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When Hongkongers prioritise work-life balance over a pay rise, employers must adapt
Trevor Yu says that as technology destabilises the workplace and employees’ free time diminishes, employers who take the initiative in training, plus ensuring job satisfaction and flexible work hours, will have the advantage
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In our increasingly fractured world, where change is constant, the corporate workplace – a microcosm of civil society and the economy – is undergoing disruptive change, from day-to-day bus iness to how employees interact and what encourages workforce productivity.
In Hong Kong’s already fast-paced, demanding working environment, the lines between work and private life are blurring to a new extreme as technology better connects employees, making them “always-on” through their mobiles and other devices. As a result, there’s a new finite commodity in demand: personal time.
While an attractive salary package may have been how to retain and motivate talent until recently, it is no longer as high on a prospect’s list of considerations. Today, even a flight – traditionally an email-free sanctuary for travelling executives – is no longer free of work’s daily pressures.
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According to the 2017 Robert Half Salary Guide, many Hong Kong employees now regard work-life balance as more attractive than higher pay. Some four in 10 Hong Kong workers surveyed are willing to accept less pay in exchange for flexible working hours (42 per cent), or prefer the option of working from home over a salary increase (39 per cent).
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