Causeway Consulting Ltd
- 香港总商会会员编号 :
- HKC0890
Talent Hunters
What John Twist doesn't know about the recruitment business isn't worth knowing. After working for some of the most respected recruitment companies in Hong Kong and Britain for the past 30 years, he decided to strike out on his own.
"I came to the conclusion that most recruitment companies mess staff and clients around, so I thought that I could provide a much higher level of service and professionalism, so decided to establish my own company," he said.
In 2005, he established Causeway Consulting Ltd, and focused on serving a more upmarket clientele. Demand for talent has always outstripped supply in Hong Kong, so his venture got off to a flying start.
He explained that when companies' recruitment drives in newspaper classifieds and online come up blank, human resources managers would turn to head hunters to find the right candidate for them. On the flip side of the coin, when the economy looks a bit shaky, companies' recruitment plans are generally put on hold until business perks up.
"When the economy is in good shape, you get a lot of entrepreneurs getting into this business, often charging high fees for very little value and not delivering the goods, so that is a challenge to the integrity of the whole industry," Twist said. "Of course when the economy is in recession like the past few years, a lot of these businesses cut their losses and run."
After the storm
Twist said the overall market is now looking up, particularly for banks and the financial sector. However, the pool of talent in the sector is relatively small, and head hunters in the Mainland are not slow to poach talent in Hong Kong by luring professionals with attractive job offers.
"To avoid cushy expat packages, even companies in the Mainland are now looking to recruit expats on local contracts," he said. "Lots of professionals who were sent to China by their company are deciding to stay on at the end of their contract, so there is a real pool of foreign talent accumulating, particularly in Shanghai."
For his China staff, as in Hong Kong, networking is a crucial part of building up contacts, but he admits that far too often there are too many foxes chasing too few chickens. Consequently, he often has to spread his net as wide as Singapore to find candidates that his clients want to hire.
CEPA has opened the door to recruitment companies setting up in the Mainland, but Twist says Chinese companies still prefer to hire people based on the time-honoured tradition of relationships.
"The world is a much smaller place today, so you really need to think regionally and even internationally for both finding the right candidate, as well as placement," Twist said. "Mainland companies in general do not like working with recruitment companies, but I think over time that will change, and when it does we will be ready to serve them."
