71% of Hong Kong employees say their bosses want them to return to work

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While some economies start to sputter back to life as vaccinations become widely adopted, HR departments the globe over are adapting to new worker trends and demands.

The past 18 months have seen the Covid-19 pandemic affect almost all sectors of life. While some economies start to sputter back to life as vaccinations become widely adopted, HR departments the globe over are adapting to new worker trends and demands.

So what does the future of work look like in Hong Kong? Office and CHRO policies are going to have to evolve in line with the new post-pandemic way of making health and wellbeing a top priority for employees. Creative solutions to safeguard both vaccinated and unvaccinated employees while meeting the workforce’s increasing expectations for remote work options will be required.

During the past 18 months, employers in the HKSAR have prioritised health and safety for their employees with most companies adopting work-from-home policies. Now with a record number of weeks without local infections employers are ready to see their workforce return to pre-pandemic activities. This is according to Randstad's 2021 Work Monitor report for the first half of the year.

A majority (71%) of respondents to the survey in Hong Kong said their employers wanted them to return to work despite the health and safety implications. 

However, almost half (48%) of respondents in Hong Kong said they would prefer working from home until the vaccine has been more widely distributed. In Singapore, 67% of people said they're not comfortable returning to the office, and a similar 69% in Malaysia.

However, 85% of workers said they would return to work once it was safe to do so, especially amongst those employees aged between 55 and 67 with 92% of them saying that they would like to return to the office. 

One of the factors to return to the workplace could be attributed to their fear of job loss during a period when the job market is sluggish. According to the report, 12% of Hongkongers are extremely afraid about their job security. Nine percent of respondents in mainland China echoed the same.

Photos / Randstad