A group of business leaders has called on employers to limit the office hours of their staff to promote a better work-life balance. 'Perhaps we need to encourage company bosses to say: 'if you finish your work, go home.' I think it has got to come from the top and it has got to come from the leadership to encourage workers to recognise they do have a life outside their business,' Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce chairman David Eldon said. Former banker Mr Eldon said the concept of a five-day week was a step in the right direction. Stock exchange director Moses Cheng Mo-chi also appealed to employers to 'treat their workers with conscience' by ensuring them of enough family time. 'We have seen many youth problems in families with parents who work all day and spare no time to take care of their children,' said Mr Cheng, a senior partner in law firm P.C. Woo & Co. 'Responsible employers should not treat their staff as an earning tool. We should ensure they can enjoy enough family time outside their work, such as the time to have dinners with their spouses and children.' Both Mr Eldon and Mr Cheng spoke at the Business Leaders' Forum on Corporate Social Responsibility, organised by the Hong Kong Council of Social Service at its Wan Chai headquarters. The South China Morning Post is a media partner of the event. Speakers in the first of the three sessions also included David Li Kwok-po, chairman and chief executive of the Bank of East Asia, Chow Chung-kong, MTR Corporation chief executive, and York Chow Yat-ngok, secretary for health, welfare and food. Mr Li said there was an urgency for Hong Kong as a world-class city to follow the global trend of promoting a work-life balance. 'Well-managed companies realise that their employees are more productive when they can draw from a wider range of personal interests and experience,' he said. 'At the bank, we have taken steps in recent years to discourage overtime. Managers are held responsible for the amount of overtime in their departments.' Mr Eldon said some workers chose to stay late in the office to avoid traffic jams. He believed flexible working hours could help avoid people staying at work longer than needed. 'The syndrome here seems to be if you are last in the office, you are working the hardest. We all know that this is rubbish. They want their bosses to see them stay there late but they may not be doing anything.' The former chief of HSBC, which is joining other banks in the move to a five-day week, said he hoped the culture of work-life balance could allow workers to spend more time with their families. 'In Hong Kong, I don't know what has happened in the past 10 or 15 years. Society is very fragmented. In the past, children would have been expected to keep an eye on their grandparents. Today it is not really so common.' Mr Eldon admitted there were related financial costs for companies who practised corporate social responsibility but he believed shareholders would understand the need. 'Any corporations have responsibilities to shareholders, as well as to their employees as well as to the whole community. In many countries around the world there is a growing understanding by shareholders that their companies need to be responsible and they would accept that there is a cost to it. This is invested by people who want to put their money in companies which practise good governance and have good corporate social responsibilities,' Mr Eldon added. Tomorrow: Why family should come first if you want productive staff