Graduates, employers, educators and government must adapt to find ways to cope with transformation of job and employment patterns, chief of HR professional body HKIHRM Margaret CHENG warns.
“They [the young generation] must learn to be flexible, adaptable, and not fixated about working only in Hong Kong.” Margaret Cheng
Hong Kong’s success has been built on its ability to adapt to circumstances and compete in global markets. And those attributes are once again being put to the test as businesses and individuals wrestle with the challenges and opportunities brought by new technology and all its ramifications.
Indeed, the shake-up caused by this latest phase of industrial revolution is already profoundly affecting everything from employment patterns and hiring practices to training needs, worker expectations and social norms.
Those developments, along with their attendant positives and negatives, are sure to continue. So employers and staff, whatever their current roles or objectives, must take steps to gear up for the next decade if they hope to prosper and want Hong Kong to remain pre-eminent on the international stage.
No turning back
“We have seen technology replacing some of the low-skilled, repetitive jobs in manufacturing; other processing and clerical roles may go the same way,” says Margaret Cheng, President of the Hong Kong Institute of Human Resource Management (HKIHRM). “But there is a lot humans can do that computers cannot. So, the repetitive stuff may be taken over by AI and computers – there is no turning back – but there will still be a place for people with creativity, critical thinking and relational skills.”
When looking ahead, Cheng is also quick to note that technology is far from the only thing dictating change in the workplace. In Hong Kong, and around the world, demographics are also a significant factor, and dealing with the foreseeable effects will require investment and planning.
In particular, resource planning teams at corporate and government level must take account of longer life expectancy and lower birth rates. At the same time, they must find ways to provide productive employment for an increasingly well-educated workforce, while balancing that with the cost-saving advantages of outsourcing, off-shoring and automation.
“Overall, we will have to train young people differently,” Cheng says. “When I went to university, we believed the skills we were trained would take us through our career life. Now, though, we have to give the younger generation a different set of skills, which focus on learning agility, change management, building relationships, digital competencies, and creative problem solving rather than specific know-how.”
Doing that, she emphasizes, is also a responsibility for employers, but it is not theirs alone. As in Singapore, governments must also be ready to give a lead in retraining and “retooling” people to do work that is relevant and to ensure individuals understand the importance of picking up new skills.
“Of course, it is not just skills, but also the way of thinking and problem-solving,” Cheng says. “For the longest time, students in Hong Kong have been spoon-fed, but now they need to practice more creativity and analytical thinking, and they must learn to be flexible, adaptable, and not fixated about working only in Hong Kong.”
Face up to reality
Regarding workers in low-skill roles, some may be reluctant to move with the times, but in the end they will have to face up to reality.
“They will ‘survive’ in their current roles but those jobs may no longer exist. If they don’t pick up new skills, they will be very anxious when they see their jobs being eliminated or replaced by machines,” Cheng says.
To prepare for what lies ahead, she adds, the HKIHRM helps organizations and HR practitioners with “future proofing” themselves. That often involves understanding digital disruptions, and/or change management. How organizations deal with changes depend on their culture and structure – some are still very top-down – and how open-minded they are.
“You can’t find one answer that fits all,” Cheng says. “For example, a lot of companies now let more junior or younger people take part in decision-making, which means everyone has a bit of skin in the game. It certainly helps getting more buy in.”
A capable HR team can act as an effective change agent provided they are tech-savvy, digitally aware and have strong business acumen. It is important to recognize what is really driving change. For instance, in many cases change is not necessarily an internal or home-grown initiatives; it is about survival, or to keep pace with customers and competitors as they go more high-tech.
This can be seen in fields like professional services, consulting and logistics where firms have to be on the leading edge and adopt the latest practices if they want to compete effectively, or simply to meet their customers’ changing expectations.
“We notice too that, nowadays, jobs are not as clearly defined,” Cheng says. Indeed, a recent HKIHRM survey on future workplace competencies found that employers were more interested in applicants with attributes like culture “fit”, innovation, entrepreneurship and the ability to communicate, rather than in specific skills or experience alone.
“In the old days, you would look through CVs to hire someone who has relevant work experience; it was quite straightforward,” Cheng says. “We now screen candidates for transferable skills and competencies, rather than only previous experience.”
For the future, we need to look at our education system and think about what kind of graduates we are producing. Young people in Hong Kong need to expand their exposure to understand the world better. They need to develop an intellectual curiosity, an open mind and agility to change in order to compete in the future.”
Margaret Cheng
- President of the Hong Kong Institute of Human Resource Management (HKIHRM)
- Fellow Member and Chairperson of the Hong Kong Management Association’s (HKMA) People Management Committee
- HR Director of MTR Corporation Limited