MRIC IN ACTION | March 2014

1MRIC Group Newsletter | Mar 2014

AWARDS:

Meet the 2013 MRIC Pacesetters & “Chris Groocock” Values Awards!

Other news...............................................................................................

NEWSLETTER . MARCH 2014

During MRIC’s Annual Town Meeting on February 12, Group CEO Christine Raynaud proudly announced the winners of our annual staff awards. This year’s top-billing Pacesetter is…Ms May Cheo, Senior Business Consultant for the Life Sciences team in Singapore.

This year, we also honor Ben Ky as “Rookie of the Year” and Eva Jiang as “Top Search Consultant” – two winners from our Shanghai offices. (See story: “May, Ben and Eva’s ‘Secrets of Success!’) Read more >>

Staff Sharing: Secrets of Success from MRIC’s Pacesetter Award Winners MRIC Group has a strong culture of learning together, growing together and winning together. Read more >>

Events: MRIC Group leads panel at AmCham HR Fair

On February 27, more than 200 HR professionals gathered to hear a panel discussion... Read more >>

Big Results for 2014 Talent Trend Briefing ReleaseFrom mid-January to mid-February, MRIC saw a huge increase in media attention following the release of 2014 Talent Trend Briefing series. Read more >>

Giving Back: MRIC “Heroes” Support Junior Achievement Matching MRIC’s “can-do” spirit, we are proud to announce the launch of our MRIC Values CSR Program. Read more >>

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MRIC Singapore Country Manager BL Seah, winner of the ‘Chris Groocock’ Values Award (at right) poses with Sr Business Consultant May Cheo, winner of the 2013 Pacesetter Award.

May Cheo’s Six Secrets to Success:

Attracting and retaining excellent clients requires these specialized qualities:

1. Tenacity2. Consistency3. Speed4. Accuracy5. Value-added Services6. Geographic expansion

TOP BILLER FOR 2013!


-- (cont’d.)Meet the 2013 MRIC Pacesetters & “Chris Groocock” Values Awards!

Last month, five outstanding MRIC team members also won our annual Chris Groocock Value Awards, created in 2013 in honor of our beloved Director of Learning and Development who passed away in 2012. Every year end, MRIC staff vote for the colleagues who best embody the MRIC Values: Enterprising, Sharing, Respect, Performance, Integrity, and Balance. This year, the winning MRIC staffers were: BL Seah, Norman Lau, Amanda Teng, Holly Li, and Stefanie Qiu.

Following MRIC tradition, winners of the Pacesetters and Values Awards will attend the Annual Staff Awards Trip later this spring. Last year’s winners enjoyed a 3-day teambuilding trip to Guilin. This year’s trip is still under planning. Also new for 2014, the Values Awards is now sponsoring the world renowned NGO Junior Achievement. (See story, “Giving Back”.)

To all 2013 winners: “Congratulations”! To all MRIC staff: “Jia-you in 2014!” As our new slogan for this year states: we will “Take Off Together in 2014!”

Staff Sharing: Secrets of Success from MRIC’s Pacesetter Award Winners

MRIC Group has a strong culture of learning together, growing together and winning together. While individual consultants are rewarded for meeting individual performance targets and goals, we also promote a spirit of teamwork and shared success. In this article, our 2013 Pacesetter Award Winners share with the whole MRIC family tips and advice on how they secured a spot as top-billers last year in the categories of Rookie of the Year (Ben Ky), Search Consultant of the Year (Eva Jiang), and overall Top Biller (May Cheo). Read on to learn from our newest winners:

Q1: Last year was a challenging year for recruitment across Greater China and Singapore. How did you achieve impressive successes despite the overall economic atmosphere?

May Cheo: Last year, the situation in Singapore was challenging – recruitment has become very competitive. Many individual firms are sprouting up like mushrooms and offering below-market rates. We are fighting for the same pool of clients, but they were charging much less.

