China's prolific job hoppers

Chinese business leaders switch jobs frequently, with more than 40 percent of them having changed employers in the past five years, according to the latest study by consultancy firm Bain.

After surveying 25,000 business leaders on career social network LinkedIn, Bain also found that more than half of the job hoppers had entered completely new industries.

People from the internet, public relations and luxury goods sectors were found to be the ones most likely to quit and join another company within the same industry. The most stable industries with fewer cross-industry and company moves are airlines, logistics and industrial equipment.

In another study, LinkedIn found that Chinese business professionals expect to leave their current positions significantly earlier than their US counterparts. Chinese were also more frequent job hoppers than people in North America.

Meanwhile, in a bid to woo talent away from their multinational competitors, locally owned companies have upped their game in areas such as salary and employee training.

"Their fast-growing operations present opportunities for China's homegrown talent to rapidly take on leadership roles," said James Root, a Bain partner and co-author of the report.

According to Bain analysis, only 10 percent of executives at multinational companies have come from local firms in the past five years, while almost one-third of the leaders of Chinese firms used to be employed at multinational counterparts.

In addition, within multinational companies in China, nearly six out of 10 regional roles are held by Chinese nationals, and nearly nine out of 10 regional roles in local firms are held by Chinese nationals. Overall, Chinese nationals hold about two-thirds of the regional leadership roles in the country.

"The emergence of China as a global economic leader has resulted in the localization of human resources. People will continue to switch jobs to local companies," said Justin Luo, co-founder and CEO of Tujia, a China-based peer-to-peer online marketplace.

The report concluded that the trend of business leaders moving from foreign companies to local firms will continue, and many local companies will continue to seek out leaders at multinational enterprises because their training programs have a reputation for developing strong technical and managerial capabilities.

hewei@chinadaily.com.cn