First things first. Before I get into talking about issues with Project Management in China, and issues with getting Chinese workers to adopted productivity tools, I would first like to share my nifty comparison chart. I just completed an analysis of various mid-range online Project Management “group-ware” tools. I’m going to recommend the usage of one of these tools in my client’s China-based small start-up animation and game creation company. The company is based in Suzhou, but has contract employees all over the world. Anyone interested in shopping for one of these tools can read the comparison chart directly below without having to be exposed to my anecdotal ruminations about business in China. The above chart is based on the needs of a small company, currently with 10 employees, who is looking for a free or cheap solution to use until the company grows up a bit. The employees can [Read more...]

I’ve been honored today by a reader who wrote in a question about “title inflation”. Said reader gave permission to post this conversation, but I’m changing the names in order to protect the innocent and the guilty. The reader’s name will be called “Frank”. Frank works for a branded consumer appliance company in Shenzhen; I do not know if its a factory or a sales-office however. Frank wrote: I just saw your blog post about “Title Inflation” in China offices. [links added by me] This is a subject that I am wrestling with …. I work in a Shenzhen office with about 50 China nationals as staff. Our issue is that our US based corporate office wants to standardize job titles with the China office. This is leading to a competitive dis-advantage as our hiring pool is based on “better” titles than corporate is willing to use. Have you seen [Read more...]

Summary of Post: Foxconn is an unpleasant Taiwanese company. I do not know if they do anything illigal. But they probably improperly use assessment tests… which does nothing good for anyone. Also, this post constitutes blogging about a blog about a blog. And commenting on a comment on a comment. But hey… that’s what the internet is for (and the internet is also for porn, but that does not need to be said) . I do hope to add a little something original to this discussion. Stan Abrams at China Hearsay wrote this post about Shaun Rein’s post concerning Apple’s apparant lack of supply chain EHS (environmental health and safety) control in its largest vendor, Foxconn. Stan also brings up a China Daily post about this issue, which in Stan’s opinion, is a pro-Foxconn white-wash. I had previously posted my thoughts on Apple’s vendor-compliance issues in China. I myself don’t [Read more...]

I used to work for a company which provides Executive Coaching services, as well as Coaching Skills workshops. I learned much about formal coaching skills and processes over the last few years. Lately at my customer’s site, I’m finding that I am giving a lot of formal and informal coaching sessions to Chinese “subordinates” and “coworkers” 1. My experience with coaching has been very positive, yet I have not used any of the “skills” or coaching processes which I learned previously. I’ve searched the English web for articles on non-sports oriented coaching in China. I found: China Success Stories: Executive Coaching in China23. This article is about how to select an Executive coach. But within it, Mr. Gallo spells out what he sees as the competencies of a good coach, which include: Listening skills. Trustworthiness. Business Acumen. Intuitiveness. Flexibility. “Formal” coaching skills, as I have learned them, are mostly about [Read more...]

I have a problem at my client. Any advise is appreciated. They want to increase Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) reporting and discipline. Since I have been promoting Performance Management Systems as a way to create culture and behavior change, the HR Manager has decided to put EHS KPIs into a new, discipline/reward oriented graphic-scale performance appraisal system. This appraisal system, which we call the “Discipline Scorecard”, is only used in the factory; a fact which is creating complaints of unfair standards. But lets put those complaints aside for a moment. EHS in the factory must be promoted and enforced by the line supervisors and Production Manager. They must use the Discipline Scorecard to deduct points from workers who create EHS issues. I call this a “punishment policy”. Additionally, it is the primary job of the Vice General Manager and is considered very important by the Labor Union representative, both [Read more...]

Usually companies want to implement or improve performance management systems (绩效管理系统 jì xiào guǎnlǐ xìtǒng）in order to address a perceived performance issue. Sometimes the desire to strengthen PM comes from legal compliance issues; in China, performance management systems are not legally required, but are still vital for legal reasons. Without good documentation about poor performance, a company will risk lawsuits and damaged government relations when the management dismisses poor performers. However, I argue that the best use (and motivation to implement) a performance management system in China should be as a tool to positively create culture change within an organization. Large companies usually have performance management systems in-place. Or, at the very least, they expect to be able to plug-and-play centralized systems. Many new (or less experienced) HR managers will copy a pre-packaged system into their operations without much customization. More often, they will implement centralized systems. The implementation usually [Read more...]