Human Resources Management Strategies of Taiwan-based Enterprises in Vietnam

Research finding 1-1: 
The most difficult of cross-cultural management is language barrier which lead to 
misunderstand in workplace.

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Research finding 1-2: 
The cultural difference such as self-cognitive on working and the idea different is also 
an element that make difficult on management. 
4.2 Human Capital Issues 
Employee recruitment is considered as a difficult problem of Taiwanese 
companies in Vietnam. The core reason came from the location where company set up 
factories. Most of manufacture factories were built in suburban area or industrial zone 
far away from downtown cause of difficult hiring local talents. Three of six participants 
agreed with hardly recruit employee issue statement and explained that, 
“The factory set up on the mountain in order to nearby raw material area and 
convenient for production as well, however, it is also an inconvenient place where 
difficult to attract talents and people come to work” (Participant A)
“Our company located in industrial zone far away from downtown and it is a kind of 
manufacturing company. Therefore, we are really hard to recruit a large number of 
workers for serving. I think that the main reason of employee recruitment issue from 
company’s location” (Participant D)
“Difficult to hire skilled employees in the suburban area, the specialized employees 
almost stay in big 
city to work” (Participant F)
Besides, the skills gap between urban and rural area is stated by interviewees 
also. Both low-skilled labor and skilled labor tend to go big city for working where 

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could have lots opportunities of finding good job and better compensations. One 
participant indicated that, 
“Normally, people in countryside tend to work in city rather than in your hometown” 
(Participant D) 
The same idea with people priority find the job in urban than rural area. Another 
two participants pointed out 
“Vietnamese skilled labor doesn’t willing to work at 
industrial zone where far from city” (Participant F). “In rural area, company is not only 
difficult hire specialized labor, but also general labor. The population rate of rural area 
is not so high so th
at it strengthens difficult for employee recruitment” (Participant A).
Furthermore, labor productivity of Vietnamese workers is estimated lower than 
other countries in Asian region such as Taiwan. It supposed that impacted by working 
culture and labor cost at Vietnam. Most of participants fully concur with low labor 
productivity in Vietnam and confessed that, 
“I think that our employees lack of responsibility at their work, they always day off on 
time instead of completing their work in working time so that produce on decreasing 
work progress and productivity of company. In addition, they couldn’t handle several 
tasks in short time or deal with complicated tasks, so we have to separate complex tasks 
into small task. I think it reflects cultural difference in 
Vietnamese people” (Participant 
A) 

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“Normally, labor productivity of Vietnamese workers is lower than other countries, but 
if company applies suitable management strategies, it could improve better labor 
productivity” (Participant C)
“Although labor produc
tivity of Vietnamese workers is lower compared with other 
countries, for example, the labor productivity of Taiwanese worker and the labor 
productivity of Vietnamese worker as (1:3); however, there are high rate of young 
population in Vietnam and low labor cost; Hence, I think that low labor productivity is 
affordable. We couldn’t require high productivity and low cost at the same time” 
(Participant D) 
“I think Vietnamese labor productivity is not so high compared with other countries.” 
(Participant E) 
“Vie
tnamese workers are diligent, but due to lack of quality and workflow conceptive, 
it easily leads to miss deadline” (Participant F)
On the other hand, some of participants also indicated that if company offers 
preferable strategies and training system, it could increase labor productivity as well. 
One participant showed out an effective way to enhance productivity as his company 
used, 
“We make seasonal contract with laborer and pay compensation based on the contract 
conditional, in other word, they will undertake the job within a time frame and 
complete it up instead of hourly rate or daily rate payment” (Participant A)

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Another participant also suggested the approach of improving labor productivity, 
“Better ways to increase labor productivity in turn training, education, and rise in pay” 
(Participant D)