Randstad plans to recruit 100 secretarial staff to fill temporary assignments for clients by the end of this year.

"We believe this is the right move for us because we see the same trend happening in China as happened in other markets: Both workers and companies are calling for more flexibility instead of just job security," Kerkhof said.

Randstad set up its first Chinese office in Shanghai in 2005 and linked with Talent Shanghai Co Ltd in 2006 in which it held a 70-percent stake.

Now it owns seven branches in Shanghai, Beijing and Suzhou with 230 staff members, dealing in flexible staffing, pay rolling and search and selection business.

Executive searcher DHR International, one of the 10 leading executive search companies in the world, has big ambitions for its role in the fast-growing Chinese market.

The company runs an office in Shanghai and will open a Beijing office this year. It expects that revenue will triple in China this year.

"We can serve the Chinese market from the Shanghai and Beijing offices," said Christine Greybe, managing director of DHR International Asia.

The company's concentrates on headhunting senior executives for leading global companies involved in financial services and advanced technology, health care and retailing.

"A lot of our demand is coming from international companies, which account for 85 percent of our clients, but we are also starting to serve Chinese companies that are expanding internationally," said Eric Dieny, executive vice president of DHR International Asia.

Dieny, who has been living in China since 1982, is in charge of the Shanghai office.

"The Chinese companies we serve now are young but very aggressive and many of them are clustered in high-tech industry," Dieny said.

He said their Chinese clients have funding, especially from venture capital firms, and they try to attract senior executives to help them grow into a giant company.

"Senior executives in China move very quickly but those who change jobs frequently are not great value for us," Dieny said.

(Shanghai Daily July 31, 2008)