Diverse workforce ‘massively important’ for companies in Hong Kong, EU business panel hears
- Companies continue to struggle with effects of outflow of people due to emigration and frustration over three years of tough pandemic restrictions
- Global competition for talent is ‘arms race’ but Hong Kong benefits from having ‘diversity baked into its DNA’, says top Standard Chartered executive Peter Burnett
Attracting a diverse workforce is “massively important” for companies in Hong Kong as the city seeks to rebuild its foreign talent pool, members of a panel discussion hosted by the European Chamber of Commerce have said.
The panellists were speaking on Wednesday after a question about the importance of diversity to companies as Hong Kong continued to struggle with the effects of an outflow of people because of emigration and frustration over three years of strict pandemic restrictions.
And, although a string of special talent schemes introduced last year by the government have already managed to attract tens of thousands of people to the city this year, more than 90 per cent of approved applications so far were from mainland China.
“It’s massively important … Talent wants to work in diverse environments,” said Kasper Fangel, the group CEO of facility management service company ISS. “[Companies also] need input from different angles and knowledge who can provide the right basis for making decisions.”
Others on the panel, which included business executives, chambers of commerce and a member of the Hong Kong Trade and Development Council, largely agreed.