How can we succeed with this competition? A lot of it is tenacity and consistency. For example, one thing I did last year was to expand geographically. Last year, I identified Indonesia as a key market and worked closely with a major medical device player with good presence in Indonesia. Another strategy was speed and accuracy. All clients appreciate speed but they don’t always get the right candidates profiles sent to them from competitors. I don’t send candidates with the wrong background, just to fill a KPI. Lastly, I focused on value-added services – giving clients the landscape of the challenges and developments in their sector. Clients know their company but they may not always know what their competitors are doing. I give them a call or email a quick landscape update, and help them to look good in front of their bosses when they share the competitive landscape findings with them. We may not always fill the role but this is something they remember you for and, when they rely on you for market information, this can potentially lead to other job orders.

Ben Ky: Last year was my first year at MRIC. The biggest challenge for me was in finding quality clients who respect our work and cooperate as business partners. I have used this strategy over the last 10 years in recruitment. The market is saturated with more than 1000 agencies, but no single firm has more than 10-20% of the market in China. So there are opportunities for MRIC to find quality clients. The way to do that is through being consistent and delivering high quality services to clients. Clients can tell if you are passionate, and they appreciate it. My priority is to take care of clients and candidates before taking care of myself. If you have this attitude, you will succeed!

MRIC IN ACTIONTalent, delivered. Recruitment experts for Asia.

“Clients can tell if you are passionate, and they appreciate it. My priority is to take care of clients and candidates before taking care of myself. If you have this attitude, you will succeed!”

- Ben Ky

Ben Ky (Principal Consultant) and Eva Jiang (Search Consultant) flash their smiles after winning the 2013 Pacesetter Award.

...to MRIC Group’s 2013 Rookie of the Year and Search Consultant of the Year.

CONGRATULATIONS!

“Our strategy (last year) was to work with medium-sized companies that are growing fast. These companies need talent and value our expertise.”

- Eva Jiang


Eva Jiang: The challenge for me is that when I joined MRIC, I began specializing in the automation sector. I had been a generalist before, so this was a new sector for me. In the first three months of 2013, I did not have any placements, so it was a difficult time. But I worked closely with the Practice Leader (Norman Lau) to choose some areas within automation because it is so huge. Then I worked with him to expand the talent pool. I had to be very proactive with the channels, talking every day to as many candidates to build the talent pool.

I use a motto of Plan, Execute, Succeed. First, I set the goal, then I execute and support my Practice Leader to close the deal. Our strategy was to work with medium-sized companies that are growing fast. These companies need talent and value our expertise.

Q2: What were your biggest successes of 2013? How did you achieve them? May Cheo: We started a relationship with a large medical device client in 2013 which wanted to recruit talent for Batam Island, Indonesia. But people don’t want to relocate to Batam as it is a small island, not a cosmopolitan city like Singapore. Although the project did not seem favourable, I want to thank (Singapore Country Manager) BL Seah for her business acumen in advising me to take it on because it eventually led to other positive collaboration efforts with the client’s Singapore and Malaysia plants. This client was very high touch, requiring weekly update calls. While other recruiters may see this project as negative, MRIC took it on and changed the negative to positive. We filled the first three roles, placing candidates from Malaysia, Singapore, and India into Batam. The client was happy with our work, and subsequently gave me and the other consultants in Singapore office more projects to work on. I landed another 3 more roles from them. In total, we filled 5 positions for them in 2013.

Sometimes, a project that looks unfavourable may bring a good harvest over time if you are consistent and tenacious.

Ben Ky: for my biggest placements last year, I had two CFOs and one director-level position for the shared services provider in Shanghai. On a personal level, I also

received lots of recommendations from clients on my LinkedIn, which gives me a sense of success with clients.

Eva Jiang: Last year, I had 11 placements in mid- to senior roles. With Norman, we placed several high level roles including Key Accounts Business Development Director, National OEM Director, China HR Director and Plant Manager. In one case, the client changed their mind and cancelled the position, after we did a long search, but we still maintained the relationship.

