A recent report by Randstad; Hong Kong: Banking & Financial Services 2022 Recruitment and Bonus Overview, has discovered that many financial services firms in the SAR are developing new workforce planning strategies to allocate their resources where most needed. The city’s firms are deploying strategies such as remote hiring, offshoring or engaging staffing and contracting recruitment services — enabling them to remain agile amidst a tumultuous market.
As the zero-COVID policy continues to challenge HR and as many organisations look to grow their headcount, many firms are offering contract work to meet tight reporting and project deadlines. Most of the demand for contract workers are from project teams and functional departments and are usually hired as replacements for new headcounts across various types of financial services including insurance, buy-side as well as commercial banks.
Hiring remote employees enables greater organisational flexibility without the need for them to relocate to Hong Kong and allows companies to delve into a larger pool of talent from around the world. Additionally, financial services firms are more open to staffing and outsourcing solutions to address skills gaps and to remain agile in workforce and resource planning.
The report also compared the bonus pay-outs across international, regional and Chinese organisations. Given the positive industry performance, firms are poised to offer higher bonuses in an effort to retain their employees. Chinese institutions are more likely to offer larger bonuses to their employees (up to 20 months) as a strategy to boost their corporate reputation and attract more talent. Human resources professionals in financial services can expect to receive between one to six months bonus depending on the firm they work for.
Even though technology and contracting markets are experiencing a surge in hiring activities, candidates have become increasingly conservative about switching jobs this early in the year according to the report. As COVID continues to surge across Hong Kong, the workforce has experienced elevated stress levels and persuaded many candidates to camp out until their bonus and salary reviews in early April.
Paul Arkwright
Publisher
