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Keeping parents happy is a factor

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Shaun Rein is founder and managing director of the China Market Research Group. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author.

It is a well-worn truth that employee-retention and turnover are serious issues for foreign businesses in China.

Companies aiming to grow quickly and develop teams that know their culture often find themselves becoming revolving doors with spiralling training and induction costs.

However, an often-ignored factor in these decisions is right at home: parents.

In China, where it is normal for working university graduates to live at home until marriage, parents and grandparents have a big say in job decisions.

While today's twentysomethings have seen only booming economic growth their whole lives, parents have memories of rockier times and are worried about economic growth slowing to "only" 7 to 8 per cent a year.

While their generation was highly entrepreneurial and willing to take professional risks in the 1980s and '90s, they are far more conservative when it comes to their children's career choices.

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