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Kapila Bandara

IN A move expected to encourage more local companies to tap the pool of middle-aged unemployed workers, clothing retailer G2000 has hired a group of jobless women and helped them reintegrate into the workforce.

   G2000 Group Chairman Michael Tien said he took the initiative to hire displaced workers as a pilot scheme.

   Its success has prompted him to seek more middle-aged recruits and retrain them.

    But Mr Tien cautioned that middle-aged workers who had recently lost their jobs, should not be viewed as the only answer to companies' employee needs.

    'We have to keep in mind that these retrained workers cannot solve all of our problems.

  'They can only help to solve some of our needs. But the signs are encouraging.'     Mr Tien said G2000 went against its long-standing practice of hiring young people to send a signal to other industries and to demonstrate its commitment to business in Hong Kong.

    'There are a lot of people out of jobs and this situation is not going to do Hong Kong any good,' he said.

   The G2000 initiative demanded scrutiny of the people who were to be hired, considering the nature of the firm's business.

   'We sell clothes to young people. And, therefore, we predominantly hire young people.

  'Fashion is not a just another commodity . . . it is a feeling, a sense of well-being.

  'So, presentation, appearance and the attitude of the seller is important to our product marketing,' he said.

   Mr Tien said it was not technical skills that mattered. What mattered was how extroverted the employees would be.

  The women hired by the company were all former garment workers in the 30-to-40 age group.

   The first group was chosen and retrained with the collaboration of the Employees' Retraining Board.

  The ERB set up a week's retraining programme tailored to meet retail sales' staff requirements.

   The priority was to determine whether the potential employees had the ability to adapt to the challenges of the job.

     'I was aware that I had only one chance to make this initiative work. I wanted to make sure that the people we intended to hire showed a commitment to our industry. This was the most important criteria,' Mr Tien said.

       The group of potential employees had one day of on-the-job training in a G2000 store.

    'This gave them the opportunity to try out for themselves what the job was like,' Mr Tien said.

    During the week's training, they were closely supervised.

    'We were looking for people who could accept our working environment.

    'Firstly, you need to stand the whole day and, secondly, you have to like to communicate. In our business, you have to enjoy communicating with customers.

  'Thirdly it involves working hours - late nights and weekends,' Mr Tien said.

    Other factors such as the potential employees' product knowledge were of secondary importance.

   After further assessment of the 21 workers, 16 were hired. The rest dropped out or did not meet the company's expectations.

      'The first batch of 16 started working on August 1. We still have 10 with us. We lost six, out of which three were part-timers.

 'We do not consider them a natural loss,' Mr Tien said.

     A review was done recently to find out the problems the first batch faced.

   'They admit that physically they are weaker than their younger counterparts and that working late was not desirable,' Mr Tien said.

      While the review showed the limitations of employing middle-aged workers, it still helped identify ways of using their labour more effectively.

    'We deliberately put them in easy postings: for example, stores where only a few tourists come and shops that are not open late,' Mr Tien said.

      'Looking back, the effort was worthwhile,' he said.

      Despite the availability of this alternative workforce, Mr Tien, said companies still needed imported labour.

  He said: 'The optimal workforce for G2000 would be a combination of all types of workers who could bring experience, age and skills to the company.' 



G2000 job scheme draws on skills of middle-aged