Hong Kong accounting firms can dangle high salaries, work from home to counter quarantine, attract professionals back to city
- Many firms are facing staff turnovers of as much as 20 per cent in a year, HKICPA president says
- EY executive welcomes the latest cut in city’s hotel quarantine requirements
Many firms are facing staff turnovers of as much as 20 per cent in a year, said Loretta Fong Wan-huen, president of the Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants (HKICPA), an industry body that represents the city’s more than 47,000 accountants.
BDO, the fifth-largest accounting firm in the city, has not been able to fill more than 100 vacancies for auditors over the past nine months.
“We are offering not just higher salaries, but also many new measures such as loyalty bonuses, staff introduction fees and holistic reviews to improve retention,” said Clement Chan Kam-wing, BDO’s managing director. The 100 vacancies translate to more than 12 per cent of the firm’s headcount for auditors.
“We also need to offer better staffing policies to meet a demand for work-life balance, such as allowing more flexible work-from-home policies and allowing staff to carry forward unused annual leave,” Chan added. Nine out of 10 employees in Hong Kong would prefer to work remotely, according to a survey by PwC released on Thursday.
For those who want to work in the office, BDO must also invest more to improve the working environment in its offices, Chan added.
“We are now competing not just with accounting firms, but also the commercial and government sectors. In addition, the younger generation is keen to start their own businesses, which also makes it hard to recruit,” said Agnes Chan, adviser to the chairman’s office in Greater China at EY.
Opportunities in the Greater Bay Area will also help to attract talent to Hong Kong’s accounting sector, said HKICPA’s Fong, a view shared at BDO and EY.
The development zone mapped out by Beijing three years ago aims to promote trade and capital flows among 11 cities in southern China to create an economic powerhouse similar to bay areas in the US and Japan. It consists of Hong Kong and Macau as well as nine cities in Guangdong province, with a population of more than 70 million and gross domestic product similar to South Korea’s.
“HKICPA is working with mainland Chinese authorities to explore opportunities for Hong Kong accountants in the Greater Bay Area,” Fong said.
The association could also help attract more youngsters to the industry by providing ESG (environment, social and governance) and digital technology training, Fong added.