What Fortune 500 Companies Want: Recruiting in China

The growth of Fortune 500 companies in China has its complementary challenge in managing human resources. In this study, we describe the skill sets, language fluency, educational credentials, job experience, and other key job qualifications that are solicited on Fortune 500 Companies' LinkedIn advertisements in China. The characteristics that were most represented in the job advertisements in our sample of 111 US Fortune 500 companies in China were from companies ranked 201-500 (39.6%), in secondary sectors (57.7%), in Tier 1 cities (91.9%) offering lower management positions (47.8%) requiring a bachelor's degree (55.9%) and English fluency (55.0%) with 6-10 years of work experience (43.2%). In addition, we examine the relationship between these qualifications and the types of enterprises represented in our sample. Using chi-square analysis, we found statistically significant (p < .05) relationships between company ranking and leadership skills, job title and years of experience, job title and English language skills, job title and level of education, industry sector and level of education, and city tier and level of education. This study contributes to the existing knowledge on the human resources and recruitment of Fortune 500 companies in China, demonstrating the variability in HR practices across institutional maturity, region, and business focus.