AI RECRUITMENT AND TIGHT BUDGETS; EMERGING HUMAN RESOURCES TRENDS FOR CHINA IN 2024

In a year headlined by local and international challenges affecting the economic outlook, businesses are exercising caution pertaining to growth and expansion. Spurred by a need to ensure operational continuity in a sustainable manner, leaders are revisiting recruitment and talent strategies in search of alternative solutions that enable their Human Resources teams to not just survive, but thrive.  
 
We have discussed at length the challenges accountancy, finance and technology teams face when it comes to balancing budgets while securing essential talent to satisfy changing business requirements. But with a shifting eye on current trends, we found it pertinent to explore how teams closest to sourcing, hiring, and managing employees currently fare in 2024. 
 
For a better understanding of talent trends affecting Human Resources here in China, we spoke to Ashley Ye, Team Manager at Hays China with further insights on this evolving specialism from our Hays Asia Salary Guide. 
  
HUMAN RESOURCES FUNCTIONS ARE GETTING LEANER 
OFFSHORING REPRESENTS AN OPPORTUNITY FOR HUMAN RESOURCES CANDIDATES 
AI USAGE IN RECRUITMENT 
GAPS TO IMPLEMENTING AI WIDELY 
THE MOST IN-DEMAND ROLES IN HUMAN RESOURCES IN 2024 
 
HUMAN RESOURCES FUNCTIONS ARE GETTING LEANER 
 
Many specialisms today face cutbacks amidst wider concern about the economic climate and human resources teams are no exception. 54% of human resources professionals across Asia expressed a lack of optimism for the economy today, slightly higher than the average of 51%. 
 
“There is a decline in recruitment demand compared to previous years, leading some employers to reduce the size of their recruitment departments,” said Ashley. “Many employers are undergoing structural adjustments and optimisations, implementing measures to reduce costs and enhance efficiency.” 
 
As teams grow leaner, generalists capable of performing multiple functions will be favoured over specialists. During this period, we are likely to see greater integration between human resources and administrative roles. 
 
Human resource professionals are adjusting their career plans accordingly, with 49% deciding to stay in the same role at their current organisation, instead of seeking new opportunities. Jobseekers looking to explore will need to be strategic in their outlook, emphasising skills and adaptability in a shifting market. 

 

While these restrictions seem likely to impact how human resources teams approach talent management in China, HR leaders remain confident in their ability to plug any gaps needed to ensure talent pipelines in their organisations remain robust and functioning. 64% of respondents were confident or very confident in recruiting candidates with the skills needed to meet organisation’s needs, higher than the 57% average for professionals from other industries. 
 
OFFSHORING REPRESENTS AN OPPORTUNITY FOR HUMAN RESOURCES CANDIDATES 
 
Amidst this pessimism, there is a silver lining: offshoring. Far from being the only market experiencing austerity measures, some businesses in Hong Kong SAR have resorted to offshoring various human resources functions to Mainland China in a bid to reign in escalating costs. 
 
Popular human resources functions for offshoring include payroll processing, recruitment, and training. These roles create more than direct job opportunities for candidates in Mainland China, providing a platform for candidates to gain more business exposure.  
 
AI IS USED FOR RECRUITMENT MORE THAN EVER BUT THERE’S ROOM TO GROW 
 
With AI spearheading optimisation in work processes globally, it comes as no surprise that employers have found a way to harness it for recruitment. The Hays Asia Salary Guide revealed that 55% of employers in China currently use AI throughout the recruitment process. 
 
Usage to date has mostly been for a mix of automation and optimisation of various tasks. 49% of respondents use it for resume screening and shortlisting, while 40% use it to perform predictive analysis for candidate fit. A further 19% use it to assist with interview scheduling and coordination. 
 
Additionally, 75% of human resources personnel support the use of AI tools to help them perform their tasks at work. However, only 32% of them believe their organisations have embraced AI sufficiently to stay relevant in the future. 
 
BUT THERE ARE STILL GAPS IN IMPLEMENTING AI WIDELY 
 
With AI tools being increasingly utilised by human resources teams, how confident are employees in adapting? Just over half of HR respondents in China felt they were sufficiently equipped or had a sense of how to acquire the required AI skills to succeed in their role in the next three to five years. 25% of respondents were unsure, while 24% disagreed or strongly disagreed with that notion. 
 
However, there is some sense of optimism when it comes to upskilling. 65% of employees were confident that their employer would support them in developing the necessary skills for their role. HR leaders will want to explore pathways to upskilling to ensure that these expectations are met, especially if their organisations plan on introducing AI tools to their workforce. 
 
When polled about the primary challenges faced when implementing AI, the top three factors that surfaced were as follows: 
 

Both HR and non-HR professionals face these challenges, though to varying degrees. More HR professionals were more concerned than their non-HR counterparts about the quality of talent, the lack of human touch and personalisation, and budget constraints. It is interesting to note that 43% more HR professionals perceive a greater need for human elements in the recruitment process than non-HR professionals. 
 
It remains to be seen how AI solutions may incorporate more human-like interactions or enable strategic human elements to be retained across the recruitment process. Establishing security measures, transparent data handling practices, and long-term cost savings and efficiencies of AI would be pertinent to its implementation in recruitment.   
  
As AI education grows more widespread among the populace, concerns regarding the ethical usage of AI tools in recruitment, especially for determining candidate employability, have naturally risen. 31% of HR professionals in China believe organisations should disallow the use of AI tools until there are sufficient regulations and ethical safeguards in place, while 26% remain unsure. 
 
Businesses have a lot of ground to cover when it comes to AI policies. Only 18% of HR professionals acknowledged that their organisation or leader had issued an AI tool usage policy, or provided guidelines on AI usage and restrictions for work. Addressing these concerns will be crucial to foster trust in hiring processes. 
 
THE MOST IN-DEMAND ROLES IN HUMAN RESOURCES IN 2024 
 
These are the top four most in-demand positions in HR for China in 2024: 
 

Interested to learn more? Our Hays Asia Salary Guide covers China, Hong Kong SAR, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand, compiling salary and survey findings of nearly 9,000 employers and professionals across the region. 
 
Get comprehensive data for multiple industries’ salary benchmarks in Asia and industry recruitment overviews to guide your talent management or career decisions.