IN the hazy Beijing sunshine, the morning rush hour is reaching its peak. By noon, the temperature will hit 38C and the air is already heavy with humidity.

In his shirtsleeves, Daniel Nivern steps out of his apartment and hails a passing tuk-tuk, which weaves him through the Chaoyang district backstreets to his air-conditioned office.

Nivern’s commute used to begin with an 8 am Tube ride to Waterloo in London, but two years ago the 27-year-old Oxford graduate set up China Recruitment to help Chinese companies find British employees, and 12 months later he made Beijing his home.

“I absolutely love it here,” he said. “It’s such an exciting place to live, and the work opportunities are enormous.”

China is the fastest-growing economy in the world. If it continues to develop in line with experts’ predictions, it will rival America as the world’s No 1 economy within the next two decades. For ambitious British employees and UK-based companies, China represents an exciting new market, and an exchange of human talent between the countries has benefits for both.

Nivern’s Chinese clients are keen to capitalise on the western knowhow of British graduates. “Most of the companies we are finding staff for are looking to understand western practices,” he said.

“Capital markets are underdeveloped here so they want to employ staff they can learn from.

“We also have pharmaceutical clients looking for native English speakers and marketing companies that want an insight into how to market to the west.”

The graduates who approach him looking for work are all high achievers. “We are getting a lot of very ambitious high-flyers from top universities who want a career in banking, finance or consulting,” said Nivern.

“They are driven by two factors: the desire to have something on their CV that makes them stand out in an increasingly competitive jobs market back home, and the appeal of working in an economy that is really booming.”

The strong economy in China is opening up all sorts of opportunities, according to Frances Wilson, international expert at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD). “Lots of British companies are moving out there, and Chinese graduates are needed in the UK in areas such as maths and engineering, where British firms are struggling to find enough good, home-grown graduates,” she said.

In recognition of this, the British and Chinese governments established a joint initiative in 2006 to give Chinese graduates up to one year’s experience of working and living in Britain.

The programme provides paid work placements for up to 200 Chinese graduates with British companies.

“China is a hot topic for businesses at the moment and there’s a buzz out there about the country,” said Emma Waltham, director of creative services at Hobsons, which manages the scheme on behalf of the British government. “Lots of companies want to forge links with China, and make the most of the young talent that’s coming out of the country.

“We tend to work with two different types of company — one with skills shortages that needs to recruit outside Britain, and another type that is more interested in forging links with China because it wants to expand into that market.”

Some multinationals that are keen to boost their presence in China are running work experience schemes of their own. Tesco operates a 12-month, fast-track programme for Chinese graduates, who spend between six and nine months in a British store before completing their training in China. Graduates like Lirong Zhangasia, who worked in the Potter’s Bar Tesco store last year, can learn about the business in Britain and take their expertise home with them. Zhangasia now works for the company back in China.

A similar operation is run by Chinesegraduate.com, a British-owned company that supplies businesses with English-speaking Chinese graduates and professionals. Its clients are mainly British companies or multinationals expanding in China.

There are some obstacles to cross-cultural working, however. Chinese business practices can be dramatically different. “There are big cultural differences,” said Nivern. “Mianzi, or ‘face’ is a big issue for the Chinese. No one wants to lose face, so they are embarrassed to admit to a problem, which can make things worse down the line.”

There can be more fundamental misinterpretations too. Research about to be started by the Institute of Leadership & Management (ILM) reveals that western managers often hold outdated stereotypes of Chinese management culture that could hinder working relationships.

“Chinese managers are much more commercially aware, self critical, ambitious and sophisticated than we have given them credit for,” said Penny de Valk, chief executive of ILM. “These findings present an opportunity for recruiters, but also a challenge to managers to get to know their Chinese counterparts better.”

Sion Mooney, global-recruitment manager of Howden, a British engineering company that has an office in Beijing and a manufacturing plant in Weihai, said the fledgling recruitment sector can make finding staff difficult. Concepts such as employee- referral processes and research agencies are new in China. “You have to remember that HR didn’t really exist in China 20 years ago. Employment was essentially run by the state.”

However, things are changing fast, and multinationals are now pulling out all the stops to get the best Chinese graduates to fill roles in their home country.

At the University of Manchester, the annual Chinese Graduate Recruitment Fair allows recruiters such as KPMG, Price Waterhouse Coopers and Frank Knight to meet the university’s 2,000 Chinese students.

“More and more companies are interested in international students, particularly Chinese nationals, because of the pace of change in China,” said Tracey Campbell Monks, the fair’s organiser.

She said the scale of the Chinese recruitment drive is unprecedented. “We are hearing about companies recruiting for Asia and Asia Pacific looking to take on 1,500 graduates. We would never see a western employer recruiting in those numbers.

“For anyone interested in starting their career in China the opportunities are there.”

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