FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Hong Kong workers believe they are overloaded at work due to employers’ priority for profits
Latest survey reveals concern for poor work-life balance
17 October, 2011: More than half of Hong Kong employees (52.4%) have felt overloaded at work in the past 12 months, according to the results of a new survey launched today by Community Business, a not-for-profit dedicated to advancing corporate social responsibility. This is a clear indication that many companies in Hong Kong are either not committed to the work-life balance of their employees, or they have failed to communicate their commitment effectively.
Marking Work-Life Balance Week (17-21 October 2011), the release of this fifth piece of research by Community Business into the state of work-life balance highlights the need for Hong Kong businesses to take action to not only retain talented and enthusiastic staff but to recognise the impact that poor work-life balance is having on their bottom line.
Main reasons for workload overload
The survey revealed that the majority of employees (39.1%) perceive that their employers’ top priority is to maximise profits without regard for their workload, resulting in companies taking on more projects and assignments than employees can deal with. The second biggest reason for workers feeling overloaded at work is insufficient resources. More than 30% (33.1%) of the Hong Kong working population thinks that their companies have insufficient manpower or are understaffed.
Poor Work-Life Balance reduces efficiency, productivity and quality of work
More than 40% (43.4%) of the Hong Kong working population has admitted to making mistakes they could have avoided due to being overloaded at work. Another 40.6% indicated that they have had to postpone deadlines at work as a result.
This shows that heavy workload and long working hours has clear impact on efficiency and quality of work in the Hong Kong workplace and putting businesses at risk.
In addition, productivity is also clearly and heavily impacted; 33.3% said they spend time on activities not related to work, e.g. surfing the internet and visiting social network websites, to de-stress during office hours. Nearly 1/3 of the respondents (29.7%) felt they were less efficient during the working day as they know that they will have to work until late. 26.7% have had to take sick leave in the last 12 months as they have been too tired from work.
This is strong evidence supporting the fact that long working hours and the culture of presenteeism (employees being present but mentally and/or physically unwell and therefore not working to their full capability) reduces productivity, and that working longer does not necessarily mean that more work gets done.
Significantly, 25.5% indicates that their relationship with co-workers worsens as a result of heavy workload. This not only has implications for work performance but also employee well-being and their sense of belonging to the organisation for which they work. 1 Improving the work-life balance scale
In terms of how much the Hong Kong working population has achieved towards ideal work-life balance, out of a scale of 0 to 10, Hong Kong workers rate themselves at 6.17. This is a slight improvement from the past 5 years (being consistently at around 5.6 to 5.7), indicating that progress have been made albeit at a very slow pace. Importantly, Gen Y shows the least satisfaction towards their state of work-life balance, reaching an average score of only 5.69 – lower than the average and lowest among all age groups.
New resource for companies wanting to make a change for good
While data like this is encouraging, and demonstrates there have been some improvements over time, these figures confirm that on the whole, Community Business’ progress in tackling work-life balance issues still remains painstakingly slow.
To gain an understanding of why this may be, we engaged with members of Community Business to identify of a number of key barriers which exist in Hong Kong that prevent work-life balance from becoming a reality. While some of these barriers are more general and experienced throughout many businesses globally, it is believed that Hong Kong faces a number of specific challenges which may be compounded by a multitude of cultural issues, both from societal and organisational perspectives.
To help companies tackle these barriers, Community Business has published a resource guide which provides practical solutions companies can implement to overcome work-life balance challenges.
Launched as part of Community Business’ fourth annual Work-Life Balance Week (17 – 21 October), the guide “Driving Cultural Change to Achieve Work-Life Balance”, is available free to download from www.communitybusiness.org
178 Hong Kong businesses have pledged their commitment to recognising work-life balance as a serious business issue during Work-Life Balance Week, and are implementing strategies to encourage a better balance between work and life for their employees. For example, this has included simple commitments such as ensuring employees go home on time, or providing fresh fruit for employees throughout the day, to more extensive strategies for supporting employees in the workplace in the long term.
Robin Bishop, Chief Operating Officer of Community Business, is keen to work with businesses to demonstrate how small changes can make a big difference:
“Work-Life Balance has always been a challenge for the Hong Kong workplace culture and it is encouraging to witness a gentle rise in terms of overall satisfaction. Our concern is not only for the 50%+ of this working population which currently feels stressed and overwhelmed by workload and how this can be improved; but also for businesses. Those companies who fail to recognise the impact that poor work-life balance is having on them in terms of turnover and productivity issues, are at serious risk to their bottom line. We recognise that this is an ongoing journey, but those that preserve will reap the benefits; differentiating themselves in the marketplace and creating loyal and motivated employees.”
ENDS
About Community Business Community Business is a unique membership based non-profit organisation whose mission is to lead, inspire and support businesses to continually improve their positive impact on people and communities. Community Business provides training, facilitation and advice to some of the world’s largest companies in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and its major areas of focus include CSR strategy and policy, corporate community investment and diversity in the workplace. Founded in 2003 and based in Hong Kong, Community Business currently works with a number of organisations, small, medium and large, committed to CSR.
For more information, visit www.communitybusiness.org
2 For further information, please contact:
Kristine Nudds, Feel Good PR, [email protected], 5361 9587 Pooja Shahani, Project Officer, Community Business, [email protected], 2152 1889
3