Work-life Balance: Getting started with flexible work arrangements - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

24 January 2017

Work-life Balance: Getting started with flexible work arrangements

Background

• Hong Kong is facing the challenge of a shrinking labour

force

• 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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Me Metho hodology dology

Documen entar tary analysis ysis

• Labour Force Structure
• Working Patterns and Health

Conditions

• Penetration of FWA

In In-de depth pth inter ervi view ews and and focu cus group roup meetin ings gs

• Employers／Chambers
• Employees／Trade Unions

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Wh What at is wo work rk-life fe balance? ce?

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

discharge their work and life responsibilities

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Wh What at ar are e flex exibl ible e wo work rk ar arra rang ngements ements?

Wor

• rk

k from m home me Flexti xtime me Job-shar sharing ing

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• FWA are flexible measures provided by employers to

accommodate employees’ needs, on condition that work efficiency will not be affected

• Employers adopt an employee-oriented and open-minded

management policy by allowing employees to adjust their work rk locat cations ions, hour urs s and d patter erns s of work with flexibility

Findi dings ngs

Working ing hours rs and press ssure ure NO NOT T the only y indic icato ators rs to measur ure e work-lif life e balanc nce

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• A work-life balance varies from person to person
• 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

Findi dings ngs

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Groups ps of workin king g persons

• ns that

t have e greater ter diffi fficu culti lties es in achie ievi ving ng work-life life balanc nce e

• 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

Findi dings ngs

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Th The importa rtanc nce e of flexi xibl ble e work k arrang ngem emen ents ts

• Work indistinguishable from life
• FWA enable employees to better coordinate work

and life and employers to retain and attract talent, benefiting both the employees and employers

Findi dings ngs

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Th The resistan istance ce of flexi xibl ble e work arrang ngeme ments nts

• Mistrust between employers and employees

frustrates the inclusion of FWA

Findi dings ngs

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Occup upati ation

• nal

l safety ety and health lth shoul uld not be overlo rlook

• ked
• Employees suffering from repetitive strain injuries

are our potential concerns, overlooking occupational safety and health will increase social costs

Recomme mend ndati ation

• ns
• 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

• 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’

Recomme mend ndati ation

• ns

s

(2) (2) Emphasisi asising ng two wo-tier tier positi itioni ning ng - ‘family policy-

• riented

nted’ and ‘individual development-orie

• riented

nted’

• Two-tier positioning, of which both ‘family policy-
• riented’ and ‘individual development-oriented’ are

emphasised

• 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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Recomme mend ndati ation

• ns
• Government re-engineering the existing emotional and

mental health services in all districts, adopting the community-based approach to involve welfare

• rganisations and family doctors to ensure that needy

people can get early intervention services

• 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) Establi ablishin shing g a checklist of ‘one-st stop

• p occupati

pation

• nal

al health th support services’ and lowe wering ng the thresh eshold

• ld

for r prescri scribing bing an occupati pation

• nal

al disease se

Recommendations

• Establishing a ‘Friendly Employment Culture Fund’

under SC to facilitate SMEs implementing FWA

• 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

• ther. 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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