VietNamNet Bridge – The growing tendency of multi-nationals to relocate their factories from neighboring countries to Vietnam has led to increased demand for medium- and high-ranking personnel.

Manufacturing companies have replaced trade businesses to become the biggest clients of Navigos Search, a human resource service provider, in 2014.

The number of orders for medium- and high-ranking personnel placed by manufacturing companies has increased sharply recently.

In the fourth quarter of 2014, the orders for workers from the manufacturing sector accounted for 27 percent of the total number of orders, a sharp increase from the 17 percent in the second and third quarters of the same year.

In fact, the increase in the demand for qualified workers is expected as many multinationals have decided to set up production bases in Vietnam.

After taking over Nokia’s mobile phone manufacturing division, Microsoft plans to relocate factories in China, Mexico and Hungary to Vietnam. It is estimated that it would need to employ 15,000 workers for the plan.

Vu Minh Tri, CEO of Microsoft Vietnam, said Vietnam is becoming home to Microsoft’s largest non-US workforce.

The demand for personnel has also been increasing from Samsung, which has factories in HCM City, Bac Ninh and Thai Nguyen provinces, and from Japanese companies which are considering relocating their factories to Vietnam from China.

Nguyen Phuong Mai, a senior executive of Navigos Search, said the southern branch of the firm in 2014 provided workers to over 100 high-ranking posts at factories in HCM City and some other provinces. The pay levels are between $4,000 and $12,000 monthly.

The firm also supplied hundreds of middle-class workers to manufacturing companies who receive $1,000-4,000 salary a month.

Mai noted that it was difficult to find senior executives for foreign-invested enterprises in Vietnam.

A Japanese business could not find suitable candidates for key posts for its factory in Binh Duong province. As a result, it had to employ a foreign executive, and plans to localize the management staff in the next two years.

Nguyen Van Anh, managing director of Navigos Search in Vietnam, said the firm could not find enough high-ranking managers and engineers for Microsoft Vietnam’s Microsoft Mobile and Samsung Vietnam’s Samsung Display projects.

Nguyen Thi Quynh Phuong from Talentnet, also a large job network, said the demand for middle- and high-ranking staff in 2014 from foreign invested enterprises increased by 30 percent.

Both Anh and Phuong noted that Vietnamese middle- and high-ranking workers have good knowledge and inquiring minds, but they have poor foreign language, communication and presentation skills. European and US companies want creative candidates who can take initiative in work, but not many Vietnamese can satisfy the requirements.

TBKTSG