Winemaker Nicolas Billot-Grima (right)

----By Mark Godfrey

There's no shortage of self-starters and adventurers stepping off aeroplanes in Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai with little luggage but ambition and a China dream. Yet few foreign-invested firms hesitate these days when asked about their number-one concern in China: Personnel shortages topped the agendas of most regional branches of the European Chamber around China in 2006.

Channelling raw foreign and local talent into skill-strapped companies in China seemed a worthy enough mission for Shasha Gao to set up Intertalent, a young Beijing-based recruitment firm matching foreign students and graduates with internships and jobs in China.

A native of the Dutch university city of Leiden, Gao reckons a large pool of young foreign and local talent is being neglected by larger recruitment firms who tend to focus on corporate headhunting and advising corporations on broader HR strategies in China.

Connecting corporations in China with bright young foreign (and local) graduates for jobs and internships is what Intertalent is about.

"We focus on a part of the pool where still not many companies are focused on. Young [talented people between] the ages of 21 and 35 are still being missed by large recruitment agencies," says Gao, who, appropriately enough, studied Asian trade management for four years at Rotterdam Business School.

Young talent

While her classmates headed to companies focused on the sourcing and logistics businesses in China, Gao could only see China's looming talent needs. She started Intertalent in July 2006 with a database of five candidates from Europe and China. A year later Gao had put over 100 candidates into jobs and internships around China. She does three to five interviews a day with candidates whose applications have been sent and screened through Intertalent's website. "Everyone is looking for opportunities here," says Gao, 23, who speaks with an authority and knowledge of her area that belies her age.

Bridging the gap between foreign talent and Chinese industry takes an appreciation of Chinese corporate culture as much as traditional HR concepts taught in college, says Gao.

Born in Holland to Chinese immigrant parents, her upbringing gave her an appreciation for the Chinese concept of guanxi. "The concept of introducing young talent in organisations is related to relationships and contacts. You just need to match them together. China is getting more and more international and you can do a lot with your relationships."

The Chinese fondness for building relationships is probably why local recruitment websites like Zhaopin.com, 51job.com and Chinahr.com are increasingly structured to allow Chinese professionals to interact and share job information, particularly in staff-hungry sectors like finance, IT and pharmaceuticals. But Gao has spotted what the websites don't offer. "There is no link between this [network] and foreign enterprises and foreign employees. [The websites] all offer the same opportunities for employers and employees - a platform to get to know each other and to look for a job."

China's companies need foreign talent but local recruitment websites are too parochial, says Gao, who speaks Chinese, Dutch and English.

"As a foreigner it is hard to enter such websites, because they're all in Chinese. Most of the websites have added an English sub-menu, but when you click on it you will only see an error page. The big gap is the limited entrance for foreign companies and foreign people looking for employees or jobs."

Intertalent charges clients a management fee to make the connections. Fees are payable once the company successfully places a candidate in an organisation. Candidates themselves don't pay. Almost 80 percent of Intertalent's client base is made up of foreign companies (70 percent European, 30 percent North American). Among the client base are the European Union Chamber of Commerce, ZTE Europe, Arthur D. Little Maxit Group and "some foreign banks who don't want to be named".

Help wanted

Gao sees a lot of her future business in linking foreign job-seekers to domestic companies, who so far constitute 20 percent of Intertalent's business. So she's taking the time to build relationships and networks with local corporations. In approaching locals for business Gao puts relationship-building - guanxi - first. "Foreign companies are much more eager to co-operate with you when demand and offer are equal. In China if you want to co-operate with a local company, you still need to depend a lot on your relationships and networks. Then it's easier to convince them about your activities."

On the candidate side, the database splits almost 50-50 between local Chinese and foreigners. Of the foreigners, 50 percent are European and 25 percent North American. Interestingly, only five percent of the foreigners are from other Asian countries. Unlike most other recruitment firms, Intertalent also arranges internships, a concept still somewhat unfamiliar to China's status-focused graduates.

"Most of the Chinese people are applying for a full-time position, and foreign people are open for both internships and full-time positions. The most important reason why Chinese people are applying for a full-time position is that they are not familiar with the internship concept and they want to have security regarding their future. Foreign applicants see an internship as a possibility to stay involved in the organisation afterwards."

Vetting and getting the right candidates to match clients' needs isn't always easy. "The current needs of companies in China are not in the broader majors like business administration, economics or political science. There are too many people studying those broad majors. China's needs are more specific: electronic engineering, chemical and environmental engineering and marketing." Aside from guanxi, patience is a major factor in a successful China venture, the Intertalent boss has discovered. Gao got her first chance to put China and recruitment together in a previous role at a large Dutch recruitment firm focused on the introduction of mainly Dutch students and graduates into Dutch companies as interns and full-time employees. Robust growth in the Dutch market made it ambitious. "One of the employees suggested China, because of the booming market and the high potential over there."

Gao was recruited as the company's "Asia expert" and dispatched to Beijing in May 2006 to open an operation here. "I came with my supervisor. We were both very determined to make the China branch a success." But the fast-moving Dutch firm wasn't prepared for a patient slog in China. "In two months we spoke to a lot of people in Beijing and Shanghai and worked liked horses in the field. But eventually, all the energy we [expended] didn't pay [off], and they decided to cancel the international ambitions and we were called back to the Netherlands."

But a long-held ambition for a career in China soon had Gao back in the land of her parents. The time was right for the concept she felt, and she had those Chinese virtues of patience and guanxi to draw on: "I didn't want to throw away all the energy and effort I gained in that time, so I decided to continue, as Intertalent." The Chinese tradition of family networks helped draw in financial backing too. "My parents have a good network in both Europe and China, so they were able to arrange an investment." Family has played a big role in this youthful corporate career. Gao's parents left the Zhejiang town of Wenzhou at a "very young age" for the Netherlands and worked hard to build a catering business in Holland. "As a child I saw how many difficulties my parents had when they arrived in Holland and how hard they had to work to make it. I think this has influenced me бн You need to invest time and energy to eventually get what you want."

Flushed by a good year, Gao is - patiently, yes - planning an expansion of Intertalent in China and Europe. "I am thinking of opening an office in Shanghai after 2008. A representative manager in Holland will be operating the European market. From Holland we will try expansion into other European countries like Germany and Belgium. "I have a concept that can work everywhere; you just need patience, contacts and a good drive to start up this [kind of] organisation in other cities or countries."