How ‘dirty’ industries can attract young Hongkongers through the use of smart technology

Christine Loh says industries, such as construction, waste collection, vehicle maintenance and building management, that struggle to attract fresh recruits must transform themselves using technology rather than looking abroad to source manpower

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A worker drags piles of waste paper at the public cargo working area in Tsuen Wan. The recycling industry is crucial to Hong Kong but needs to reinvent itself to attract fresh talent. Photo: Sam Tsang

Published: 12:15pm, 20 Feb 2018Updated: 7:32pm, 20 Feb 2018

Hong Kong’s problems with working conditions and recruiting young talent extend beyond bus drivers. After the tragic bus accident on 10 February, the transport sector called for more foreign labour to tackle its manpower shortage. The construction sector had also argued for the same, complaining of the difficulty of recruiting fresh blood even when pay increased substantially.

Other sectors struggling to attract young people are cleaning services, waste collection and recycling, vehicle maintenance, and building management. Young people don’t want to do these jobs because they are low end, low paying and low skilled, with no prospects for career development. This does not have to be so.

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The government has a role to play in pushing these sectors to transform themselves through procurement policies. Procurement requirements could include terms that drive competition and service upgrades.

Workers, contracted by the Food, Health and Hygiene Department, hose down the site of a sewage leak in North Point in 2015. The government can encourage the cleaning sector to upgrade and thus attract young talent by changing its procurement policies. Photo: Dickson Lee

For example, cleaning, waste collection and recycling services are critical for a high-density city like ours but as long as young people see those jobs as “dirty”, they will never want to join these sectors.

The vehicle agencies with their own maintenance services provide good training for their mechanics, including providing smart uniforms. They might need to improve pay to attract young people.

Building management is another critical sector for Hong Kong. The vast majority of us live and work in large buildings, which need both good hardware management and people management skills.

Our desire to use “smart” technologies to improve liveability must involve the companies providing such services. These companies will not upgrade unless they are pushed to do so through competition.

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