Hong Kong to face a severe skills shortage by 2017

Only 4 in 10 Hong Kong employers rate their current leadership capabilities as good.

According to Randstad’s World of Work Report 2012/2013, Hong Kong’s workplaces are facing increased pressure to attract new talent, while faced with considerable pressure to increase workforce performance and productivity. Economic restructuring, social change and wage pressures are also increasing demand for highly skilled workers that will drive the next wave of productivity and innovation in Hong Kong’s service economy.

This year’s report gathered the feedback and opinions of 9,800 employers and employees across the Asia Pacific region – including 540 business leaders in Hong Kong. The research is part of Randstad’s annual Asia Pacific study to understand the human capital challenges shaping workplaces today – and into the future. Randstad is the world’s second largest recruitment & HR services provider.

Brien Keegan, Director, Randstad Hong Kong, said:

“Hong Kong continues to be impacted by ongoing turmoil in the financial sector, but demand for talent remains strong in areas such as risk management, compliance and information services. In other industry sectors there is also an increasing demand for the highly skilled workers that will drive the next wave of productivity and innovation in Hong Kong’s service economy.”

Looking to the future Hong Kong workplace, employers stressed the need for leadership with the ability to adapt to changing and competing business demands. But, interestingly, only 45% of Hong Kong employers rate their current leadership capabilities as good, with just 4% rating their leaders as excellent. 71% of Hong Kong employers also felt concerned about their senior management pipeline, indicating some succession issues in the years ahead.

“As for skilled jobs in demand, topping the list are business development, technical and sales roles to drive customer relations, and digital and social media skills to evolve ebusiness models and customer engagement. Others include innovative leaders, technology specialists across the board, hybrid technicians / sales roles, business analysts, risk and compliance managers, and middle managers,” added Brien.

With Hong Kong’s unemployment low and demand for skilled professionals high, 46% of employers see attracting, retaining or engaging talent as the biggest benefits of adopting more flexible work practices. Hong Kong employers also overwhelmingly – 68% – say they expect expert skilled knowledge workers to make up the majority of their workforce in the next five years.

But, tellingly, only 28% say they are confident government policies or initiatives will deliver on skills creation and 45% expressed confidence in the education sector being able to deliver these skills. Almost a third (32%) said a lack of specialist skills to drive innovation is a key productivity challenge. These results indicate that Hong Kong could be heading for a severe skills shortage by 2017/18 that will impact future workplaces and make organisations less competitive.