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Press Release

Research on Family-friendly Employment Policies and Practices in Hong Kong

The Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) and the Women's Commission (WoC) jointly announced today (June 14) the findings of their study on Family-Friendly Employment Policies and Practices (FEPPs) in Hong Kong.

Speaking at a joint press conference of the two Commissions, EOC Chairperson Mr Raymond TANG said, "We recognise that family is a foundation of society. The EOC is always in support of family friendly femployment policies in the work place, so that both employers and employees benefit from better work-life balance."

"Regardless of family status, gender or disability of the employees, family friendly employment policies provide more flexibility to effectively combine work and other responsibilities or aspirations for individuals. This initiative would help employers and employees find ways that address work-life balance, to benefit business and in the end, reduce social costs," Mr Tang added.

WoC Chairperson Ms Sophia KAO said, "The Women's Commission believes that a family-friendly working environment is conducive to the nurturing of harmonious families, thus enhancing the family function as a place of mutual support, care and love and for developing the next generation. Harmonious families are the foundation of a harmonious society, a common goal shared by all of us."

"In addition, the Commission sees it is important to provide an enabling environment in which women, and men, can share out family responsibilities and fully develop their potentials through participation in society in all aspects whilst at the same time achieve a better balance between work, family and life," said Ms Kao.

FEPPs refer to programmes provided by companies or organisations designed to help employees balance work and family roles. The overriding objective of these policies and practices is to assist employees in managing their family responsibilities while also maintaining employment by offering more choices of flexible and varied work arrangements to cater for their needs. Over the past few years, there has been a growing concern over the lack of work-family balance and there are calls for a more family-friendly working environment in Hong Kong. The two Commissions engaged the Lingnan University earlier this year to conduct a study to get a better understanding on the needs, awareness, prevalence and benefits of FEPPs in Hong Kong. The study was conducted in three phases – (i) a literature review on previous studies on FEPPs conducted in Hong Kong and other places; (ii) a survey on enterprises of different sizes and nature to investigate the awareness and prevalence of the adoption of FEPPs in Hong Kong; and (iii) an employee survey to identify the major sources of work-family conflict among the working class.

"It was the first study of this scale in Hong Kong that covered both employers and employees. The literature review was completed in February 2006 and based on the findings we designed the questionnaires in the subsequent surveys. The employer and employee surveys were conducted between March and May 2006," said Professor SIU Oi-ling of Lingnan University at the press conference.

"Survey forms were sent electronically to 6,600 organisations, covering both large corporations and small and medium enterprises in different sectors and industries in Hong Kong. Among them, a total of 137 valid questionnaires were received, and these companies altogether employed over 160,000 employees, representing about 4.4% of the current working population in Hong Kong. For the employee survey, 735 employees from 17 companies were invited to complete a self-administered questionnaire and 653 valid responses were received," Prof Siu said.

Key findings of the surveys are summarised at the annex. "The survey results revealed a low awareness of FEPPs among the employers and a low prevalence of FEPPs in Hong Kong at the moment. On the other hand, responses from employees clearly demonstrated a strong support for wider adoption of FEPPs and the range of benefits that FEPPs might bring to both the companies and the employees," concluded WoC Chairperson Ms Sophia KAO.

"The analysis on the correlation between the adoption of the FEPPs and the work stress or other outcomes reported by employees also presented some very interesting findings, suggesting that FEPPs can lead to some intangible positive outcomes that are beneficial to the entire society," EOC Chairperson Mr Raymond TANG said. The WoC and EOC will continue to collaborate to consider the next step forward when the full study report is available in July 2006. For media enquiries, please contact Mr Sam NG (WoC) at 2136-2718 or Ms Mariana LAW (EOC) at 2106-2226.

Equal Opportunities Commission Women's Commission
Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Annex

