Perhaps the most important issue facing any manufacturer in mainland China is recruiting, training and retaining skilled workers in a highly competitive climate where salaries are rising quickly.
Plastics News China Forum 2006, scheduled for Nov. 14-15 in Rosemont, will include a pair of human-resource experts with extensive China experience.
Frank T. Gallo is a senior consultant in Beijing with Hewitt Associates LLC, a Lincolnshire, Ill.-based human resources firm that employs 22,000 in 35 countries and has annual sales of $2.84 billion. Gallo, former president and managing consultant for Watson Wyatt Greater China, heads the Beijing operation of the Shanghai-based Hewitt Asia Leadership Center. The center combines the firm's consulting experience with research to help companies tackle Asia's escalating talent shortage through leadership-development programs.
Gallo also serves as a professor at Beijing Capital University of Economics and Trade, and has chaired the HR Forum of the American Chamber of Commerce in China since 2003.
Attendees also will hear from Ann Liotta, corporate vice president of human resources and organizational development at injection molder and contract manufacturer Nypro Inc., which runs 10 plants in China.
Liotta helped spearhead a stock-rights appreciation plan for most of Nypro's non-U.S. workers - a novel concept in China. The company uses the program to attract and retain workers in China and elsewhere. Liotta will share her knowledge about employee recruitment and motivation in various developing markets, as the 15,000-employee Nypro operates in 18 countries.
Other speakers will address China's materials markets, global supply-chain management, the interrelationship of China with India, contractual due diligence and other topics.
For full conference program details, go to www.plasticsnews.com/chinaforum.