Promoting Happiness Index Foundation and HKPC Launch Hong Kong’s 1st Happiness-at-work Index for Businesses

To help Hong Kong businesses enhance staff morale and create a delightful corporate culture conducive to standing against adversity, the Promoting Happiness Index Foundation and the Hong Kong Productivity Council (HKPC) jointly conducted Hong Kong’s first study on happiness-at-work for businesses and compiled the “Hong Kong Happiness-at-work Index”. Offering a reference to local enterprises, the debut survey found that about 63.9% of the respondents felt happy at work.

The Index was announced today (29 May 2012) at a presentation, with Mr Gregory So, Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development of the HKSAR Government, as the guest-of-honour. Other officiating guests included the Foundation’s Advisor, Prof. Frederick Ma; President, Dr Edward Chan; Chairman, Dr Dennis Ng, and Vice-chairman, Prof. Roy Chung; HKPC Chairman, Mr Clement Chen; Executive Director, Mrs Agnes Mak, and Director (Business Innovation), Mr Leo Lam.

Dr Ng said, “Keen competition is the norm in Hong Kong while small and medium enterprises, in particular, feel the heat. Through this Index, we hope to identify ways to effectively improve the local working environment, easing the pressure of SMEs and lighten up their worklife.”

Mr Chen said, “Through the survey, HKPC aims to raise the awareness of businesses on building a happy working environment. ‘Happiness-at-work’ means more than keeping the employees happy, physically and mentally. Enterprises should also adopt fairness, good corporate governance and corporate social responsibility to strengthen their abilities to overcome adversity and enhance competitiveness.”

The study consisted of two parts. These include a Lingnan University questionnaire survey of over 1,300 employers and employees from manufacturing industry support, catering and retail/wholesale, export/import and logistics, IT, finance and professional services sectors. HKPC experts also interviewed over 20 companies with outstanding achievements in enhancing staff happiness to study their successful strategies.

Analyzing the survey findings, Prof. Ho Lok-sang, Professor of Economics and Director of Centre for Public Policy Studies of Lingnan University, said, “The average score of happiness-at-work for Hong Kong businesses is 6.7 (maximum being 10), which is slightly above the average when compared with similar surveys in other international cities. In addition, 63.9% of the respondents feel happy at work. Decision makers and the middle management were relatively happier (scoring at 7.3 and 7.1 respectively) than professionals and junior level staff (scoring at 6.4 and 6.5 respectively).”

He said, “Further analysis reveals trust between the management and workers, fairness, good communication, efficiency and corporate governance are the key factors in enhancing the level of happiness-at-work for businesses.”

Apart from the announcement of Index results, the event also featured experience sharing from three of the interviewed companies and the Hong Kong Institute of Human Resource Management on creating a happy workplace.

For information about the Hong Kong Happiness-at-work Index, please visit the official website: www.hkworkhappiness.com or contact Mr Nick Chan of HKPC’s Mainland and Business Management Division at tel.: (852) 2788 6144 or email: nickchan@hkpc.org. For other media enquiries, please contact Mr Felix Chan of HKPC’s Corporate Communications Division at tel.: (852) 2788 5036 or email: felixchan@hkpc.org.

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Mr Jonathan Ho
General Manager
Corporate Communications
Hong Kong Productivity Council
Tel: (852) 2788 6390
Fax: (852) 2788 5056
Email: jonathanho@hkpc.org
Website: www.hkpc.org


29 May 2012

Mr Gregory So, Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development (centre); Promoting Happiness Index Foundation Advisor, Prof. Frederick Ma (fifth from left); President, Dr Edward Chan (fourth from left); HKPC Chairman, Mr Clement Chen (fifth from right); and Executive Director, Mrs Agnes Mak (fourth from right), officiate at the launching ceremony of the Hong Kong Happiness-at-work Index.