The year 2016-17 will be a consistent year for HR professionals in China. There’s significant interest in HR specialists that are bi-lingual, particularly in large multinational companies, who understand the Chinese perspective and could balance this with the international best practice.

While salaries will mostly remain steady, there is an expected increase of 8% to 15% throughout the profession. This is anticipated to continue for the whole of the year, especially since more firms prioritise their HR procedures.

In China, the HR professionals have managed to develop new strategies directed at retaining current employees by investing in their professional development. New strategies have also been successful in attracting new talent. Along with this, internal HR divisions are being set up by an increasing number of small businesses to be able to manage their workforce more professionally.

Frank Yu, Chairman for ZW HR Consulting, said, “We see a high demand for HR related jobs in various sectors as MNCs and large local firms continue to expand their presence across China and the region aggressively. This is creating new opportunities for more robust and sturdy HR, Compensation and Benefits, HRIS Leaders and Training professionals with specific industry experience to manage long-term strategies. Overall, there has been an increase in the number of HR roles coming to market at all levels and across various disciplines.”

He further said, “Businesses across China do need skilled HR professionals to help recruit and retain employees. In most cases, the highest calibre HR professionals are not proactively seeking for a new job. However, we also have found that the majority are open to hearing about new opportunities. We are increasingly receiving high number of speculative enquiries from HR professionals enquiring about the potential opportunities in the market.”

The top HR roles currently in demand are:

1. Compensation and Benefits Manager: This occupation is highly sought after because it has an enormous effect on several HR regions – wages benchmarking to bring in expertise, remuneration layout to keep workers and localised HR policies. It manages situations that are complex in payroll and rewards management.

Annual Salary:

Tier 1 Cities* – RMB 300K – 800K

Tier 2 Cities* –RMB 200K – 500K

2. Talent Acquisition Manager: This function has developed from the procedure for searching, selecting and onboarding workers to using the network and having a ready pool of exceptionally qualified candidates for future or quick recruiting needs.

Annual Salary –

Tier 1 Cities* – RMB 300K – 500K 

Tier 2 Cities* –RMB 200K – 300K

3. HR Strategic Business Partners (HRBP): This role helps deliver the company goals with management and workers across business departments. This position acts as a consultant to the management on Human Resource issues. The candidate in this role is seen as an operational and more strategic resource for the region or area in which they support.

Annual Salary –

Tier 1 Cities* – RMB 300K – 500K 

Tier 2 Cities* –RMB 200K – 300K

4. HRIS Leader: HRIS Leaders are dedicated to maintaining and enhancing the HR function’s information system. The role is responsible for ensuring that the data gathered in IT, finance and others are well-timed and accurate. The HRIS leaders also act as a link between vendors, management, and users on techniques and HRIS problems.

Annual Salary –

Tier 1 Cities* – RMB 300K – 500K 

Tier 2 Cities* –RMB 200K – 300K

5. Learning & Development/Training Managers: The focus on this job role is to push and style the firm’s structure and intervention systems to help individuals learn appropriate skills and abilities for company’s success. This role is all about integrating strongly with the major stakeholders and practical heads, to understand their improvement needs and propose suitable talent management strategies.

Annual Salary –

Tier 1 Cities* – RMB 400K – 600K 

Tier 2 Cities* –RMB 250K – 400K

Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou are marked as Tier 1 cities. Provincial capital and thriving cities such as Tianjin, Suzhou, Chengdu, Chongqing, etc are Tier 2 cities for the purpose of easy understanding and in specifics.

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