China pollution makes recruiter's job more difficult

Air pollution in China is driving away foreign talent from some key cities, including the capital city of Beijing, and making it harder for multinational firms to persuade their employees to relocate there, hiring managers said.

“They are not familiar with the place and the country, so the heavy pollution is an important factor for them to consider,” said a senior executive at Antal International Germany in an e-mail interview. Antal International is a global recruitment firm working with multinational companies. The services offered by its German office includes recruiting foreign executives to work in China for large carmakers such as BMW, Audi and Volkswagen.

“Air pollution is becoming a real issue among expats working with Audi and BMW. A senior lawyer has asked to be transferred out of the area very recently,” said Richard Adam, a managing partner at Antal International Germany who regularly hires western talents to work in Asia. 

The difficulty of finding people to fill in positions in Chinese cities, on a scale of 1 to 10, was rated as 6, by Adam.

And while there seems to be few concerns expressed when it come recruiting westerners to the Shanghai, China’s financial hub, 60 per cent of those negotiating the possibility of working in Beijing and other Chinese industrial cities mentioned air pollution or health issues as a one of their top concerns, according to Adam.

“Life balance and health is getting more important and people take environmental issues into consideration. Nobody is going to ruin his or her health when there are job alternatives under better conditions. When people can choose, they take what is good for them, and money cannot compensate for health,” he said.