DiligenceChina

If you are not a regular reader of China Economic Review (http://www.chinaeconomicreview.com Registration required), you probably should be. Today’s coverage of a new Korn/Ferry survey of expat managers in China reveals something that many of us had long expected. It’s easy to get expensive expat managers to come to China, but hard to hold them.

Read Korn/Ferry’s survery details here. ( http://www.kornferry.com/Library/Process.asp?P=PR_Detail&CID=1776&LID=1 ). You can find the CER article here: Expat execs love and hate China: Survey

Some of the key findings from the Korn/Ferry survey:

‘ The most common reason for expatriate assignments to fail, according to more than half of recruiters (51 percent), is a lack of cultural fit. Other popular responses were family or personal issues (23 percent) and not enough direction or goal setting (12 percent). ‘

‘… The mean ideal length for an expatriate assignment, according to recruiters, is 32 months or approximately two-and-a-half years. ‘

‘ The key for employers is maintaining an appropriate balance between expatriate and local talent by understanding when, where and how expatriates can best help the business. ‘

Their findings seem to support a trend we’ve been seeing in large MNCs and smaller expat managed firms — localizaton works well at middle management levels, but there is still strong demand for international-caliber talent in management spots that require strategic planning and global integration skills. The most successful companies are training Chinese managers to work within existing international structures AND training expat managers to deal with local business and cultural practices. Those firms that pay lip service to HR supprt of either group seem to be the ones running into the most trouble.

BTW — China’s National Day holiday starts on Monday Oct 2. Everyone is closed on Monday and Tuesday. Some firms are working this weekend to make up for the days off (which may or may not be a legal requirement, depending on who you ask). Others are shutting down from Saturday Oct 1 through Sunday, Oct 8. There are probably other variations as well. Many companies have still not decided what their plan is. The consensus is that no one expects a lot to get accomplished next week.

So if no one is picking up the phone at your China office next week, you’ll know why. As to why your own office didn’t inform you of their vacation policy, see the K/F survey.