HiRing and salary OUTLOOK skillsets, primarily in the areas of risk and compliance. “In addition, International Financial Reporting Standards 4 and 9 recently issued by the Accounting Standards Board will continue to drive demand for compliance professionals in the banking sector, especially in the areas of anti-money laundering and corporate social responsibility,” he says. The ManpowerGroup Employment Outlook Survey has a slightly different set of results for increased headcount across sectors. According to their survey, the strongest hiring prospects are reported in the services sector, with a net employment outlook of +20%. The results also indicate that employers anticipate steady payroll gains in the mining & construction sector and the finance, insurance & real estate sector, with outlooks of +16% and +15%, respectively. “The digital and fintech sectors are also bucking the cautious hiring trend, with continued investment in new hires with relatively novel skills such as app development, social media and digital marketing. Such hires can command up to a 30% salary increment with each job switch,” adds Sharmini Wainwright, managing director of Michael Page and Page Personnel Hong Kong.
Connie Leung
Adam Johnston
Sharmini Wainwright
The China connection Meanwhile, Wainwright expects that the highest levels of hiring will stem from China-based multinational corporations and financial services firms. “Large Chinese banks, asset management and insurance firms will continue to drive much of the growth in Hong Kong’s financial services sector. These organisations are recruiting aggressively to gain Hiring intentions (Comparison by industry)
Source: Mercer
traction in Hong Kong by offering prospective candidates highly attractive compensation packages, with a particularly higher offering on the bonus component,” she says. Johnston reveals that they are also seeing a preference for candidates with general Chinese language speaking skills, probably also due to the increasing number of mainland Chinese companies in the city. According to the Michael Page survey, Chinese firms are utilising Hong Kong as a springboard for international recognition and expansion. This specific trend will definitely increase competition for top talent in 2017, adds the Michael Page survey which shows that the likelihood of career progression with Chinese employers is at 77%, 13 percentage points higher than that with Hong Kong employers at 64%. As for salary increases, Hong Kong employers are more likely to increase salaries by 6 percentage points at 68% compared to Chinese employers at 62%. Salary woes According to Mercer’s Leung, employers are making up for lacklustre employee compensation increases by developing differentiated employee value propositions that appeal to the different employee segments such as increasing focus on flexibility in workplace and benefits as well as providing more learning and development opportunities for younger generation in the workforce. Candidates for employment are also expected to be more open to
innovations in their employment schedule, as employers especially throughout the financial services sector are increasing demand for contracting and consulting roles as opposed to the traditional permanent jobs where demand has remained stable, according to Johnston. Candidates who initially want a permanent job are being led to consider a more flexible arrangement and take on contract and consulting roles. “Another employment trend many Hong Kong employers are turning to is the use of contract staff as an alternative and flexible talent solution to headcount allowances. About one in two (52%) companies surveyed currently use contract solutions. Of those, one in five are planning to increase their contractor headcount in 2017,” Wainwright says. Leung says that employees need not fret as most companies still offer salary increases, despite not being the most attractive increases that employees these days are seeing. According to the Mercer survey, the 2016 salary increase rate is at 3.8% on average and the rate for 2017 will be slightly higher at 3.9%. But there are some companies (about 3.8%) adopting salary freezes in 2016. In terms of variable bonus, most of the companies in the Mercer survey are providing bonus to their employees, the amount is averaging at around 2 months of salary. In the banking sector, professionals can expect salary increments of up to 5% and bonuses of up to three months’ worth of salary.
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