Web of talent
Foreign firms in Vietnam are turning to on-line
recruitment to find good managers, especially
among Vietnamese educated overseas
HANOI - Back in october, executives at
Colgate-Palmolive in Vietnam started looking for
Vietnamese to fill two mid-level managerial positions.
Four months on, the positions are still vacant.
"Recruiting good people is very, very difficult," laments
General Director Marco Poggi. "These are the growing
pains that we have to go through."
Such complaints are typical in Vietnam, where lively
economic growth has outpaced the supply of capable
local managers. Finding low-cost and easily trained
factory workers is a snap. But identifying candidates to
manage teams or replace costly expatriates is a major
challenge for many foreign firms. The challenge in
Vietnam, with its relatively short history of economic
liberalization and its antiquated educational system, is
even greater than in more-developed Southeast Asian
countries like Malaysia, Thailand or the Philippines.
But some companies doing business in Vietnam are
learning to cope by turning to the Internet--in part to
plumb the burgeoning networks of Vietnamese
educated abroad. On-line recruiting is hardly new in
Asia, but it is just starting to catch on in Vietnam.
"We find the bright young talent are Web-savvy, so
using Web-based approaches is a productive way to
reach these candidates," says Tom Mueller,
Hanoi-based spokesman for oil and gas firm BP
Exploration. In addition to posting jobs on Web pages
run by universities in Britain, the United States and
Australia, BP also advertises on Vietnam Express
(www.vnexpress.net), a Web site often accessed by
Vietnamese studying overseas.
Both BP and insurance giant Prudential are sponsors of
a Web site (www.ukav.org) aimed at Vietnamese
alumni of British universities, launched last year by the
British Council, an educational organization. In March,
employers and job-seekers will also be able to access
an upgraded Web site run by the Vietnam Graduates
From Australia Club (www.vgac.org), which has 1,600
members on its database, out of an estimated 5,000
Vietnamese with degrees from Australia. The club
decided to offer this service after being approached by
companies such as mobile-phone maker Ericsson and
car maker Mercedes-Benz. Job postings and job
searches will be free.
Meanwhile, companies such as consumer goods giant
Unilever Vietnam and oil company Shell Vietnam have
had some luck in posting opportunities on
VietnamWorks.com (www.VietnamWorks.com), set
up last year by British Virgin Islands-based
Management Consulting Group. Claiming more than
38,000 registered users, the site currently features 188
job postings and more than 1,300 on-line resumés.
Companies pay a "promotional" rate of $25 per month
to list jobs and $75 for three months' access to
resumés, while applicants search for free. Resumés are
culled for quality, says managing director Jonah Levey.
One that was tossed in the bin listed virtually no work
experience, just the contact details for 16 relatives.
The Internet hasn't ruined business for traditional
headhunters at PricewaterhouseCoopers and KPMG,
which both report increasing inquiries from foreign
investors. They are also hearing from more job-seekers
among ethnic Vietnamese raised overseas, in part due
to the economic downturn in the U.S. and Europe. But
such candidates often expect hefty expat packages. As
for fresh graduates from overseas universities, the
headhunters say that their salary expectations are often
too high given their limited work experience. "A foreign
MBA doesn't guarantee a higher salary," warns Greg
Zinger, senior manager for human resources consulting
at PricewaterhouseCoopers.
That's one reason why companies like consumer-goods
firm Procter & Gamble Vietnam and agricultural firm
Cargill Vietnam only recruit for entry-level positions and
groom people to move up. But given market demand,
job-hopping is tempting. Take Hanoi native Nguyen
Ngoc Thang. He gushes over the training he received at
Procter & Gamble, where he started out at age 21. But
then he moved on to Coca-Cola, then to insurance at
AIA, and then to Nokia mobile phones, where as a
29-year-old retail manager he now earns $1,300 per
month, more than four times his Procter & Gamble
salary. Recruiters reckon it may take another four to
five years for the market to mature into a more stable
and abundant roster of talent.
By Margot Cohen - The Far Eastern Economic Review - January 30, 2003.
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