Invest in TaiwanDepartment of Investment Services, MOEA
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International companies should first determine what kind of person is best suited—and potentially available—when recruiting staff for Taiwan ventures. Expatriates may be the best solution for companies just starting up in Taiwan, but they are often the more costly staffing option and may have some difficulty adapting to local culture. Local nationals may be the least costly staffing alternative, but they may be unfamiliar with Western business practices and may have limited English communication skills. Taiwanese returnees may offer the best solution in that they are familiar with Western business practices and have experience with Taiwan's cultural and work environment. However, they may have difficulty reintegrating into Taiwanese society. Another emerging group of potential employees are foreign nationals already residing in Taiwan. This last group, depending on the length of their residence, can have both international and local experience as well as cultural familiarity, often filling a niche for companies requiring foreign language skills.
Depending on the positions being filled, a combination of search methods can be employed among all available groups to meet local staffing needs. Once a company determines who its ideal candidates are, an appropriate search method can be developed and pursued. For more senior positions, searches are often done on an international basis to ensure greater success.
Where a company locates in Taiwan will also have a significant impact on the attractiveness of an employment opportunity and the number of potential people for available positions. Thus, for businesses outside of Taipei, companies may want to sweeten employment offers with preferential housing, subsidized transportation, employee-organized activities and local community projects to increase the willingness of qualified people to take up residence in new locations.
Not discussed in detail here is the hiring of contract or "guest" workers. And although Taiwan allows the hiring of foreign laborers, especially for public construction projects, the importation of workers for these and other kinds of jobs is subject to strict regulations and other policies as set by the Council of Labor Affairs.
The following is an overview of the main recruitment and search methods used by companies to seek out people for different kinds of available positions.
The more senior and specialized the position, the more likely a company will rely on professional executive search services to identify potential candidates. Although many multinationals often bring in a start-up team to help with the initial business set up and staff building process, they often work closely with local and/or international executive search firms to build a company's core management team. Many executive search firms leverage their knowledge of certain industries or sectors, and have built extensive contacts with potential candidates in Taiwan as well as other countries. This knowledge provides the advantages of more quickly identifying potential candidates while also ensuring greater hiring success. The cost of professional search services is usually based on the scope of a given search. For multiple positions and long-term service provisioning, many executive search firms are engaged on a retainer basis.
For senior positions in many industries, however, especially those positions for which a native Chinese speaker is sought, newspaper and online advertising is the most common form of recruitment. Ads are often placed in local Chinese-language newspapers and to a lesser degree local English newspapers, the ads are often written in English for the most senior positions. Also, there is often a perception by job seekers that the more important the position is, the more prominent the advertisement should be. And although newspaper and online advertising can generate a large pool of applicants, sifting through applications to identify potential candidates requires knowledge of local institutions and companies. Because newspaper circulation is relatively high in Taiwan, the cost of advertising, even in the job opportunities section of a newspaper, can be significant. The cost can be reduced somewhat by specifying distribution focusing on specific areas in Taiwan.
When a resident foreign national is being sought for a position, companies often advertise in one of the local English newspapers. Another increasingly common place to advertise for such positions is on websites dedicated to Taiwan's various expat communities, such as Formosa.com, Chinese-American Professionals in Taipei, the Taiwan section of Oriented.com, Taiwan Fun and other similar sites.
Newspaper advertisements and online job postings are the most popular ways to recruit general staff in Taiwan. The most popular online job search site in Taiwan is 104.com.tw. This and similar sites are actually full-service providers that charge employers relatively low fees to access their database of online resumes and to post job opportunities. These companies can also be engaged to help employers plan and execute online recruitment campaigns and assist with applicant screening.
Employment centers at many colleges can also be helpful in finding local employees educated and trained with specific kinds of industries in mind. Some companies, especially in the automotive and engineering sectors, often form partnerships with certain colleges to ensure a greater number of available and qualified employees.
The government also provides a wide range of retraining and employment assistance services for various groups in Taiwan through a number of government agencies and non-profit organizations. Some of these organizations can also help employers screen candidates for employment opportunities.
University recruiting is the main method for finding qualified candidates for entry-level technical and research positions. For more senior positions, the government operates several programs to assist in recruiting local and overseas candidates. One program is the Department of Investment Services' HiRecruit program operated in conjunction with Taiwan's National Science Council. The HiRecruit program focuses on helping to match overseas talent that want to work in Taiwan with local employers seeking technical and research personnel. The National Science Council also maintains a database of local researchers on its international cooperation website: Find Researcher.
Over the last five years, temporary employment services have become increasingly popular to meet the needs of short-term projects and seasonal business cycles.
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