(Yicai Global) Feb. 25 -- The largest personal computer factory of China's Lenovo Group has completed its biggest recruitment campaign of nearly 10,000 new employees, driven by robust PC orders in the Covid-19 era of remote work and online education.

The tech company finished recruiting in eastern China's Hefei three days ahead of schedule to meet its rising manpower needs after the 70,000-square-meter plant was opened last November, He Weiping, director of the Beijing-based firm’s human resources center, told Yicai Global.

The firm will place most of the new employees by production lines for PC mainboards and notebook computers, He added.

New Opportunities 

The Covid-19 pandemic has created new business opportunities in online education, remote work, and entertainment, resulting in a strong PC demand, Qu Songtao, senior director of Lenovo's intelligent manufacturing center, told Yicai Global. Hence, Lenovo suspended production just for two days during the seven-day holiday, Qu added.

The trend is global. The world's PC shipments rose by 13.1 percent to exceed 300 million units in 2020 from a year ago, according to IDC. China's PC market could grow by 10.7 percent this year, driven by device demand from schools, offices, and the public sector. 

Lenovo has orders for over 10 million PCs, and those will be produced by the third quarter, said Qu. The company can make two computers every second instead of the earlier capacity of one PC in less than one second, he added.

Incentives 

Lenovo's existing employees have been stretched to respond to the booming demand. The firm sought to encourage its staff to keep on working through the Chinese New Year holiday earlier this month by offering them an incentive worth up to CNY6,100 (USD945) each, a paid leave after the Spring Festival, and free meals.

Around 60 percent of the company's staff agreed to work during the holiday and 98 percent of all are back to work now, a higher figure than that logged right after the holiday during recent years, according to He.

The Hefei plant makes Lenovo and ThinkPad-branded computers, storage products, servers, and Internet of Things devices. One out of every eight notebook computers sold globally is made by the firm.

Lenovo reported CNY101.6 billion (USD15.8 billion) in revenue last year, up 41 percent from 2019, according to its earnings report. Its imports and exports rose by 21 percent to USD8.6 billion. Lenovo has been Anhui province’s largest import and export company for seven straight years.

Editor: Tang Shihua, Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi