About 120 Chinese private entrepreneurs participated in three
project workshops on Human Resources Management (HR) this June. Main focus of
the workshops in Hengshui (Hebei), Dalian (Liaoning) and Anshan (Liaoning) was
on practical experiences and strategies of major Chinese and German enterprises.
The project had previously organized similar HR Management workshops in Kunming,
Guiyang, and Handan last summer.
Dr. Dieter Jaehrling, former chief of HR development with Audi
and Volkswagen, presented the carmaker's internal training systems for employees
as well as key factors of leadership development. Personnel selection in the
hiring process, staff evaluation and methods of retaining most-valuable-players
in the enterprise - these were highlights in the presentation of Dr. Xia Yong of
the Legend Group, one of China's largest non-state enterprises. Hermann Mayer,
Director of Corporate Human Resources with Siemens China, Ltd., introduced the
electronics giant's approach to view each employee as an "entrepreneur within
the enterprise" and thus encourage a high sense of responsibility.
All experts shared a strong preference of flat enterprise
organization structures with few levels of management, joint definition of goals
between managers and employees, and a high degree of independence in each
employee's method of reaching the goals. They pointed out that in today's global
economy, the importance of staff quality and qualifications as well as their
professional liberty and personal identification with the "corporate family" is
continuously growing. To the participating private entrepreneurs, many of these
presented ideas were highly relevant for future implementation in their own
enterprises.
Zhong Ming, expert moderator of the German Institute for
International Management (IFIM), guided through the workshop discussions and a
variety of HR-related role-plays. At the end of each workshop, he presented the
results of surveys on job incentives carried out earlier among the
participants.
In the evenings, participants were offered an opportunity to
discuss with the experts and workshop organizers of DIHT and ACFIC about their
individual business needs and possible projects of cooperation with German
enterprises. Helmut Schoenleber, DIHT project director in China, informed about
ways to initiate and increase contacts with Germany. Forty participating
entrepreneurs inquired about possible DIHT assistance in establishing such
contacts.