Written by | Wu Xue
Edit | Yang Guang
Produced | Automotive Sankei
In the "gold, silver and four" recruitment season, there are not a few people who want to change jobs. Li Ping is also one of them.
After graduating, he entered the technical center of the Great Wall, and after accumulating some experience, he now wants to seek better development.
However, in addition to planning to jump jobs, there was one thing that made him have a little entanglement in his heart, because not long ago, he heard that he was handling his resignation and said, "Now the company's policy is to leave 100% to start a non-compete agreement."
Screenshot of the conversation between Great Wall employees and HR
In August 2021, Great Wall attracted attention because of an ultra-long list of non-compete companies. According to the agreement, as many as 130 departing employees cannot be employed during the validity period of the agreement.
"The technology center currently knows that it will start as soon as you leave your job, and even P1 will not be spared." On the job search platform, there is a lot of discussion about this matter.
Although in the comments, there are many "seniors" who leave messages to support the non-compete agreement, but there are still many complaints.
This is not the first news in automotive circles about a non-compete agreement after the beginning of the year.
Not long ago, there was news that CATL sued 9 former employees in court. These people were finally sentenced to pay RMB 1 million to CATL for violating the non-compete agreement.
If the reports of non-compete agreements in previous years were mainly in Internet companies, now, the automotive circle is becoming the next "high-incidence zone".
NO.1
[Tightened Non-Compete Agreement]
"Non-compete agreements have always existed for other companies, but the Great Wall has just been implemented, so many people have complained." Regarding the outside world's attention to the Great Wall non-compete agreement, another veteran employee who has worked here for seven or eight years told us.
Last year, someone sorted out the non-compete agreements of current car companies:
From the traditional car companies Changan, Geely, BYD, to the new car-making force "Wei Xiaoli", to the newly entered Jidu, Xiaomi, etc., almost all car companies have non-compete agreements, and the restriction list is also extremely complete, covering traditional car companies, new energy vehicles, battery technology companies, Internet cars and other companies in related fields.
Last year, just after Xiaomi announced its entry into the automotive field, Xiaopeng updated its list of non-compete companies at the first time. In the list of non-compete agreements of SAIC Group, its new brand Zhiji is also prominently listed.
Great Wall and Geely's non-compete agreement (partial)
In addition to continuously updating and expanding the list, with the intensification of talent competition, expanding the scope of non-compete agreements is also becoming a routine operation for enterprises.
In addition to the Great Wall employees breaking the news that the technology center is suspected of being fully competitive, at the beginning of this year, an employee of Huawei's car BU revealed that all departing employees in their departments will ask to sign a non-compete agreement, which will take effect immediately. The restricted enterprises cover almost all companies that overlap with Huawei's business, such as OEMs, new forces, and Internet companies.
Some BYD employees said that the SAME ISD Planning Institute is the same, "leaving all the non-competes, including unconverted employees who have just arrived in the past few months."
In the face of increasingly stringent non-compete agreements, the complaints of "hit workers" can be seen everywhere:
Cold heart, cut off all the back roads of people;
Do this, you can only stay in one house until you die in the future;
Who will dare to come in after these enterprises;
……
"Workers" feel that their freedom rights have been violated, but from the perspective of enterprises, the reason why employees are required to sign non-compete agreements also has their own "bitterness".
"Don't sign it, don't do it, some Internet car digging people is too fierce, several times several times to give." An employee who works for a new car-making force said in hr tone.
Take the hottest autonomous driving direction at the moment as an example. At the end of 2021, Zhang Kai, CEO of Miller Zhixing, predicted that "2022 will be the most intense year for AI autonomous driving talents."
"There are 10 vacancies, but only 3 candidates can be found." Under the huge talent vacancy, even if all the staff sign a non-compete agreement, they cannot stop the occurrence of job hopping.
A technician who originally worked for a domestic autopilot chip company said that due to the non-compete agreement with the previous company, he informed the hr of the new company at the beginning of his job search.
But the new company doesn't seem to mind the situation, "they'll even offer to help you deal with these issues."
In most companies, in the face of non-competitive employees, there is now a set of standardized processing procedures. This includes the use of flower names, the conclusion of agreements with third-party companies, etc. At the same time, HR will also intimately remind: in the company to be cautious to sign for strange couriers, online meetings do not use real avatars...
NO.2
["Inner Volume" starts from the school recruitment]
Since the effect of the first barrier of the car enterprise talent defense war is not satisfactory, and it is impossible to throttle, many car companies have begun to work open source.
One of the biggest sources of talent is school recruitment.
A vehicle engineering student told us, "I heard my brother say that the market is unusually good this year." Another fresh graduate said that some of the previously demanding joint venture car companies, such as SAIC Volkswagen, SAIC-GM, FAW-Volkswagen, etc., have also significantly lowered the threshold this year.
In 2019, in order to cope with sales pressure and promote transformation, traditional car companies such as FAW-Volkswagen once clearly announced in the school recruitment that they would not accept graduates majoring in vehicles and machinery, and only recruit computer-related directions.
This year, although most car companies still have a high demand for talents in the directions of three electric and automatic driving, the recruitment requirements have obviously changed.
"Last year, I could only do traditional research and development, and this year I could go to the research and development of smart driving three electrics; last year I could only do quality assurance and equipment, and I could do research and development this year," said some graduates.
The more obvious change is also the increase in salary.
In the autumn of 2021, "the salary of fresh graduates majoring in vehicle engineering has risen sharply" once appeared on the hot search of Zhihu. An automotive engineer who has long been concerned about the recruitment of automotive talents in Zhihu said that the offer treatment and positions of the new graduates are generally better than in previous years. "The starting price of 180,000 is very common, and more than 200,000 is not a rare species, and even reached 300,000 individually."
All this seems to be the inevitable result of the influence of supply and demand. However, in the eyes of some people in the industry, there are no hidden worries behind this.
In the second half of last year, a senior executive of an auto parts company described to us in an interview with the Auto Industry and Economics that the headquarters of a new car-making force can recruit 150 people every week.
"A little (and automatic driving) has to touch the edges", but in fact, "many talents in other industries have changed to this industry, the foundation is not solid, there is no systematic knowledge ability".
NO.3
[Written at the end]
In the view of the above-mentioned high-level, car companies "crazy" expansion, in the long run, "the result must eventually be excess of employees, but the lack of high-end talents, just like the rise of China's Internet industry in that year."
Interestingly, after more than a decade of rapid growth, the Internet industry, which has now slowed down sharply, has also begun to pay for the original expansion, and the voice of layoffs has risen one after another.
On the other hand, the expansion drama of the "Wei Xiaoli" is moving towards a climax.
At the end of 2021, the total number of ideal employees increased to 11,901, an increase of 7,720 over the same period of the previous year, an increase of nearly 185% year-on-year;
The total number of employees in NIO increased to 15,204, an increase of 7,441 over the same period of the previous year, an increase of 96% year-on-year;
As of the end of the first half of 2021, the number of employees of Xiaopeng Motors increased to 7923, an increase of 2839 from the beginning of the year.
Wait for time to determine the final direction.
(*Li Ping is a pseudonym in the text)