OpinionWant a more diverse workplace? Start by offering inclusive internships

Name: Indians born and bred in Hong Kong explain why the city will always be home
Uploaded: 2022-08-28T07:15:22.000Z
Duration: 9 min 34 s
Description: Indians born and bred in Hong Kong explain why the city will always be home

For responsible businesses, diversity in hiring must go beyond passively waiting for diverse candidates to knock on the door

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People cross the road in Hong Kong’s Central district on March 30. If we want our workplace to reflect the diversity in society, our hiring practices must keep up. Photo: Felix Wong

Joy Xu

Published: 3:15pm, 28 Aug 2022

Home to more than 60 per cent of the world’s population, more than 100 ethnic groups and 2,300 languages and dialects, Asia is more diverse than any other region in the world. Yet, when we look inside many organisations in Asia – large or small – we find this diversity missing from their talent pools, despite persistent efforts to hire diversely and ensure equal opportunities, regardless of backgrounds.

The workforce is still largely dominated by ethnic majorities, and people of similar backgrounds, gender compositions and physical abilities. Which begs the question: are hiring practices really as diverse as we want them to be?

Could this lack of diversity be symptomatic of a more worrying reality of marginalised candidates being unconsciously left out of the talent pool?

A 2020 study by the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) in Hong Kong found that most surveyed employers acknowledge the prevalence of racial discrimination in the workplace and recruitment process. Despite a high awareness of local laws that promote equal representation in the workplace, businesses in Hong Kong are hesitant to hire ethnic minority candidates, in most cases due to their backgrounds.

Whilst the low hiring numbers of ethnic minorities in Hong Kong can be partly attributed to language proficiency – an essential skill in many local jobs – there are factors besides ethnicity that make it challenging for marginalised individuals to succeed. This is true not just in Hong Kong, but across all of Asia and beyond.

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Indians born and bred in Hong Kong explain why the city will always be home

At a deeper level, one cannot ignore the prevalence of a system that favours privilege: by overemphasising merit and elite school status. As a result, students from underprivileged backgrounds rarely make it past the initial stage of hiring, let alone succeed in the workplace. And we end up with a not-so-diverse workplace.

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;} For responsible businesses, diversity in hiring must go beyond passively waiting for diverse candidates to knock on the door

For responsible businesses, diversity in hiring must go beyond passively waiting for diverse candidates to knock on the door