HUMAN RESOURCES | The business battleground: “Companies have to make the career path clearer”

2014-4-22

From：Macau Daily Times

Macau’s business sector has been engaged in the battle for workers since the economic boom. And it seems that the fight will be further intensified when the new resort-hotels’ commence their operations in the 2016/2017 period.
Carolina Mendes, the managing consultant of Links International, told the Times that the talent pool in Macau is “very small”, in contrast to the large amount of job vacancies brought about by the opening of new retail shops. However, she does not believe that increasing salaries is necessarily the best strategy to retain employees.
Some businesses may think that they can attract and retain eemployes by providing a higher salary. Mendes believes that employers have to offer something more than money in order to keep staff from leaving.
Links International recently released the Macau Salary Index 2014. Ms Mendes said that the salary level of Macau is similar to that of Hong Kong. However, Macau has its neighbor beat when it comes to the salaries of store managers for luxury brands. “The pool of candidates in Macau is very small. It is difficult for the companies, other than the casinos, to sponsor [working] visas. So they can only hire people with Macau ID. And since there are new retailers opening, there are a lot of job vacancies… So, of course, one of the strategies that companies use to attract the best candidates is to pay a higher salary.”
Carolina Mendes pointed out that apart from the difficulty in looking for suitable candidates in a relatively small pool, human resources departments in Macau also face difficulty retaining employees.
She also suggested that money is not the only reason people leave their current employers. “Of course, money is always a reason… From our perspective, candidates are also concerned about career progression. If the company can give them benefits, training and development, and more skills that they can develop.” Ms Mendes thinks that sometimes companies have to make the career path clearer for employees who might not be aware of options.
As for the difficulty in retaining young people, Carolina Mendes believes that communication is very important. “I think sometimes for very junior people, they are just working for some money. I think it is normal to expect that junior workers’ commitment to jobs is not the same as senior people. Nevertheless, I think it is important to clarify with the candidates what their expectations are when hiring them. Does he (the candidate) want to have a job for six months, or does he want to invest in that position? Also, what kind of leadership would be good for him to develop? I think these kinds of issues have to be clarified.”
Moreover, the managing consultant believes that Macau has great candidates, but some junior level workers do not have good language skills. “You have great candidates in Macau. You have a lot of people that have studied abroad or in Hong Kong… So you have candidates that have very good skills, especially the more senior ones. For the more junior ones, for one thing they lack of English skills. Sometimes it’s a problem.” Nevertheless, she said that since many clients in the retail business are from mainland China, English proficiency might not be essential to their career. But she still advised employees to improve their language skills in order to elevate their current position.
Local Portuguese newspaper Tribuna has reported that Jiji Tu, the executive director of local recruitment website hello-Jobs, revealed Macau’s labour mobility rate is already higher than other countries and regions, and is expected to rise even more. Ms Tu said that the current labour mobility rate has reached the level of 20 to 25 percent. She predicts that the fight will hit 30 percent in 2015, when the new resort-hotels start hiring people.

Copyright@Macau Daily Times