot be found.
The coming quarter
The early phases of this quarter are expected to be slow due to both western and Chinese holidays running through to late January. After January, it is expected that there will be more hiring as talent leave their current company after receiving their yearly bonus.
Executive recruitment
While demand is not as high for senior talent as for intermediate staff, we still expect to see replacement or expansion positions this quarter at the director level.
Employer trends
Architecture firms will not offer sign-on bonuses. Instead they will wait until after Chinese New Year or look for immediately available candidates. Some employers are holding off because it has been reported that a large number of developers will be short of funding this year, hence there will be less capital put into new development projects. This will ultimately result in fewer projects for design firms and as such some companies are reviewing headcounts and discussing if they still want to expand or whether they will only recruit replacements for departing staff.
Candidate trends
Candidates are opting to stay in their current roles until after Chinese New Year. Other immediate candidates are choosing to wait until after spring festival so that they have more options in the market.