Key findings from the Employer Survey

Survey forms were sent electronically to 6,600 companies of different sizes and sectors. A total of 142 questionnaires were collected, of which 137 were valid samples. These companies represented 12 different industries and altogether employed about 160,000 employees, about 4.4% of the current working population in Hong Kong.
Among the valid samples, 10.2% were public utility companies or non-profit making organisations, 79.6% were private companies, whereas the remaining were unknown. In terms of company size, 38.0% of them were small and medium enterprises (SMEs) hiring 50 workers or less (or 100 workers for manufacturing companies). Another 58.4% were large enterprises hiring more than 50 workers (or 100 for manufacturers) and 3.6% unclassified.
The survey findings revealed that the awareness of FEPPs among the employers was low. In response to a question on whether the company was aware of FEPPs being implemented in Hong Kong, only 37.2% indicated in the positive, whereas 61.3% answered "no" and 1.5% did not response. A further analysis revealed that large enterprises were more aware of FEPPs than SMEs.
Besides, the low return rate to the survey exercise, i.e. 137 respondents out of 6,600 questionnaires sent, might also suggest a lack of interest in or awareness of FEPPs in Hong Kong.
The prevalence of FEPP in Hong Kong was also low - only 10.2% of the respondents had in place formal policy or guidance for FEPPs.
Among the companies that had adopted FEPPs, the most frequently implemented ones included compassionate leave (56.9%), flexible shift working (27.0%), and employee assistance programme such as counseling services (24.8%). Many of them also adopted five-day working week (43.8%) and perceived company-organised voluntary work (27.7%) as FEPPs.
The top 5 benefits after adopting FEPPs as quoted by the respondents were:
- − gained reputation of being an employer of choice;
- − improved morale;
- − increased ability to attract high-performing and experienced employees;
- − improved working relationships among colleagues; and
- − reduced turnover.
The top 5 considerations for not adopting more FEPPs as quoted by the respondents were:
- − Difficulties in manpower deployment;
- − Restricted by job nature;
- − Administrative/managerial difficulties;
- − Few market leaders adopting FEPPs; and
- − Difficulties in withdrawing any implemented polices.

A total of 735 employees from 17 companies in 17 industries were invited to
complete a self-administered questionnaire. In response, 680 questionnaires were
collected, among which 653 were valid ones. The general demographic profile of
the respondents is as follows:

By Gender:

Female

386

59.1%

Male

242

37.1%

Unknown

3.8%

By Marital Status:

Not married

234

35.8%

Married/Cohabited

389

59.6%

Divorced/Widowed

2.0%

Unknown

2.6%

By Position Level:

Director and managerial level

146

22.4%

Frontline supervisor

105

16.1%

Professional and Administration staff

147

22.5%

Service and clerical

190

29.1%

Others / unknown

10.0%

Among the respondents, 29.7% considered that the employment polices and practices of their companies as "family-friendly", whereas 51.8% did not think so and the remaining had no comment. About 76.3% respondents supported the implementation of more FEPPs, whereas 0.8% did not support and the remaining had no comment.
The top 5 benefits of FEPPs as reported by respondents who had utilized them were:
- − increased commitment to the company;
- − improved morale;
- − increased happiness;
- − improved working relationships among colleagues; and
- − reduced burn-out.
The top 5 FEPPs that were most wanted by the respondents were (there was no significant difference statistically between the two genders, except for the item on paternity leave):
- − flexible work (flexi-time);
- − compressed workweek;
- − home-based work;
- − family care leave; and
- − paternity leave.
The top 5 factors hindering employees from utilizing FEPPs as reported by the respondents were:
- − Difficulties in manpower deployment and job allocation;
- − Unaware of the benefits of utilizing FEPPs;
- − Restricted by job nature;
- − Administrative / managerial difficulties; and
- − Fear of being seen by boss as less committed.

Differences in work and family commitments between female and male respondents:

	Female	Male
Working hours each week *	45.0 hrs	50.7 hrs
Hours to take care of children *	9.2 hrs	6.7 hrs
Hours to do housework *	7.4 hrs	6.4 hrs
Hours to take care of other family members	1.7 hrs	2.5 hrs

* the differences were statistically significant for the first three items.

Perceived work pressure by the respondents:

		Strongly agree	Agree	Slightly Agree
-	When asked if they usually felt that they were under a lot of pressure	8.4%	25.4%	40.1%
-	When asked if they felt that the level of pressure at work was very high	7.0%	27.0%	38.1%

Further analysis to compare the two groups as referred to in item 10 above (i.e. employees who considered the employment polices and practices of their companies as "family-friendly" versus those who did not think so) revealed that the former group had reported:
- − Less perceived work stress;
- − Higher job satisfaction;
- − Less physical/psychological symptoms;
- − Less work / family imbalance;
- − More work/life balance;
- − More family satisfaction;
- − Less inclination to resign; and
- − Less absenteeism.
  * the difference was statistically significant for all of the above items.
In particular, the results revealed that a culture and climate to promote FEPPs would lead to more job satisfaction, more work/life balance, less inclination to resign and less work/family imbalance reported by employees. It was also found that supervisor support to family demands could lead to similar results, and in addition, it could result in less perceived work stress, less physical/psychological symptoms and more family satisfaction.