For 2014, my goals are to develop knowledge in my DIG (discipline, industry, geography) and to bill over RMB1.2 million – and become an MRIC Millionaire!

Giving Back: MRIC “Heroes” Support Junior Achievement

Matching MRIC’s “can-do” spirit, we are proud to announce the launch of our MRIC Values CSR Program. After careful research, MRIC chose to support a world renowned NGO that shares our commitment to education and training in order to enhance professional development and career advancement. Beginning in February, all locations of MRIC began supporting Junior Achievement (JA). The world’s largest non-profit educational organization, JA’s mission is to educate students about work readiness, entrepreneurship and finance through “hands-on” programs taught by volunteer working professionals. At MRIC, within just a few hours of launching our CSR Program, we had attracted 24 volunteers across China and Hong Kong. MRIC’s JA Heroes in Shanghai and Beijing attended JA Orientation on February 22; team members in Guangzhou will do so on March 22.

Special thanks to the MRIC Heroes supporting JA during their precious weekend time: Sabrina Yang, Cara Wang, Ben Ky, Ray Li, Peggy Zhu, Eva Jiang, Rachel Wang, Camilla Chen, Zita Liu, Lily Zhang, Dyan Yang, Mia Zhu, Echo Jin, Joyce Wang, Tracy Zhang, Roy Kwok,Henri Delion, Kelvin Pho, PY Cheng, Vanessa Huang, Peter Chong, Maggie Cheong, Amanda Li, Jeanette Ying, Vivien Wong, and Christine Raynaud. Go MRIC Heroes!


On this page...

� Secrets of Success from MRIC’s Pacesetter Award Winners

� MRIC “Heroes” Support Junior Achievement

“I use a motto of Plan, Execute, Succeed. First, I set the goal, then I execute and support my Practice Leader to closethe deal.”

- Eva Jiang

“Sometimes, a project that looksunfavorable may bring a good harvest over time if you are consistent and tenacious.”

- May Cheo


Events: MRIC Group leads panel at AmCham HR Fair

On February 27, more than 200 HR professionals gathered to hear a panel discussion on “Talent Trends Briefing & 2014 HR Outlook & Strategy” lead by MRIC Group Managing Director for China Angie Eagan. Angie began by introducing key findings from the MRIC’s Talent Trends Briefing for China, which outlines the mood, career plans, and primary motivators for professionals working across the main business hubs of China. Angie then led a panel discussion on attracting and retaining talent, featuring guest speakers Mukesh Tiwari, Global HR Manager for Caterpillar Enterprise System Group; Seth Yu, Chief Administration Officer - Ethics & Compliance Officer for CHC Healthcare; and Clara Wong, Vice President - Human Resources for Coach China Retail. The presentation and discussion lead to a lively Q&A both during the official session and at the networking period to follow.

In The Media: Big Results for 2014 Talent Trend Briefing Release

From mid-January to mid-February, MRIC saw a huge increase in media attention following the release of 2014 Talent Trend Briefing series. A whirlwind series of press conferences and high-profile speeches and business briefings in Taipei, Beijing, and Hong Kong, lead to a grand total of 101 articles in print and online media. Highlights include coverage by Forbes.com (Taiwan); United Daily News, Apple Daily, and Economic Daily (Taiwan); Finance.sina.com, China Daily, Hexun.com; HK.news.yahoo; and efinancial careers.


On this page...

� MRIC Group leads panel at AmCham HR Fair

� Big Results for 2014 Talent Trend Briefing Release

MRIC Group Managing Director for China Angie Eagan

Angie Eagan (center left) poses with panelists at the AmCham Shanghai HR Fair.

“MRIC’s 2014 Talent Trend Briefings attracted 101 media reports over the past month!”

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MRIC IN ACTION | March 2014