'Firms Spending More On Training Amid Brain Drain'

The Hong Kong Institute of Human Resource Management said a survey it conducted has found that companies are investing more time and money on training their staff to retain talent amid the current brain drain.

The institute surveyed more than 100 companies across 20 sectors from March to May this year.

It found that the average annual training hours of employees rose from 13 in 2020, to 14 last year, while spending on training against workers’ annual base salaries also increased from 1.3 percent to 1.9 percent.

“As the labour market was particularly impacted by brain drain due to resignation, emigration, I’m sure a lot companies want to retain local talents. So a remarkable chunk of training and development spending went to hire their replacements and develop them to unleash their full potential,” explained Chester Tsang, an executive council member of the institute.

Tsang noted that the business and professional services sector invested the most on employee development last year, while companies in the construction as well as real estate and property sector also provided a great deal of training for their staff.

“There’s a large-scale development from the Northern Metropolis which has a huge demand on talents. I think the construction industry require a comprehensive training and development plan to retain the talent,” he added.