Employees are leveraging their niche skills for higher premiums
When accepting a contracting role, 84% of Hong Kong professionals will expect a minimum salary premium of 25% above market rate compared to a permanent position, according to Page Personnel.
The survey studied responses from 3,866 professionals in Hong Kong on their sentiments towards fixed-term employment.
Associate director of Page Personnel Hong Kong, Angela Chan explained that contracting specialists in Hong Kong are able to command the salary increment above permanent-hire employees as they typically have niche expertise skills.
“The wave of companies going through digital transformation has created a strong demand for skills which did not exist two years ago,” she said.
“Contracting professionals who have developed their own competencies in areas such as blockchain technology or with new knowledge from international markets to introduce to Hong Kong and ahead of the digital curve are seeing a lot of opportunities.”
This rising demand in the recent years has created the need for a flexible skilled workforce. This has increased the profile of contracting as a viable employment option.
55% of the survey respondents viewed contracting positively and cited their top three (equally matched) reasons as exposure to different industries, chances to work on various projects and systems as well as the flexibility and work life balance offered by contracting roles.
Of the remaining 45% who indicated a negative view on contracting, 24% feared job insecurity, 22% felt contracting came with less employee benefits and 19% were wary of feeling a lower sense of belonging to the company.
It was however interesting to note that while job insecurity emerged as the top concern among Hong Kong’s professionals, the survey also revealed that 82% of contractors had their contracts extended.
When further surveyed about the measures which would address concerns around accepting a contracting role. The top three included offering higher than market rate salaries (31%), giving equal benefits as permanent staff (24%) and assuring conversion into a permanent role (20%).
