Global alliance to boost hiring

Founded in 1993, UK-based Antal is considered one of the country's top management and professional recruitment specialists, but crucially it also claims to be one of the first to devote substantial resources to emerging markets, and now has 135 offices in more than 30 countries.

It has been operating in the Asia-Pacific for nearly 17 years, and Antal China already has offices in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong.

While Career is going global in its search for top talent, Antal is focusing on the fast-growing Chinese market, and it is that two-way direction of their ambitions that attracted the companies to one another.

Antal's founder and CEO Tony Goodwin says China holds much larger potential for his firm than its UK home market.

Earlier this year, traveling in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, another city in which a potential joint office is now planned, Goodwin says he was surprised to find that its 8.8 million population was served by just 20 recruitment companies.

A comparative city in the UK could expect around 2,000, he says.

"To continue this development process, we had to partner with a Chinese company. We found we really needed each other, and the two companies hit it off immediately."

Around 20 percent of Antal's business comes from what are considered local clients, with the rest coming from multinationals, but Goodwin says the local element has grown much more strongly over the past five years, especially in third and fourth-tier Chinese cities.

"When we arrived in China in 2000, young people wanted to stay in large cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou after college; but now that has shifted, and more prefer to return home to work, where living costs are cheaper and competition is much less."

And it is not just local recruitment by local firms that is growing fast; multinationals are also increasing their staff in China.

"When a multinational wants to expand in China, it doesn't want to bring people from the UK or from the US, but find people who have expertise in the local market," Goodwin says.

Equally, Gao says, the partnership with Antal helps its own Chinese clients find the best overseas talent, and vacancies, more quickly. "Previously, if our clients wanted us to recruit a local manager in Amsterdam, it was very difficult for us to find the right person; but now if that kind of demand arises we can contact our new partner in Europe and start the process immediately."

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