How tech companies improve employees’ mental and physical health and boost productivity

Workers at the Hong Kong base of global cybersecurity company Chengbao relish their autonomy. Instead of chafing under rigid working hours, Chengbao’s flexible work arrangements require employees to be in the office only during the core hours of 11am to 5pm. Outside that, they are free to do as they please.

Varona Chan is an office manager in the internal recruitment department. She appreciates the culture at this organisation so much that she can’t picture going back to a local style office.

“It was how they treated employees – in local Hong Kong management, it’s more that you have to stay at certain hours and also a Hong Kong boss normally expects people to work overtime,” she says.

“Here, they really are concerned about people’s work-life balance,” she remarks, citing how the organisation encourages those working long hours to take a break and recharge, to boost their productivity. “That’s a totally different direction.”

Another internal recruitment staffer, Charles Wong, is more blunt in his assessment: “This is the first place where I am treated like an adult.”

The pair claim that not having to monitor staff’s absenteeism and ‘presenteeism’ – being at one’s workplace for more hours than required, or working despite illness, injury or anxiety – gives them more time to meet their work goals.