Retaining Talents by Valuing Work-Family Balance – EOC’s Newest Research on Family-Friendly Employment Practices

Introduction

A recent research condaucted by the Equal Opportunities Commission (“EOC”), surveying over 400 HR professionals and 1,000 family members of employees, reveals that Family-friendly employment practices (FFEPs) can translate into job attractiveness and lead to great rewards for families.

The research discovered that with creativity and flexibility, FFEPs may offer crucial help to employees to care for their families while ensuring productivity is not compromised. In the long run, it would be less costly for employers to retain talents with FFEPs than manage constant staff turnover. For example, flexible work hours would mean employees could give the same efforts at work, and they could be more focused at work knowing that they have a dedicated time for attending to family needs.

Findings

Job Attractiveness to Talents, and Actual Help to Families

The top three work arrangements that surveyed family members think are most useful to employed persons’ fulfillment of family responsibilities are (i) flexible work hours; (ii) five-day work week; and (iii) home office / remote working. Many employers have provided flexible work hours (65.8%) and five-day work week (47.3%) according to survey results.

An interviewed HR professional shared the story that talents were successfully recruited despite relatively low salaries, only because FFEPs addressed the needs of the employees adequately. Another HR professional added that job candidates were amazed by the FFEPs offered by her company, and job candidates expressed strong motivation to join the company.

In addition, families think unpaid leaves can be helpful when emergencies happen. In fact, 80% of employers reported they would offer unpaid leaves to employees for attending to family needs even when the employees do not have sufficient annual leave balances.

Intangible Rewards to Address the Intangible Needs of Employees

The intrinsic value of family caregiving tasks such as showing up on Parents’ Day, or accompanying loved ones in their final life moments are unquantifiable but require timely attention. The opportunities to timely attend to family needs cannot be easily substituted by monetary compensations, and require corresponding intangible work rewards for allowing employees to attend to family needs.

Having FFEPs to ensure employees of sufficient time to spend with family can encourage them to stay focused at work and give quality output. In one of our focus group interviews with working carers, an interviewee mentioned that he would appreciate if his overtime work hours could be recorded and used for taking time off from work; other interviewees in the group all agreed with this view, with another interviewee adding that “time-off” is more valuable than monetary compensation.

Recommendations for HR Professionals

Set out Written Policies on FFEPs

Written policies on FFEPs expressly list out the eligibility for requesting flexible work arrangements and leaves, thus lifting the pressure on frontline managers and HR managers for making discretionary judgements about an employee’s requests, while also ensuring fairness and equal access to alternative work arrangements. Having written policies on FFEPs also demonstrates employers’ commitment to caring for employees’ family wellbeing, and is beneficial for polishing corporate image and attracting talents.

Promoting a Family-friendly Workplace

HR professionals can do more to promote family-friendliness in the workplace. For example, encouraging employees to work smart and efficiently so that work outside normal operation hours can be avoided, matching with the values of “disconnect culture”. Showing understanding to employees’ family needs would cultivate better employee loyalty and as an example, this could be done by giving more weight to the urgency of family issues as explained by a leave applicant instead of highlighting operational needs when deciding on employees’ request for leave on family reasons.

Summary

Against the backdrop of fewer people available in the household to take care of family members with needs, workers in Hong Kong are paying more attention to work arrangements that can facilitate their work-family balance. FFEPs can address family needs of employees, alleviate the pressure associated with uncompensated caregiving imposed on family carers, and increase employers’ competitiveness in the talent market. FFEPs can also contribute to a stable workforce and nurture a mindset of working effectively and efficiently among employees.

FFEPs are diverse and can be tailored to suit peculiar needs of businesses, industries, and individuals. For more illustrations of FFEPs, survey analyses, and quotes extracted from focus group interviews regarding the EOC’s research on FFEPs, please visit: https://www.eoc.org.hk/en/policy-advocacy-and-research/research-reports/2025-1.

The Equal Opportunities Commission’s Study on Family-Friendly Employment Practices from the Perspectives of Human Resource Managers and Family Members of Employees.

*Refers to the provision of leave on top of legal requirement.
•    Family leaves provided by employers in Hong Kong as reported by surveyed HR Professionals