The latest Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) report by leading recruitment experts Hays found that an overwhelming majority of working professionals across Asia considered a workplace culture that encouraged and rewarded diverse opinions as the most crucial element in retaining top talent.

The findings of the 2019/2020 version of this annual report are based on survey responses from close to 2000 working professionals based in China, Hong Kong SAR, Japan, Singapore and Malaysia. The survey covered personal experiences of the respondents with D&I in their workplaces, as well as their perceptions of its practice within and impact on their organisations.

Encouraging and rewarding diverse opinions top priority for employees

85 per cent of survey respondents believed that a ‘workplace culture that encourages respect for diversity of opinion’ was the most positive and impactful employer action to retain top talent. Additionally, 53 percent also voted ‘rewarding and internally communicating ideas and contributions from diverse employee groups’ as the most impactful action an organisation could take to further seek and support diversity of opinion. 63 per cent felt their organisations had such a workplace culture in place, which, while encouraging, leaves much room for improvement.

Diversity in leadership yet to match employee expectations

The second most impactful practice for retaining top talent was ‘having a diverse leadership team’, voted by 79 per cent of respondents. However, only 57 percent of respondents felt their organisations already had this in place. 71 per cent said actively working to develop under-represented groups specifically into leadership groups would most impact talent retention, but only 38 per cent of organisations practiced this. These figures show significant gaps when it comes to encouraging diversity through leadership, compounded by 61 per cent of respondents saying their leaders were biased towards promoting people who think look or act like them.

In Hong Kong SAR: Positive work culture on the rise but leadership diversity remains in question

When asked what organisations can do to seek and support diversity of opinion, there was no definitive consensus, with the top voted actions being ‘rewarding and internally communicating ideas and contributions from diverse employee groups’ (45 per cent) and ‘employee feedback surveys’ (44 per cent). Both are well below the Asia average, perhaps signifying that for many Hong Kong employees, there is no one standout inclusion issue and thus an overall impression of contentment
If there is one area that could be improved upon, however, it might regard company leadership. Many employees agree that organisation leaders have a bias towards promoting (61 per cent) and hiring (59 per cent) people who look, think or act like them, numbers that correspond with most countries in the region. 77 per cent of respondents felt that the recruitment of a diverse leadership team would have a positive impact on the retention of more diverse talent, while 75 per cent consider the provision of bias mitigation training to be a positive action.

Jack Leung, Regional Director at Hays Hong Kong commented, “As our knowledge of workplace D&I matures, employees are engaging on a level never seen before, evolving their comprehension of not just how their working lives can be enhanced, but how the organisation too can be improved. The results of our report show an increasing onus on business leaders to match employee expectations by encouraging and rewarding more diversity of opinion and driving change on an organisational level.”

To learn more about the 2019/2020 Hays Asia Diversity & Inclusion report, please click here.

- Ends -

Hays, the world’s leading recruiting experts in qualified, professional and skilled people.

Hays is located in Hong Kong at 6604-06, 66/F, ICC, 1 Austin Road West, West Kowloon, Hong Kong.

Follow Hays on LinkedIn - The #1 Recruiter on LinkedIn globally
 

About Hays

Hays plc (the "Group") is a leading global professional recruiting group. The Group is the expert at recruiting qualified, professional and skilled people worldwide, being the market leader in the UK and Asia Pacific and one of the market leaders in Continental Europe and Latin America. The Group operates across the private and public sectors, dealing in permanent positions, contract roles and temporary assignments. As at 30 June 2019 the Group employed 11,500 staff operating from 265 offices in 33 markets across 20 specialisms. For the year ended 30 June 2019:

– the Group reported net fees of £1,129.7 billion and operating profit (pre-exceptional items) of £248.8 million;
– the Group placed around 81,000 candidates into permanent jobs and around 254,000 people into temporary assignments;
– 18% of Group net fees were generated in Australia & New Zealand, 27% in Germany, 23% in United Kingdom & Ireland and 32% in Rest of World (RoW);
– the temporary placement business represented 57% of net fees and the permanent placement business represented 43% of net fees;
– Hays operates in the following countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Chile, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UAE, the UK and the USA