"KISSING THE FROG" SYNDROME

CHAPTER 8 : HYGIENE FACTORS

In this chapter, we wish to look at the various hygiene factors: factors such as salary, benefits, pension schemes, the working environment, the location of the company, etc. Obviously, these factors do matter to any prospective employee!

Salary

Money does matter. If one wants to move a person from Job A to Job B, then the money the prospective employer offers is very important indeed! Normally, in order to make a career move, the monetary gain needs to be in the range of 10-35% per month; this is to compensate for the risks of a new employer, a new environment, new people and others.

The expectations from the candidates may be different from the prospective employer; and our job is to narrow this gap!

For instance, a candidate might think that he needs to make a career change, perhaps from one industry to another, or perhaps in the same industry but from a position of lesser responsibilities to one with a bigger responsibility such as more people and a bigger P&L; therefore, any "divorce" in this regard may warrant a higher pay. On the other hand, from a prospective employer's viewpoint, the company will provide the selected candidate a career opportunity, either something new in a new industry, or in an area of increased responsibilities, then the Company is doing the selected candidate a favor and therefore it should not pay so much.

Based on our experience, prospective employers tend not like candidates who are motivated purely by money, because they believe that this candidate will jump ship if he/she is offered more money!

A good recruiter will therefore need to strike a balance, and offer a reasonable amount of increase; let us face it, no one will leave a secure job for another if there is no money in the move. On the other hand, if the move involves too much of a jump in monetary terms, then this same candidate can make a few jumps and become a "millionaire" as a result.

Also, a company might "buy" someone in order to fix a critical problem; and will replace this person if this problem has been fixed.

Therefore, our conclusion is that too much money in a job is not a good thing either.

In an emerging market such as China, management talents and English skills are hard to find. These qualities invariably demand a higher pay. But employers must also take note that using salary as a means is not always a good tool in the long run.

Benefits and pension schemes

There are many and varied benefits in the Chinese employment situation. For instance, if one of my employees happens to come from another province, I need to pay for the train fares for him/her to see his/her parents back home.

Companies tend to have their own systems as far as benefits and pension schemes go, and they will not change the systems for any one person. Most companies have benefit schemes better than what is required of them by law; therefore, it is futile to compare one set of benefits from one company to another from another company. One must accepts this fact; the only intelligent way of comparing these is by the total monetary value (if the benefits can be apportioned in monetary terms).

Our advice to candidates is not to create additional problems for the prospective employer; after all, no one likes a new employee who tends to post difficult questions to any employer or boss.

Of significance in this section is the issue of housing and the company car provided by a prospective employer. The provision of housing benefits is essentially "standard" in China; most companies want to do this over and above the benefits offered by the Government; but there is a tendency of this issue becoming a staff retention device.

The issuance of a company car is not so popular in China yet; this is a visible thing and is related to the land's culture; therefore, if a candidate gets a car from an employer (as in the marketing jobs in the pharmaceutical industry), the chances are that he/she will be provided with a better and more powerful car in the next employment.

The employer's location, vacation period and other issues

These are not as important issues as other hygiene factors mentioned above. In most cases, they are competently handled by the HR/Personnel people of the prospective employer.

From the recruiter's viewpoint, salary/money is the most important consideration of all the hygiene factors for any career move. As an experienced recruiter, we must ascertain each candidate's current salary (authentication is necessary here as the question of integrity comes up, and there is also the tendency for this candidate to "jack up" the salary if he/she happens to know that the interviewer likes him/her) and his expectations (to be fair, this must be done after the job responsibilities have been outlined to the candidate).

Somewhere, somehow, we must play a fair game, for the candidate as well as the client.