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Company tapping into China's talent pool

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-02-09 08:02

Lizanne C Gottung has worked for Kimberly-Clark for 27 years in 16 different positions. She believes Kimberly-Clark is "the company whose values match employee's values, is the best place to work, learn and grow". Now, as the company's senior vice-president in charge of Human Resources, Gottung realizes China's importance as the world's talent pool.

Recently, she paid a visit to China, giving lectures to Chinese university graduates about her working experiences and suggestions on career development. In a recent interview, Gottung shared her human resources management ideas with China Business Weekly reporter Li Fangfang.

Q: In Kimberly-Clark what are the criteria for talents?

A: We are looking for highly intelligent, creative people, people who want to learn and grow, people who have the capacity to grow, and to be leaders. So when we look at that, we look at all different disciplines; and it's important for us to have finance, marketing, sales people and HR people. And it is also important for us to have well-round employees. So we look for students who have an interest outside of work as well as their school, their major and their courses of study. Because we want a whole person, we want to bring great people to Kimberly-Clark and make it more.

We also look for leadership qualities, like innovation, inspiration, vision and cooperation.

Q: Then what's your strategy to retain these best people once you get them?

A: We want Kimberly-Clark to be a place where great people can do their best work. So inside the company we create a culture that is very caring; that is very informal and levels of management; where people can try things, can take a risk; where people feel that they are recognized and we reward it; that people can continuously learn all through out their whole career. It's also a company where, a lot of companies talk about it but I think we live it every day. We care about our employees, we care about the community, we care about the environment, and we care about our customers and consumers.

And so everything we do everyday is about those things and I think employees feel that when they come to work, they feel pride in our products, they feel proud of our corporation, social responsibilities and reputation. They are proud of the impact that we have on our customer and consumers. They can go to California and see our products on the shelves, and they also know that they are going to get the training they need. They are going to get very good pay and benefits, but also an environment that is challenging and fun.

Q: The financial crisis has created a very tough business environment globally. A lot of global companies have started to cut their payrolls. Are there any plans for Kimberly-Clark to do so?

A: The financial crisis in only the latest in the number of crises for Kimberly-Clark. The last one was the oil crisis two years ago (when) we had an unprecedented hard year in 2007. And then came the financial crisis. For example, we do business with Citibank, so how does that affect us? Right, some of our suppliers are going bankrupt, some of our suppliers can't pay us, and some of our big customers want less of our products because their consumers are buying less so how does that affect us? We expect 2009 to be a very difficult year.

However, in the world of product universal multinationals, consumer package goods are doing much better. Cost savings will be a huge opportunity for us, but fortunately even in recession, people still use facial tissues, so all of these things keep going. In China we expect to be hiring, we expect to be making rich increases. In some of other markets (such as Germany) it might be flat, because the margins are not there.

But in China we see over 40 percent growth this year, and are hoping for more next year. We have a lot confidence in China. So I think generally Kimberly-Clark will be watching our travels, our phone bills and being more prudent on hiring in North America, for example, and in Western Europe. But in an emerging market like China, we are aiming to increase recruitment.