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Hong Kong accounting firms can dangle high salaries, work from home to counter quarantine, attract professionals back to city
- Many firms are facing staff turnovers of as much as 20 per cent in a year, HKICPA president says
- EY executive welcomes the latest cut in city’s hotel quarantine requirements
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Higher salaries, better job titles, work from home and flexible annual leave are among sweeteners Hong Kong’s largest accounting firms can use to attract talent amid the current shortfall, according to industry watchers.
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Many firms are facing staff turnovers of as much as 20 per cent in a year, said Loretta Fong Wan-huen, president of the Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants (HKICPA), an industry body that represents the city’s more than 47,000 accountants.
“Accounting firms are no exception to the talent shortage that is hitting many industries and regulators in Hong Kong,” said Fong, who is also entrepreneurial group leader of assurance in Hong Kong at PwC, one of the big four accounting firms.
Financial sector industry associations and regulators have all pointed to a shortage of talent created by Hong Kong’s tough Covid-19 quarantine measures. The city, along with mainland China, continues to maintain stringent restrictions that require incoming travellers to undergo hotel quarantine, among other measures.
This has led many professionals to move to cities with fewer or no such limits. According to government data released on Thursday, over a period of 12 months to the end of June, more than 113,000 residents had left Hong Kong.
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