Professional Evaluations to Be Made Industry-Specific

China wants to overhaul the way its employers evaluate professional personnel, according to guidelines (link in Chinese) issued by its State Council on Monday.

The country’s current standardized evaluation system — which is used for rating performance, promotions and hiring — will be replaced by a differentiated ranking system that takes into account the industry and specific roles of personnel being evaluated, the State Council, China’s cabinet, said.

The guidelines highlight science and technology, the humanities and social sciences, education and health care as key fields. Science and technology workers should be evaluated based on factors like their problem-solving creativity, the scientific value of their achievements and their academic standards, the guidelines say.

In contrast, those working in the social sciences and arts and culture should be evaluated with a focus on factors like “political criteria” and “social benefits,” according to the guidelines.

The State Council document also calls for the establishment of smoother channels for recruiting and evaluating talent from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, as well as from abroad.

“In the past, there was a one-size-fits-all situation in personnel evaluation,” the state television network reported Yu Jiadong, a senior official of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, as saying Monday. The current system emphasizes paper qualifications, focusing on academic records and resumes, while giving less weight to actual ability and contribution, Yu said.

As the country’s economy shifts toward an emphasis on high-end technology and services, China’s workforce faces a skills gap, a late 2016 study by Fudan University, Tsinghua University, and J.P. Morgan found. According to the study, China’s “low-skilled workers are not ready for automation and ‘intelligent’ production, while the skills of ‘high-skill’ workers are not what firms really need.”

Contact reporter Teng Jing Xuan (jingxuanteng@caixin.com)