The surge of digital transformation, financial innovation and regulatory changes in Hong Kong combined with a significantly slowing economy has led to a record number of organisations – particularly within IT, fintech, banking and insurance – turning to flexible recruitment solutions (contracting or temporary workers) to suit their dynamic needs.

Rise of contracting/temporary hiring

These are some of the findings from The Inside Story of Hong Kong, a monthly regional recruitment analysis undertaken by global recruitment expert Hays. Focusing on ‘Flexible Recruitment Solutions’, the analysis found that the rise of virtual banks, startups, automation, digitalisation and transformation projects have impacted the workforce dynamic by not only changing the nature of traditional job roles but also how organisations want to hire for them. According to data from the Hays Asia Salary Guide 2019, companies in Hong Kong are utilising the flexible recruitment sector more than ever before, with 91 per cent of organisations stating they had employed temporary or contract staff in the last year, up from 83 per cent in 2018.

IT, data science, compliance and change management in demand

Owing to the ongoing digital transformation across industries, a rich FinTech landscape and the rise of InsurTech in Hong Kong, contractors or temporary workers with specific technical skill sets are among the most wanted and highest paid candidates at this time. Most of these roles are mid-senior level and fall within cyber security, project management, DevOps, IT engineering, and data analysis/science.

Risk & compliance is another sector that is seeing more flexible hiring activity, particularly within banking, owing to the influx of regulatory changes and the rarity of this skill set in the market. The gradual decrease of jobs from Western banks in the market has also coincided with increased hiring from Chinese firms – making language skills in Mandarin and an understanding of Chinese working culture more important than ever for many employers.

Work cultures are changing to welcome contractors

As the benefits of flexible recruitment solutions become increasingly evident, more employers are making significant changes to attract and retain skilled contracting/temporary employees. This includes ensuring contracting employees receive remuneration and benefits on par with permanent staff, making efforts to integrate them into company activities and events, and offering completion bonuses to incentivise and retain them.

Dean Stallard, Managing Director of Hays Greater Bay Area commented, “The current era of digital transformation will continue to introduce technologies that will not only change how products and services operate, but how they are integrated into every-day lives. These changes are likely to result in an unprecedented amount of new positions and projects for contracting or temporary staff who can expect more opportunities to expand their networks, build project experience and maintain work life balance.”

To read the full Inside Story of Flexible Recruitment Solutions in Hong Kong, please click here

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Hays is located in Hong Kong at 6604-06, 66/F, ICC, 1 Austin Road West, West Kowloon, Hong Kong.

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About Hays

Hays plc (the "Group") is a leading global professional recruiting group. The Group is the expert at recruiting qualified, professional and skilled people worldwide, being the market leader in the UK and Asia Pacific and one of the market leaders in Continental Europe and Latin America. The Group operates across the private and public sectors, dealing in permanent positions, contract roles and temporary assignments. As at 30 June 2019 the Group employed 11,500 staff operating from 265 offices in 33 markets across 20 specialisms. For the year ended 30 June 2019:

– the Group reported net fees of £1,129.7 billion and operating profit (pre-exceptional items) of £248.8 million;
– the Group placed around 81,000 candidates into permanent jobs and around 254,000 people into temporary assignments;
– 18% of Group net fees were generated in Australia & New Zealand, 27% in Germany, 23% in United Kingdom & Ireland and 32% in Rest of World (RoW);
– the temporary placement business represented 57% of net fees and the permanent placement business represented 43% of net fees;
– Hays operates in the following countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Chile, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UAE, the UK and the USA