Rolf Dörig, Chairman of Adecco Group Photo: Courtesy of FESCO Adecco Wang Yi'e, Party Secretary and President of FESCO Group Photo: Courtesy of FESCO Adecco Wang Bin, Deputy Secretary of the CPC Working Committee of the Xi'an High-tech Industries Development Zone Photo: Courtesy of FESCO Adecco Stakeholders during the FESCO Adecco Xi'an Talent Hub launch Photo: Courtesy of FESCO Adecco
China's economy has reached a new stage of development where the need for high-level talent in different industries is very strong. To support China's increasing need for talent, leading human resource provider FESCO Adecco launched the FESCO Adecco Xi'an Talent Hub in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province on May 11th.
Rolf Dörig, Chairman of Adecco Group; Wang Yi'e, Party Secretary and President of FESCO Group; and Wang Bin, Deputy Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Working Committee of the Xi'an High-tech Industries Development Zone attended the ceremony.
Wang Yongkang, Secretary of the CPC Xi'an Municipal Committee expressed his hope that FESCO Adecco could collaborate with the Xi'an government and help the city attract high-level talent from around the world, during a human resource seminar hosted by the two partners a day before the official launch.
Stephan Howeg, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer of Adecco Group believes that Xi'an holds great attraction for top-talents from different industries all over the world.
"Not only has Xi'an gathered many top universities and technological talents, but it's also an important gateway city to the Belt and Road initiative in China," Howeg said.
"I believe the Belt and Road initiative is a truly visionary initiative. It's not only looking at building infrastructure; we believe that this initiative will bring more wealth and peace to the regions along the Silk Road and also Water Silk Road."
In recent years, Xi'an has been upgrading its industries and developing innovative technologies. By 2017, Xi'an had attracted 1,839 high-tech enterprises.
However, as more high-tech companies enter Xi'an, the city faces a talent shortage. The Chinese workforce is around 77.6 million of which 16.5 million people are technically-qualified, and only 47 million people are considered high-level talents. In May 2017, the Xi'an government launched 23 new encouraging policies to attract high-level professionals.
Howeg believes that FESCO Adecco has unique advantages in helping Xi'an address its talent shortage. FESCO and Adecco have enjoyed a strong partnership for the last eight years. Adecco learns about China from FESCO and vice versa. Being in 17 markets globally, Adecco can share the knowledge and experience it gained from 50 years of working in other markets around the world with China, Howeg said.
"What we can do is to use the global network we have," he said. "[We can do it] in three ways, one way is to attract global talent to come to Xi'an. The second is to promote Xi'an to the outside world, and the third is to boost awareness by conducting research with leading universities in Xi'an and use the research to show how important Xi'an is and the Chinese market as a whole."
Howeg said that FESCO Adecco has also received a lot of support from the Chinese government.
"Human resource has already become a part of the infrastructure of the Belt and Road initiative. It's a strong pillar," he said.
Howeg is optimistic about the future. He believes that Xi'an will attract more high-level professionals to support the city's economic growth.
Three components help a place attract and retain talent, according to Howeg. The first is education: what system you have in place and what your workers can learn. Second is having companies that can attract young talent. Generation Y workers are more interested in exciting projects through which they can learn, he said.
The third is a prosperous environment. Howeg said prosperity is also an essential factor for high-level professionals when deciding whether to stay in a city and that Xi'an fits all three criteria.
He said Adecco's development in Asia, especially in China, has been a big success in recent years.
"This year, we employ over 1 million people every day in China, which is more than the number of people we employ in the rest of the world," Howeg said. "We are planning to foster the investment in Xi'an to support economic growth and grow our business in China."
