Firms in Hong Kong are set to increase their workforce in the next six months with CPA Australia revealing that nearly 44% of their senior members will increase their company’s headcount—this, according to their annual 2015 Hong Kong Human Capital Survey. But the report—which gauges the views of professional accountants on business human capital issues in Hong Kong—is not without its warning label: lack of appetite to change jobs, increasing demand for pecuniary rewards and outdated recruitment methods are likely to hamper companies’ efforts.
Salaries reign supreme
While it may come as little surprise that with an increase in workforce there will be increased labour costs, it seems that employees are now more concerned than ever about the salaries they receive. Traditionally, the top concern was appeasing employees’ concerns of work-life balance in Hong Kong—indeed according to Randstad’s Workmonitor Mobility Index Survey last quarter, employees in Hong Kong felt the most challenged when it comes to ‘switching off’.
But CPA Australia’s figures show 36.3% of their respondents believe that salary is the most important consideration when looking for a new role—topping the 27% of people who ranked work-life balance as most important. It is perhaps understandable when, according to 2015 Asia Pacific Benefit Trends by Towers Watson, employers believe that only 10% of their employees highly value the benefits they receive—all lending itself to the suggestion that companies will have no choice but to give in to demand and invest in salaries to expand their workforce.
Though Kenneth Chen, Divisional President – Greater China, CPA Australia cautioned against companies purely focusing on raising salaries, adding, “It is good practice for employers to link increased salaries with improvements in productivity and to consider other financial and non-financial benefits for employees.”
Stability during robust growth
This is not putting off companies looking to hire. CPA Australia’s survey reveals that the next six months provides the best employment outlook for Hong Kong since it began in 2012—fuelled by robust growth of existing business and supporting business growth in mainland China according to 23.8% and 16.9% of respondents respectively.
Despite this, employees do not feel the incentives to switch jobs. 63.4% of those asked were not looking to change their job in the next six months—a huge increase from the 39.4% who said the same in 2014. Confidence in the status quo extends to Hong Kong generally with 64% saying they would not relocate away from the city in the next 12 months compared to 52.6% in 2014.
Chen puts this down to increasing investment from China as well as a positive local economic outlook but also adds, “The survey findings also show that staff turnover rates, average weekly working hours and the number of respondents planning to change jobs in the next six months have all declined. The workforce of many local companies is therefore more stable, which should add to the growth potential of those companies in the medium term.”
Recruitment difficulties
Though how to increase the workforce headcount? According to CPA Australia, this remains a huge challenge despite the strong growth in employment expectations. It finds employers face the problems of a lack of applicants with relevant experience, 28.5%; the remuneration expectations of applicants being too high, 25%; and a poor level of workplace competencies such as communication skills,18%.
For Chen, this requires improvement on both sides of the business-prospective employee divide. Speaking specifically about the finance and accounting sector, he commented, “Companies may need to offer more attractive salaries and benefits to compete in the market for the same top candidates. To fill the skills gap, we believe accounting professionals will need to enhance their risk management and compliance skills.”
Though it is not only what both sides can offer but how they can communicate in the first place. The world has moved on dramatically from the days of newspaper adverts and CVs in the post to the world of jobs available through social media and the ease of sending off an application at touch of smartphone screen. When looking for employment, 35.5% of respondents to CPA Australia’s survey use social media to seek a job, with LinkedIn, 88.5% being the most popular platform.
If HR is to fill the gap, it is means like this that they must explore to attract new talent at a time when the sun is shining for business development. Improving the salary and benefit packages on offer and connecting through social media appear to be key findings that will remove the roadblocks to a free-flow of talent across the market.
Paul Arkwright
Publisher
