24 January 2017

Work-life Balance:

Getting started with flexible work arrangements

Backgroundo Hong Kong is facing the challenge of a shrinking labour

force

o Explore how flexible work arrangements (FWA) could

be widely promoted in the workplace to achieve a win-

win situation benefiting employees, employers and

society:

Helping working persons achieve work-life balance, enhancing

their work and life satisfaction, improving their physical and

mental health conditions, and facilitating them to fulfil their

family and social responsibilities

Assisting enterprises in enhancing human capital, attracting

and retaining talent, and sustaining competitiveness

Unleashing the potential labour force and mitigating the

consequences of a shrinking labour force in the long run

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Objectives

Exploring the situation of work-life balance in

Hong Kong and identifying factors affecting

the balance in Hong Kong

Reviewing the inclusion of FWA in the

workplace with the analysis of its benefits

and resistance

Proposing strategies and recommendations

to promote FWA and friendly working

environment

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Methodology

Documentary analysis

o Labour Force Structure

o Working Patterns and Health

Conditions

o Penetration of FWA

In-depth interviews and

focus group meetings

o Employers／Chambers

o Employees／Trade Unions

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What is work-life balance?

o People can find the pace of life that allows them to

discharge their work and life responsibilities

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What are flexible work arrangements?

Work from home Flextime Job-sharing

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o FWA are flexible measures provided by employers to

accommodate employees’ needs, on condition that work

efficiency will not be affected

o Employers adopt an employee-oriented and open-minded

management policy by allowing employees to adjust their

work locations, hours and patterns of work with flexibility

Findings Working hours and pressure NOT the only

indicators to measure work-life balance

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o A work-life balance varies from person to person

o When we examine work-life balance of working

persons, it is of primary importance to understand the

roles they play and how their work and life may

interfere with each other

Findings

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Groups of working persons that have greater

difficulties in achieving work-life balance

o Working persons having to work under a tight schedule

and with little flexibility are more difficult in achieving

work-life balance

e.g. those with family responsibilities and

those who are pursuing further studies

Findings

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The importance of flexible work arrangements

o Work indistinguishable from life

o FWA enable employees to better coordinate work

and life and employers to retain and attract talent,

benefiting both the employees and employers

Findings

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The resistance of flexible work arrangements

o Mistrust between employers and employees

frustrates the inclusion of FWA

Findings

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Occupational safety and health should not

be overlooked

o Employees suffering from repetitive strain injuries

are our potential concerns, overlooking occupational

safety and health will increase social costs

Recommendations

o Establishing a ‘Special Committee on Promoting Friendly

Employment Culture (SC)’ under the Labour and Welfare

Bureau, which consists of government bureaux /

departments, statutory bodies, employers and employees

o SC promotes cross-sector collaboration among the

Government, the business community and the labour

sector to formulate policy directions and promotion and a

mechanism to review the progress and provide

consultancy services for enterprises / organisations

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(1) Establishing a ‘Special Committee on Promoting

Friendly Employment Culture’

Recommendations

(2) Emphasising two-tier positioning - ‘family policy-

oriented’ and ‘individual development-oriented’

o Two-tier positioning, of which both ‘family policy-

oriented’ and ‘individual development-oriented’ are

emphasised

o Both employees and employers could take what they

need: allowing more employees to benefit from FWA,

facilitating them to fulfil multiple roles and

responsibilities; enterprises thereby maintain a steady

workforce

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Recommendations

o Government re-engineering the existing emotional and

mental health services in all districts, adopting the

community-based approach to involve welfare

organisations and family doctors to ensure that needy

people can get early intervention services

o Reviewing the definition of occupational diseases

could help lower the threshold for prescribing a

disease as an occupational disease, with a view to

enhancing employees’ protection

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(3) Establishing a checklist of ‘one-stop occupational

health support services’ and lowering the threshold

for prescribing an occupational disease

Recommendations

o Establishing a ‘Friendly Employment Culture Fund’

under SC to facilitate SMEs implementing FWA

o Enterprises may submit proposals for subsidies to

effectively use innovative ideas to implement friendly

employment practices, with a view to mitigating the

impacts brought by a shrinking labour force

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(4) Establishing a ‘Friendly Employment Culture Fund’

Concluding Remarks

Employers and employees are in no way antagonistic to each

other. With the Government’s further promotion of FWA, both

employers and employees could satisfy their needs

Inclusion of FWA does not require a large amount of additional

costs; but the returns are substantial and positive

Employers by taking into account their own situations and

showing employees more care , FWA could be made at

whatever scale to suit their own circumstances

Aiming at fully cultivating the FWA culture in the workplace, the

Government should make continuous effects in areas of

manpower supply, talents training and childcare support services

to allow those enterprises with manpower shortage to implement

the arrangements

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Concluding Remarks

Thank You‘Work-life Balance: Getting started with flexible work arrangements’

Mini-site: http://wlb.bauhinia.org

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