why can't I find qualified office worker for 30,000 baht

[Nepal4me]

I've tried JobDB and TV classified but I can't seem to attract much attention.

I'm looking for a Thai person with 3+ years of experience with fairly good English skills. Good enough to talk to foreigners on the phone and write simple emails. I'm not looking for native English skills or even a Thai person with a BA in English. Just the basics for communication. The job requirement is office manager, simple stuff, handling ordering, invoicing, general office stuff.

We would pay 25 to 35,000+ per month but I can't seem to attract anybody with these skills. I know MBA grads that are making 22,000 baht per month (w/o good English skills however) but the point is, the salary I would pay is good, bonuses are very good,

Where can I seek potential employees of this type?

[CharlieH]

Wrong forum

MOVED

[David48]

Put the link to your ad in your OP ... think smart.

You don't mention the City where the job is?

[TerryLH]

Contact a university near you and ask when they are having a Job Fair.

Go to a university and post a job notice on a board there.

[konying]

You already hitting the right places, the fact that you not getting employees has little to do with where you been advertising.

This is a problem nationwide.

I advertise for staff 365 days per year and always short staffed.

I advertise for ability to speak some English, they show up and can not speak any.

I advertise people with experience ONLY, but they show up with no experience at all.

I advertise for the night shift, they show up wanting to work ONLY morning.

Just keep on advertising, but to make you feel better, i am so short staffed, that i have been working 20 hour per day for the past 3 weeks and no prospect

of stopping, as no one is showing up for interview, and the ones who do show up, are beyond useless.

[ATF]

Most Thais want to start with a big multi-national company. You need to target older Thais.

[kannot]

Same problem looking for domestic staff, gone through a few sets of "useless" still havent found anyone after 18 months.

[cgphuket]

Maybe place Thai language ads in thai papers and forums? Why do expats advertise for Thai staff in English forums? Even This who speak Thai generally don't browse English sites...

[eldragon]

What about hiring a foreigner? Is that an option? There's gotta be a few qualified English teachers that could use a break from the classroom. It might cost you a little more to hire one, but could be worth it given your inability to find good Thai staff.

[sdanielmcev]

Why do you need English skills in an employee?

[konying]

Why do you need English skills in an employee?

To speak with English speaking clients?

[CaptHaddock]

The labor market is a market, which means the market sets the price. If no one accepts the OP's offer it must therefore be too low, assuming that his adertising is effective at reaching his target group. Thailand claims to have close to full employment, which stories like this encourage me to believe may actually be true. The Thai economy is slowing down, but not contracting yet. So, it is apparently still the case that workers are choosy.

[maisodni]

You may just be facing a timing problem. Most Thai employers have some sort of annual bonus program. Those that do tend to either pay bonus at end of year (late December, or early January), or at Chinese New Year (which - in 2015 - will be around 15 February). A typical bonus might be an extra month's pay.

So - it is often hard to recruit anyone who is already working, near the end of the year. That leaves candidates that are presently not employed - and that is often not a very attractive population from which to draw compelling candidates.

MS

[konying]

The labor market is a market, which means the market sets the price. If no one accepts the OP's offer it must therefore be too low, assuming that his adertising is effective at reaching his target group. Thailand claims to have close to full employment, which stories like this encourage me to believe may actually be true. The Thai economy is slowing down, but not contracting yet. So, it is apparently still the case that workers are choosy.

Sorry but you make me laugh.

Bank employees are on 15 k per month .

Hotel managers are on 30k per month

Office staff are on 15-20k per month , but in your baseless opinion OP does not offer enough.

If OP offered 100k per month , rest assured he will have same unqualified people coming for interview.

I once ran an experiment offering 40k per month for a 9k per month job.

The same type applied , I chose the best one and guess how long she lasted ? 1 day is the answer.

Why? Because lazy ass thought learning company rules was too hard

[jacksam]

OP ....I sent you a pm. Have an excellent candidate for you.

[CaptHaddock]

The labor market is a market, which means the market sets the price. If no one accepts the OP's offer it must therefore be too low, assuming that his adertising is effective at reaching his target group. Thailand claims to have close to full employment, which stories like this encourage me to believe may actually be true. The Thai economy is slowing down, but not contracting yet. So, it is apparently still the case that workers are choosy.

Sorry but you make me laugh.

Bank employees are on 15 k per month .

Hotel managers are on 30k per month

Office staff are on 15-20k per month , but in your baseless opinion OP does not offer enough.

If OP offered 100k per month , rest assured he will have same unqualified people coming for interview.

I once ran an experiment offering 40k per month for a 9k per month job.

The same type applied , I chose the best one and guess how long she lasted ? 1 day is the answer.

Why? Because lazy ass thought learning company rules was too hard

Silly me. Couldn't possibly be a rational explanation like current demand in the labor market. Must be either a witch put a curse on the OP or, that old TV favorite, the general stupidity of Thai people.

[pinkpanther99]

Finding the kind of staff the OP describes is a real headache. We've had nothing but problems this year with staff until we finally found an excellent employee who is Thai but grew up and was educated in the UK, fluent in both languages, can think for herself and has lots of initiative.

Without sounding disrespectful, the member of staff I'm talking about could probably do the job of two or three Thai staff, can turn up for work on time and doesn't do a runner after pay day.

Earlier this year we wasted more than 6 months hiring and being given the run around by Thai graphic designers. We took on 3 in total. 2 simply lied about their level of expertise and were calling themselves graphic designers but all they really knew how to do was touch up photos in Photoshop. The 3rd one was talented and a nice guy but he simply couldn't work to deadlines and was very unreliable.

