The employer and the employee are two interdependent aspects. In 2009, due to the impact of the financial crisis, enterprises in Quanzhou frequently carried out layoffs and salary cuts, which triggered a trust crisis among employees towards their employers. A recent survey released by 51job on "the most popular employers in China in 2009" shows that people hope to work for well-known employers, while at the same time, they also hope that the employer will care more about themselves, help them achieve career development, and assist in balancing work and life. In an uncertain economic environment, people's desire for promotion, salary increase, or even job-hopping has weakened, and instead, they pursue the happiness brought by work in Zhengzhou.
Enterprise reputation is the most pursued by talents. According to the survey of more than 13,000 white-collar workers, the enterprise brand plays a positive role in attracting and retaining talents. Among them, more than half of the respondents said they value "high enterprise reputation", and only a few people work for "high entrepreneur reputation". Despite being significantly impacted by the financial crisis, foreign wholly-owned enterprises have still maintained high attractiveness. As high as 42% of the respondents prefer European and American enterprises, about 22% and 18% of the people respectively favor state-owned enterprises and large private enterprises.
Feng Lijuan, the chief human resources expert of 51job, analyzed and believed that Chinese-funded enterprises represented by large state-owned enterprises and private enterprises are increasingly focusing on talent strategy and employer brand construction, but European and American enterprises are more systematic and strategic in building employer brands.
Despite the reduction in recruitment volume by companies such as Microsoft and IBM, these enterprises still steadily invest in relations with universities and even high schools, emphasizing the subtle influence of brands on students, including continuing to provide internship positions, senior management participating in campus recruitment, providing systematic training for new employees, language, management skills, professional technology, etc., and striving to develop and utilize the potential of employees. In terms of brand promotion, European and American enterprises not only have more channels, emphasize promoting the good facilities, cultural environment, institutional environment, and development environment of the enterprise, but also stress the professional behavior of employees. Relatively speaking, the employer brand strategies of Chinese-funded enterprises change more with the changes in enterprise operations and rely more on "salary" to attract and retain talents.
Work happiness surpasses salary and benefits. Due to the slowdown in salary growth and position promotion, job-hopping is not easy, and people turn to pursue "happy work." Thirty-seven percent of the respondents said they value the pleasure that work brings more. The second is the sense of achievement that work brings. Most people described what "happy work" is as "the work content is what I am interested in," "the work content often changes and does not repeat," and "the work pressure is small." However, only 15% of the people are willing to "do multiple jobs," and more people hope that work is "clearly divided," with colleagues each doing their own duties.
Feng Lijuan stated that with the increase in income and material abundance, more and more people hope that work and life are "independent of each other," enjoying life fully while working hard, and "workaholics" will become rare. On the other hand, due to economic uncertainty, the return on investment in work has decreased, but work is still the main source of income, so people oscillate and struggle between "life first" and "work first."
Employer care for employees is more formal than substantive. The survey shows that employees hope to get the attention of their employers, and the requirement for the commercial ethics of employers ranks second. Only 3% of the respondents value corporate social responsibility more than employer care. Regarding "career success," 27% of the people rely more on the development opportunities provided by the company; 25% believe it mainly depends on personal intrinsic motivation; 21% believe personal talent leads to career success. At the same time, the most effective channel for promoting the employer brand is employee word-of-mouth, and the integrity, ability, concern, and fairness of the employer are the four main influencing factors in gaining employee word-of-mouth. However, only 19% of the respondents said that the managers of their companies care about the ideas of employees; more than half of the respondents believe that their performance is irrelevant to the company's performance.
Human resources expert Feng Lijuan expressed that caring for employees is also the social responsibility of enterprises. In the past decade, fierce talent competition and high employee turnover rates have led to a year-on-year increase in enterprise investment in employee care. However, under economic fluctuations, most employers undoubtedly prioritize short-term operating profits. Currently, the behavior of enterprises caring for employees mainly relies on enterprise rules and regulations, where form outweighs substance. The pleasure, sense of achievement from work, balance between work and life, and influence on the employer mainly depend on the individual efforts and adjustments of employees.