Shenzhen in need of talent to boost future development

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The Chinese government is betting on Shenzhen, one of the 11 cities of the Greater Bay Area, to be the next global technology and innovation hub.

Home to Huawei, Tencent and other global tech giants, Shenzhen, the neighbouring city to Hong Kong, has transformed into China’s economic powerhouse, earning it the reputation as the Silicon Valley of China. To support its rapid development, the need for highly skilled and experienced professionals in the area is bigger than ever, which has fuelled the talent war around the region as businesses grab as many skilled talent as they can, especially in the IT sector, to retain their competitive edge.

With continuous support from the government and reinforced infrastructure, including the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link that started operations last month, Shenzhen has gained confidence from local business leaders to become a world-class global innovation centre by 2035.

More precisely, a survey conducted by Hays revealed that 79% of Shenzhen employers are optimistic about the city’s future and expect strong or moderate growth for their organisations in 2018.

According to Dean Stallard, managing director of Hays Greater Bay Area, the city government has planned to build 10 labs that will be led by Nobel Prize-winning scientists in fields such as chemistry, the micro-nano tech industry, robotics and 5G telecoms.

Investments and other government initiatives are bound to draw more multinational organisations, especially Fortune 500 companies, to establish their regional headquarters in Shenzhen.

Other than the growing demand for designers in the research and development of innovative technologies such as user experience and user interface, many organisations are keenly looking for talent who are familiar with the latest technology. Data scientists, cloud architects and blockchain specialists are some of the hottest jobs in the region.

These newly developed functions call for a creative sourcing approach to secure top talent, according to Samson Ho, business director of Hays Shenzhen.

Four in five (79%) openings are looking for candidates with five to 15 years of experience, while 39% require technical knowledge and 41% require management and leadership skills.

As skilled talent is getting scarce, companies are willing to offer more generous packages to the desired candidates, with 41% of vacancies offering RMB 300,000-RMB 500,000 annually, and 35% offering RMB 500,000-RMB 1,000,000.