How second and third-tier Chinese cities can attract top talent

The Suzhou of today isn’t what it used to be a decade ago. Infrastructure has greatly improved, with the city boasting of 12 national economic development zones that include industrial and innovation parks. In recent times, these areas have even been transformed into multifunctional new urban districts, featuring businesses in the high-tech and the modern services sector.

Many cities in the Jiangsu province are also witnessing similar levels of growth. In particular, we are seeing more companies move from first-tier cities to the second and third-tier ones to take advantage of lower costs and greater access to inland markets.

Though this trend is at the early adopter stage, we are already witnessing demand for customer-facing retail, operations and back-office shares services (IT, HR and finance) in more commercial businesses. Specialists in low-tech manufacturing and heavy industry are also highly sought-after.

Employees are also starting to pay attention to this shift as well. More than a third surveyed (38%) for the 2016 Greater China Employee Intentions Report (EIR) said they would consider moving to second and third-tier cities for work.

However, there is admittedly a smaller pool of talent willing to consider employment in second or third-tier cities than in first-tier ones. So how can employers convince professionals to make the move and more importantly, retain them?

Attraction strategies

While high remuneration packages may be one way to win employees over, companies may want to look beyond money in their talent attraction strategies.  Currently, more and more professionals are placing an emphasis on non-tangible benefits, including work-life balance. Among those who indicated interest in moving to second and third-tier cities for work in the Greater China EIR, almost half (48%) cited ‘good work-life balance’ as a driver. A company that doesn’t want its employees to work during the weekends, for example, should highlight this point during its recruitment processes.  

Another strategy is to provide employees with the support they need. From the majority (62%) who said they would not consider the move to a second or third-tier city, over half (51%) said in the Greater China EIR that they were reluctant to do so because of “personal commitments”, including family.

As part of the overall employee package, firms may want to consider providing air tickets or transport allowance to enable employees to visit family in their home cities. Alternatively, companies can provide a relocation allowance for the employee’s family.

Finally, offer employees strong career development opportunities. In the Greater China EIR, 68% of mainland China employees who were surveyed said that scope for career progression and promotion opportunities was they most important factor when considering a new role. The results suggest that this priority actually ranks higher than where these employees actually worked — with office location and accessibility receiving only 17% of the score.