We now outsource this to a guy in India who costs half the price of a Thai graphic designer and is twice as competant.

Edited November 21, 2014 by pinkpanther99

[dom samui]

Where are you?

[Robert24]

Shouldn't be an issue. Maybe I can refer you 2-3 candidates. Is this in Bangkok?

[steve187]

OP

you start a thread saying you can not get staff, lots of posters asking questions with 18 replies, but you seem to have disappeared despite posting on other threads, is your thread not worthy of your attention

[konying]

The labor market is a market, which means the market sets the price. If no one accepts the OP's offer it must therefore be too low, assuming that his adertising is effective at reaching his target group. Thailand claims to have close to full employment, which stories like this encourage me to believe may actually be true. The Thai economy is slowing down, but not contracting yet. So, it is apparently still the case that workers are choosy.

Sorry but you make me laugh.

Bank employees are on 15 k per month .

Hotel managers are on 30k per month

Office staff are on 15-20k per month , but in your baseless opinion OP does not offer enough.

If OP offered 100k per month , rest assured he will have same unqualified people coming for interview.

I once ran an experiment offering 40k per month for a 9k per month job.

The same type applied , I chose the best one and guess how long she lasted ? 1 day is the answer.

Why? Because lazy ass thought learning company rules was too hard

Silly me. Couldn't possibly be a rational explanation like current demand in the labor market. Must be either a witch put a curse on the OP or, that old TV favorite, the general stupidity of Thai people.

You are correct in saying silly you.

Current or non current, is has been the same for years, and if you actually lived and owned a business in Thailand, you might have known this

[Borzandy]

Can't find qualified worker because the absence of education in Thailand.

[brimacthai]

I see many Filipino staff in hotels and other businesses requiring English speaking office teams these days. Maybe you should try to locate a Filipino employment agency.

Some of the Thai people I know in high profile office positions are earning 45K up plus bonuses so they don't get head-hunted.

[EPICFAIL]

You could try casting a wider net than just two websites, one of which (TV) is not likely to be read by many Thai job seekers. I have had good luck hiring staff using Job North Thailand which hooks up employers/employees country-wide. Their URL is http://www.jobnorththailand.com

[OmarZaidMD]

My thai daughter's pretty good ... scored in the top 0.01% government exam this year ... anyone have a good job for her let me know 24 yrs ... BS Business working on PhD. write [email protected] or leave a message here.

[Suradit69]

You already hitting the right places, the fact that you not getting employees has little to do with where you been advertising.

This is a problem nationwide.

I advertise for staff 365 days per year and always short staffed.

I advertise for ability to speak some English, they show up and can not speak any.

I advertise people with experience ONLY, but they show up with no experience at all.

I advertise for the night shift, they show up wanting to work ONLY morning.

Just keep on advertising, but to make you feel better, i am so short staffed, that i have been working 20 hour per day for the past 3 weeks and no prospect

of stopping, as no one is showing up for interview, and the ones who do show up, are beyond useless.

"I advertise people with experience ONLY, but they show up with no experience at all"

Yes, but this is a universal complaint for job seekers. If people only want employees with prior experience it greatly limits the opportunity for those seeking work, particularly young people, to ever acquire any useful experience.

Depending on the nature of the work you might offer a 2 or 3 month trial period at reduced salary while they gain experience, with the prospect of a bonus & higher salary for those who stick with it and develop the skills you want. Sometimes starting out with someone who has no experience ... there's no guarantee experience gained elsewhere includes the sort of work habits or methodology you value ... may prove better for you in the long run.

[kamanta]

If you need people with good English and MS office skills, then I know some. Contact me at [email protected]

[KonKorat]

i can do it,i know how to invoice,purchasing,emails have 34 years experience. but i'm not Thai and don't live in Thailand

Edited November 21, 2014 by KonKorat

[MobileContent]

The labor market is a market, which means the market sets the price. If no one accepts the OP's offer it must therefore be too low, assuming that his adertising is effective at reaching his target group. Thailand claims to have close to full employment, which stories like this encourage me to believe may actually be true. The Thai economy is slowing down, but not contracting yet. So, it is apparently still the case that workers are choosy.

Sorry but you make me laugh.

Bank employees are on 15 k per month .

Hotel managers are on 30k per month

Office staff are on 15-20k per month , but in your baseless opinion OP does not offer enough.

If OP offered 100k per month , rest assured he will have same unqualified people coming for interview.

I once ran an experiment offering 40k per month for a 9k per month job.

The same type applied , I chose the best one and guess how long she lasted ? 1 day is the answer.

Why? Because lazy ass thought learning company rules was too hard

Hotel managers are on 30k per month

This must be guesthouse managers with a few rooms only.

F&B Manager: Around 65-80,000B per month

Sales & Marketing Manager 70-120,000B per month

Residence Manager: 120,000B per month

General Manager: 150-450,000B per month

I am talking about 4-5 star hotels, both Thai or foreign brands.

A three star hotel would be minus 25%.

Also I disagree, not all Thais are lazy.

I am a consultant to many companies (all farang owned) and they have a work force of between 150 - 3000 staffs.

They pay premium and most of their staffs are on average 10 years already at the company.

Thais want to work for large companies and the best of the pack ends up in those companies.

[konying]

I see many Filipino staff in hotels and other businesses requiring English speaking office teams these days. Maybe you should try to locate a Filipino employment agency.

Some of the Thai people I know in high profile office positions are earning 45K up plus bonuses so they don't get head-hunted.

Illegal or same conditions as employing a foreigner, with minimum wage of 35K