With a campus visit to the China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) and a dedicated workshop to build up attendees’ cross-cultural awareness, the first day marked a successful kickstart of the Highered Global Talent Summit. By welcoming more than 100 HR professionals from 57 world leading companies including Apple, Google and J.P.Morgan joining the Summit together with career services experts, the second day of the Summit was brought to a climax.
Bernt Blankholm, CEO of Highered, welcomed all of the attendees by introducing the Highered Global Talent Network and providing insights on talent preferences in real time. The message was clear: digitized talent recruitment solutions on a global scale are what both schools and companies shall embrace to spur innovation and collaboration in the changing HR world. “This summit here in Shanghai is the start of thinking and acting bigger, not only the traditional one-to-one approach. We are really looking forward to the great program put together by the steering committee today, gaining insights from both schools and corporate…and have this as a forum for discussion and dialogue for the process of collaboration going forward,” said Bernt.
Welcome address from Highered & EFMD by Bernt Blankholm
Julian Chang, director at Tongji University Center for Contemporary Studies, set the global scene by explaining innovation and talent strategies for success in today’s ever-changing world. Facing challenges from urbanization, shifts in global economic power, demography, technological change, and climate change, the new generation of talent shall focus on developing networking skills across differences, adaptability, and emotional intelligence.
At the plenary session, Prof. Martin Lockett and Dr. Xuan Feng from Nottingham University Business School China shared insights from their latest research regarding Influence of Chinese Economic Trends on Talent Management. Starting with a brief overview of China’s economic development and growth of Chinese student numbers both inland and abroad, the speakers dived into the need of “globalised talents” in the workplace and core employability skills and attributes, among which problem-solving, teamwork, communication, adaptability, and interpersonal skills are ranked as the top five.
Following the informative speech based on thorough research, the subsequent panel discussion aimed at bridging the gap between student placement and talent acquisition by unveiling the latest trends of using artificial intelligence and technology in global recruitment. Sherry Ding, Director at SpencerStuart, facilitated the discussion among David Ng, Managing Director at Morgan Philips Group, Jacob Aldaco, Marketing Director at Seedlink, Joyce Wan, Employer Branding, Talent Sourcing & Innovation Lead at Mars, Judy Zhu, Senior Manager, Human Resources at PwC, and Ronan Chen, Senior Director of Engineering at Education First.
Panel: AI and the latest technology for global recruitment
Participants were also invited to join the alumni panel on reverse culture shock experience. Qizhao Zhou, EDHEC Business School Alumni, and Yafei Xue, IE Business School Alumni shared their personal experience and the workplace culture difference comparing France, Spain, and China.
However, the true highlight of the Summit was the Interactive Fishbowl, which grouped companies and schools with similar objectives together in a hands-on session for them to share and exchange talent acquisition and placement needs. During the session, schools and companies discussed the most effective ways to reach talent, the specific aspects to look for in applicants, and better engagement among students, schools, and companies.
Interactive Fishbowl: Map and Build your Global Recruitment Strategy
The closing keynote was given by Mr. Zhongyuan Sun, Executive President of Haier University. In his compelling speech, Mr. Sun shed light on the new challenges in the internet age, the new standards for enterprise universities, and self-evolution of organizational learning. Haier’s unique model of “rendanheyi” – aligning employees’ attention to users and orders, and micro enterprises structure provided new perspectives of talent management and engagement.
A full day program was balanced with networking cocktails and enjoyable dinner. Traditional Chinese Lion Dance Show and the Russian-inspired song “Lake Baikal” by the Fudan-BI choir impressed the audience and drew waves of applause. In the evening, a select group of students and alumni was invited to the social gathering and met participating companies and schools. They shared their career expectations with HR professionals and sought advice from career service experts. The second day ended smoothly in the jazz music played by a well-known jazz band Heyday and the night view of Shanghai from the 37th floor at the Four Seasons Hotel.
Networking dinner – Lion Dance
The Highered Global Talent Summit was a landmark event, as for the first time school career services and corporate representatives gathered together to discuss and strategize recruitment initiatives for success in talent management. We see the value that we are creating and we look forward to welcoming more guests at our next Summit in Paris in October 2019.
