Regulators, biz owners boost incentives to secure labor supply amid fast recovery

As the president of Easy-Try Cycles (Tianjin) Co Ltd, Li Qing is delighted to see his company's production schedule is fully booked until April, but it is also a headache to retain employees after the Chinese Lunar New Year to deliver products to its overseas customers.

A Tianjin-based bike and motorcycle export enterprise, Easy-Try Cycles experienced a rapid recovery in November and orders started to spike in December, making the delivery dates extend into April.

As the Spring Festival approaches, many workers go home for family reunions.

Li decided to offer preferable conditions to employees who promised to return to the factory after the holiday, including an extra bonus, an annual gathering, awards to outstanding employees and lucky draws.

Thanks to these attempts, more than 95 percent of the employees are going to return to their current positions at Easy-Try Cycles after the Chinese Lunar New Year, which falls on Jan 22 this year.

The optimization of COVID-19 prevention and control measures has greatly boosted the recovery of the economy. And enterprises, be they big or small, are facing similar problems in retaining workers as Easy-Try Cycles.

ZTO, an express delivery company based in Shanghai, has announced several incentives to retain the workforce during the holiday to ensure the smooth operation of services, such as setting up special teams, providing subsidies, speeding up recruitment and allocating the transportation capacity of all parties.

Wang Shuo, head of a ZTO delivery outlet in Beijing's Tongzhou district, said he is recruiting part-time workers to get prepared for the possible work shortages during the Spring Festival.

"Most of our 26 couriers are non-local and more than half of them are going back home for the traditional Chinese holiday," said Wang.

According to Wang, their outlet has already seen a surge of 20 percent year-on-year in parcel volume by receiving about 300 packages every day and dispatching some 8,000 units on a daily basis.

In Beijing, more than 200 outlets under ZTO Express are raising supplement capacity by recruiting part-time or temporary staff.

JD Logistics, the logistics unit of Chinese e-commerce giant JD, plans to provide subsidies higher than the national standard to their employees. For those who live in different cities with their children, JD Logistics offers a special subsidy for family reunions and encourages its staff to bring their children to the city where they work to spend the festival together.

In the meantime, various logistics channels of highways, railways and airways were allocated to satisfy transportation demand. More than 700 unmanned vehicles and 600 intelligent express vehicles, as well as more than 100 indoor delivery robots, will be equipped in 30 cities across the nation to strengthen the company's terminal delivery capability.

With such efforts, consumers living in 366 cities nationwide can place their orders and receive packages normally, even on Chinese New Year's Eve and the Lunar New Year.

To tackle the transportation capacity shortage, on-demand food delivery platform Ele.me announced it raised 50 million yuan ($7.2 million) to recruit new food delivery workers, as well as provide extra subsidies to existing workers.

"I used to complete some 80 delivery orders per day and now I dispatch more than 100 orders. I can get more from each order. But I work more not only for the extra income but out of social responsibility during this special time," said Wen Jian, a delivery worker in Shanghai.

Along with the various measures made by corporations to ensure the normal operation of business and life, local governments are also working hard to pitch in.

The municipal government of Shanghai is offering subsidies ranging from 60 yuan to 150 yuan per person per day for delivery workers at e-commerce companies and couriers who stay on their posts from Dec 25 to Jan 27.

"The Shanghai government's supportive policies allow us to offer delivery service in a better way," said Fang Rongcheng, general manager of ZTO Express' Shanghai management center.