Temporary work on the rise in Hong Kong

The 2014 Page Personnel Hong Kong Salary & Employment Forecast reveals there is demand and growing acceptance of temporary work in Hong Kong as a viable employment option, as cost-cuts and careful headcount planning continue to affect companies.

There is a notable increase in temporary hires for secretarial and financial services roles as more employers have become aware of the benefits a contract role brings to the business. These include cost-rationalisation, flexibility during expansion or contraction, and the ability to trial people when hiring new teams and short-term employment for project work, especially within businesses looking to establish a presence in Hong Kong purely as a platform into China.

While labour laws in Hong Kong provide greater flexibility than offered in contracting entrenched markets such as the UK and Australia, the other benefits of contracting are driving the growth of the business.

As such, temporary roles in Hong Kong continue to be accepted by employers and employees as a viable employment option as it allows businesses to carry on functioning with the required resources they need for the necessary projects, but with greater flexibility in headcount.

This trend will be maintained as business growth in Hong Kong continues to reduce the pool of available talent and increases competition among employers. A number of large multinational corporations have successfully embarked on large scale contracting hiring, which has added to employer confidence in, and the reputation of, the notion of contracting recruitment in Hong Kong.

Within the secretarial sector in particular, the recruitment market is expected to be influenced by cost-cuts to business strategies that were implemented in 2013 and the market slowdown in China. Employers will respond with a preference for temporary and junior hires, as well as reduced investment, freezing or dissolving of headcount within large corporations and financial institutions.

Team Secretaries, administration staff, and Personal Assistants will continue to be in demand over the coming year, as the nature of these roles allows them to be hired on a contracting basis, hence preferable for financial institutions. Emerging retail brands also require this talent.

Across financial services, employers are focused on balancing hiring activity between permanent roles and contract positions as most companies in the financial service sector are conscious about headcount planning. Investment banks are actively hiring for contract roles to drive a flexible workforce and have proved effective in building up the profile of contracting in Hong Kong.

As a result, there are more contractors actively seeking roles on the market and employers prefer to recruit these professionals for roles with less than five years of experience. A particularly progressive strategy has been the behaviour of promoting existing employees into new roles when they have achieved promotion, and backfilling the original position with a temporary resource. This then doesn’t delay the promotion.

From a candidate perspective, there can be some stigma attached to contracting, with some professionals taking the view that contract roles are not ‘proper’ employment. There are a few reasons for this, including the fear of the unknown at the end of the contract and risk of missing out on company-provided medical benefits for permanent employees. But this is rapidly changing.

Individuals in Hong Kong have become increasingly open to contracting opportunities as it gives them the opportunity to gain access to working for some of the best organisations. Rather than going through four interviews for a permanent role, the interview process will normally be much shorter. Similarly, it is often an opportunity to ‘try and experience’ the role prior to committing to a permanent contract.

For more information on temporary and contract hiring trends, or recruitment activity for entry to middle management professionals in Hong Kong, view the 2014 Page Personnel Hong Kong Salary & Employment Forecast online here.