Companies devise ways to keep engineers in China

By Alysha Webb, Automotive News

SHANGHAI -- Joseph Zachariah, engineering director of the Delphi electronics and safety division at the Delphi China Technical Center here, often invites engineers and their spouses to his house for dinner. Then he praises the engineers' work.

"When I praise them in front of their spouse, they are really proud," he says.

Engineers, of course, are the heart of any supplier's operation in China. But with dozens of companies opening r&d centers here, and salaries rising quickly, holding on to engineers is tough. Companies devise special strategies to keep them from leaving for another job.

Praise helps, but the main reason engineers cite for leaving is they don't feel challenged, Zachariah says. So Delphi encourages its 235 engineers to work on their own projects during their spare time.

And it gives them small grants of 1,000 to 2,000 yuan, ($129 to $257) to purchase, for instance, small circuit boards built for testing.

Beating boredom

If that sounds like drudgery, then you don't understand the mind of an engineer, says Zachariah, himself a mechanical engineer. "Engineers want to learn and learn and learn," he says.

Engineers at Visteon Corp.'s technical center in Shanghai can take a five-day management program on leadership and business skills.

Mahle GmbH offers language classes and lectures on photography and music to keep its 50 engineers engaged, says Weiping Yang, director of Mahle's China technical center. Mahle, of Stuttgart, designs and produces engine parts in China.

The tech center's location - more than an hour outside of Shanghai - works against Mahle. "It's very boring in the evenings," Yang admits.

He found that engineers were working overtime because there was nothing else to do. Now Mahle organizes karaoke singing parties and table tennis tournaments to keep them amused.

Salaries are not the top reason engineers leave their jobs, says George Chang, president of Autoliv China. What they seek is a chance to learn on the job and to advance professionally. Chang spends hours sharing information about Autoliv's growth plans in China with his employees "so they feel excited about working for a company that saves lives," he says.

Autoliv Inc., of Sweden, manufactures seat belts, airbags and steering wheels in China. It has 110 engineers in Shanghai and is adding an average of five new engineers each month, says Mats Ahman, technical general manager at Autoliv China.

Money does matter, though. Delphi checks the market rate for engineers every six months to make sure its salaries are competitive.

Engineering salaries are rising fast in China. At the low end, engineers' salaries rose 46.0 percent from 2005 to 2006 to about $9,500 per year, according to Mercer Human Resources Consulting. At the top of the range, salaries rose 7.1 percent to about $20,700.

Personal touch

Delphi doesn't pay the top rate, but being a wholly owned multinational helps, Zachariah says. Engineers want experience with multinational corporate cultures, and companies with Chinese partners can be too local, says the native of India.

A suggestion box is another tool that companies use to keep employees. Autoliv encourages employees to submit a certain number of cost-saving suggestions each month.

Delphi also invites its employees to critique the work environment.

The president of Delphi Asia-Pacific, Choon Chon, "pays a lot of attention to this," Zachariah says.

Chon also relies on the personal touch. After the Chinese New Year holiday last year, he walked through the center shaking every employee's hand.

Says Zachariah: "When Dr. Chon comes and talks to an employee, it makes them feel very proud."

Engineers in demand

COMPANY	     NO. OF ENGINEERS
Delphi	             235
Visteon	             180
Mahle	              50

Source: Companies

From Automotive News (A Crain publication)