平等机会委员会

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14th International Employment Relations Association Conference 19 - 23 June 2006 Organizers: International Employment Relations Association(IERA), Wing Lung Bank International Institute for Business Development, Hong King Baptist University(IIBD), and Hon

“Family-friendly Employment Policies and Practices: An East-West Perspective on Work Life Balance” (只備英文版) Mr Raymond Tang, Chairperson, Equal Opportunities Commission

20/06/2006

It is my great pleasure to be here with you today. I would like to thank the organising committee and the many people, including organisers and participants, who have made today's event possible.

Introduction

The title of this Conference is "Family-friendly Employment Policies and Practices: An East-West Perspective on Work-life Balance." "Family-friendly employment policies and practices" is a term that has been a topic of interest in both the public and the private sectors in Hong Kong recently. 30 or 40 years ago, this terminology would probably be interpreted by the general public as "employing only family relatives or referrals by in-laws" Of course, you can say this is also "family-friendly" in a different sense.

The Changing Workforce

I am sure all of you here understand what family-friendly employment policies and practices means, and it is not my intention here to reiterate its "dictionary meaning" again. Instead, I would like to ask why family-friendly employment policies and practices have become increasingly popular in the modern workplace. The answer is simple: our workforce has changed significantly during the past three to four decades. Due to rapid economic and social development, the modern workforce is made up of a diversity of jobs and workers. Therefore, any work or family relationship that assumes only one model will fit everyone is doomed to fail.

For example, the "traditional" nuclear family model of the father as the sole breadwinner and the mother as the homemaker now applies to only a small number of households. Today, the common arrangement in Hong Kong is for both husband and wife to be in paid work, and they often would hire a third person, usually a domestic helper, to take care of household chore, and childcare if necessary. Well, it seems that HongKongers are still blessed after all, as we can leave our family responsibilities to someone else. But is this a perfect solution? To many parents, including myself, spending quality time with children, no matter how old their children are, is very important, and I, for one, would not hire someone to do this part for me. To take one step further, family responsibilities are not limited to raising children; they also include caring for spouse, elderly parents or relatives, and kin with disabilities. Many workers, especially those belonging to the "sandwich generation", must combine child and elderly care responsibilities, providing assistance to various family members with different needs. Most of these responsibilities cannot be delegated easily to a domestic helper, not to say hiring helpers is still a luxury to many families.

"Drain" of Female Workers

Therefore, we have seen a lot of brilliant working females leave their jobs for their families, or only work part time. To some of them, the decision may be a voluntary one, but to many they may be only making a sacrifice because of various work and social constraints. To our society, this is a tremendous loss in human resources. To give you some figures, in the year 2006/07 alone, our budget for education amounts to HK$34,210 million and the portion allocated for University education is HK$11,320 million. Our society invests substantially in the education of our younger generation and the percentage of female students enrolled in the programmes funded by the University Grant Committee (UGC) has increased from 32.9% in 1986/87 to 55.2% in 2004/05, it is a huge misallocation of society resources if these young females had to give up their job because of various work and social constraints. In addition, most female workers want a job not only because of the monetary reward, but also because work in itself is integral to personal development. To encourage women to enter and remain in the workforce, changes in our usual working patterns and conformities are necessary.

The Dual Role of a worker

Workers would not stop being family members during working hours. This is just not possible, and sometimes our role as a family member conflict with our role as an employee of the company. This conflict, if not resolved, would ultimately affect the work performance and productivity of a worker. Aristotle had once said, "Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work." One way to increase pleasure in the job is to reduce the worries back home. This is especially true in Hong Kong, where workers are notorious for working long hours and working parents find that the culture of long hours excludes them from taking an active part in caring for their family members.

Work and Family Co-Exist in Harmony

People often ask if we live to work or if we work to live. As the Chairperson of the Equal Opportunities Commission, I can tell you that it is possible to provide a workplace where employees can manage their family responsibilities while maintaining the long-term strategic goals of the business. If an employer acknowledges that workers do not exist only to serve the organisation and they have private lives that need to be integrated with their work lives, many work-life conflicts can be resolved. In many instances, work-life conflicts can be resolved if employees are allowed some flexibility in carrying out their duties.

Preliminary Research Findings

From many overseas studies, we have learnt that family-friendly employment policies and practices can indeed improve the morale and the productivity of employees. I concur with this observation; family-friendly employment policies and practices not only reduce the incidents of possible discrimination, but also help to enhance fairness and equity in the workplace. A recent study by the Lingnan University (commissioned by the Equal Opportunities Commission and the Women's Commission) investigating the prevalence of family-friendly employment policies and practices in both the public and private sectors in Hong Kong reveals that a majority of employers believed that family-friendly employment policies and practices could improve the image of their company, improve morale, increase the company's ability to attract high calibre employees, enhance working relationship between colleagues and reduce turnover rate. Employees on the other hand also believed that family friendly employment policies could increase their commitment to the company, improve morale, increase happiness, enhance working relationship between colleagues and reduce burnout. The research in general indicates a negative correlation between work demands and work-life balance. That is, the more work demands an employee receives, the less possible he or she will achieve work-life balance.

I would like to discuss another noteworthy finding from this research. We found out that management's support to family demands could reduce work stress, in addition to other positive consequences. A good number of the employees responding to our survey stated that management support to family demands reduced their perceived work stress, physical and psychological symptoms and turnover intention, while at the same time increased their satisfaction in job and family life. This is an important finding but what worries me is that the awareness of FEPP among employers is in general below average (37.2%) with small and medium enterprises reporting the lowest level of awareness (76.9% were not aware of FEPPs). Awareness in the public sector is more satisfactory (57.1%) than the private sector (37.1%).

The low prevalence and lack of awareness of FEPPs among employers is also reflected in the low response rate. We have sent the questionnaires to over 6000 companies but only about 2% of them responded. The response from employees was far more active than that from employers. Over 75 % of the employee respondents (76.1%) stated that they would like to see their companies implement more family-friendly employment policies and practices. Most employees considered the 5-day working week as one of the most satisfactory family-friendly employment policies and practices. On the contrary, many of the companies we approached told us that they were hesitant in responding to our survey because they currently did not have any such policies in place. They were afraid that we would force them to put family-friendly employment policies and practices in place just by answering our survey.

Conclusion: the Ultimate Solution?

Having said that, you may want to ask me if five-day work and family friendly employment policies and practices are the ultimate answers. NO, I am saying that family friendly employment policies can help reduce incidents of possible discrimination and bring fairness and equity to the workplace. To really achieve a balance between work and family life, all members of the family have to play their parts. A more inclusive approach will need to be adopted not only by employers, but also by fathers, husbands, sons, brothers, and even boyfriends. You'll probably ask me why I have put men under the spotlight here. In my view, the male gender has an important role to play in maintaining balance between work and family life. Men would need to change their mindset and start taking up housekeeping and childcare responsibilities. Women, on the other hand, should not be burdened by the social assumption that they have to shoulder all family responsibilities at the expense of their own personal growth, both at home and in the workplace. With determination and ingenuity, we can move towards a reality that reflects our aspirations for equity and unity through diversity. Only through collective efforts will we be able to achieve a fair and just society.

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