In Hong Kong, as civil service and private sectors return to work, only 38% of Hong Kong employees view their employers as supportive. In contrast, more than 60% of employees in Singapore felt they were being supported by their employers. This, according to a recent survey jointly conducted by Consumer Search Group (CSG) and Ruder Finn. The research examined the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak, among 525 employers in Hong Kong and 512 employers in Singapore and highlighted a stark contrast in the reaction between Hong Kong staff and their Singaporean counterparts towards the COVID-19 outbreak.
In addition, the Survey revealed that there are differences between younger and mature employees in perceiving adequacy of support by their employers in Hong Kong and Singapore. While 42% of younger employees (aged 18 - 29) in Hong Kong felt more supported by their employers, only 36% of mature employees (50 years+) felt the same way. Conversely, 58% of the younger employees in Singapore and 63% of mature employees felt supported.
"Support from employers contributes towards strengthening employee psychological resilience ... We must work together to support each other, stay flexible and provide accurate information to give people the confidence to move forward."
Simon Tye, Executive Director, CSG, commented, “It is a challenging time for all in the midst of this epidemic, support from employers contributes towards strengthening employee psychological resilience. We must work together to support each other, stay flexible and provide accurate information to give people the confidence to move forward.”
The majority of employees in Hong Kong felt supported by their employers due to the provision of masks (57%), flexible working hours (54%) and flexibility to work from home (51%). Employees in Singapore felt supported due to the provision of sanitizer (63%), providing health and hygiene guidelines for all employees to stay healthy (57%), increase hygiene standards in the work environment (53%) and action steps for business continuity (52%).
With the spread of the COVID-19 and its significant impacts on the economy, the Survey indicates that almost 60% of Hong Kong residents believe that the coronavirus outbreak has had an extremely negative economic impact, whereas only 25% feel the same in Singapore. In addition, almost half of Hong Kong residents believed that impact on the economy of the coronavirus outbreak would be a lot worse than SARS, compared to just 27% of residents in Singapore.
When it comes to information about the COVID-19, Singapore places slightly less trust in social media (45%) than Hong Kong (51%) with over half of Singaporeans believing that social media is a source of misinformation.
Despite the continuous spread of the virus, both Hong Kong (72%) and Singapore (71%) residents are optimistic that this epidemic will be over by the end of Q2 of 2020.
Elan Shou, EVP & Asia Director, Ruder Finn summarised, “The gap in perception between employees from the two cities could mainly be attributed to the differences in approach when providing support. Employers must put their employees as a priority, listen to them and build bi-directional internal communications channels.
Paul Arkwright
Publisher
