Microsoft’s New World of Work Index shows that Hong Kong ranks first among mature markets in Asia Pacific for embracing new People, Place and Technology principles
Hong Kong — September 1, 2015 — Microsoft today unveiled an Asia Pacific (APAC) wide study, showing how small and medium-sized businesses (SMB) in the region are meeting employees’ expectations in being more productive, collaborative and innovative in a mobile-first, cloud-first world. The study showed that as many as 74% of employees in APAC considered themselves as mobile workers, with 69% in both Hong Kong and Singapore, ahead of employees in other mature markets.[1] Therefore, with this emerging trend of mobile workers across APAC region, the study also unveiled the first-ever New World of Work Index, comparing how workers perceived their ability to succeed in today’s digital, fast paced and modern workplace.
Microsoft’s New World of Work SMB Study involved 200 respondents from Hong Kong[2] , generating insights on their current work and life needs, and the gaps that exist in enabling them to thrive. Microsoft worked with Organization Solutions, a global consultancy helping companies solve the people and organization challenges of growth, to design the study and gain insights from the data. The New World of Work Index is derived from respondents who rated themselves highly in the three key pillars of people, place and technology, and provided comparisons between different markets.
- People: Employees in the New World of Work have the capabilities to work flexibly and productively in the digital modern work place. They are supported by leaders and cultures that help them succeed in this dynamic environment.
- Place: Employees can work flexibly, anywhere at any time. Their offices support a collaborative, dynamic design and their policies support flexible work at work, home or with customers.
- Technology: Employees are empowered with technology to enable them to succeed in this environment, allowing collaborative work wherever they may go.
The APAC mean score was 40 out of 100, Hong Kong itself scored 37, slightly below the APAC average, but ahead of all other mature markets in the region, including Australia (36), Singapore (35), New Zealand (23) and Taiwan (21).
| Market | Rank | NWoW Index Score | Percentage using 4 or 5 productivity tools such as emails, file sharing, etc. |
| APAC wide | 40.33 | 52% | |
| Mature Markets | |||
| Hong Kong | 1 | 36.67 | 50% |
| Australia | 2 | 36.33 | 35% |
| Singapore | 3 | 34.67 | 47% |
| New Zealand | 4 | 23.33 | 50% |
| Taiwan | 5 | 21.00 | 40% |
Focusing on the survey results from Hong Kong, the findings clearly showed that the traditional notion of work is changing Hong Kong SMBs:
- Business at the speed of light: 72% of Hong Kong respondents said that they are required to respond to internal stakeholders within four hours; and 61% said that they are required to respond to external customers within four hours.
- Work doesn’t end at 5.00pm: A majority (78%) said that they are still required to be contactable outside of work today in order to complete their work effectively.
- Employees are largely forced to still be cubicle rats today: Half of respondents (50.5%) said that the need to be close to managers and colleagues was a driving reason as to why they needed to be in the office. Also, 29% said that they are spending 80% of their time in offices.
- Achieving work life balance is challenging: 72% of Hong Kong respondents said that work life balance is a very important aspect of their job, but only a third (33%) felt that they had adequate balance today.
- Bring-your-own-device and Bring-your-own-service culture is increasingly pervasive: Hong Kong’s employees are using nearly as many personal devices (51%) compared with employer-issued devices (49%) to get work done today.
- Hong Kong’s SMBs are also making decent progress on adopting sustainable practices, with 83% of respondents saying their organizations are increasingly moving towards becoming paperless, above the regional average of 73%.
“Over the last decade, globalization and technology innovations have brought the world closer and fundamentally changed the way people live and work. SMBs make up over 90% of business in Asia, and 98% of total business enterprises in Hong Kong[3] – they contribute significantly to economic growth.” said Horace Chow, General Manager of Microsoft Hong Kong, “We commissioned this study to understand how work and life has changed for employees in APAC, and to determine how well supported they are in enabling them to succeed. While technology plays a key role to enable work from anywhere scenarios and higher productivity, there are other aspects such as organizational culture, policies, infrastructure, enabling collaboration or ability to break down barriers to innovation which are becoming increasingly important for an organization to be competitive.”
Nevertheless, when looking at APAC survey results as a whole, it is also clear that employees in mature markets could not utilize the advanced productivity tools as well as employees in emerging markets. It may be attributed to the impediment of generally stricter policies or legacy processes and system at most workplaces in mature markets, such as Hong Kong. Overall, Hong Kong is ranked the sixth in APAC on this survey, with half of the Hong Kong respondents tend to use at least 4-5 online services like email, document collaboration tools, social tools, and etc., but they can further embrace the New World of Work and create greater business values by improving on three key areas.
| Market | Rank | NWoW Index Score | Percentage using 4 or 5 productivity tools such as emails, file sharing, etc. |
| APAC-wide | 40.33 | 52% | |
| Emerging Markets | |||
| Indonesia | 1 | 61.67 | 67% |
| Philippines | 2 | 61.00 | 80% |
| Vietnam | 3 | 44.33 | 80% |
| Thailand | 4 | 42.33 | 56% |
| Malaysia | 4 | 42.33 | 52% |
Mature Markets |
|||
| Hong Kong | 6 | 36.67 | 50% |
| Australia | 7 | 36.33 | 35% |
| Singapore | 8 | 34.67 | 47% |
| New Zealand | 9 | 23.33 | 50% |
| Taiwan | 10 | 21.00 | 40% |
Unlocking the New World of Work in Hong Kong
There are three key areas in which SMBs in APAC, and Hong Kong specifically, need to focus on in order to fully unlock employee potential in the modern workplace that is the New World of Work:
- New world of work principles and outcomes: Beyond technology, employers need to embrace a New World of Work mentality, which molds flexible work style policies. In the study, 76% of respondents from Hong Kong said that there are no formal policies supporting remote work styles today, even though 69% claim to spend more than 20% of their time working outside the office.
- Democratization of technology is needed: The ability to work from anywhere at any time is enabled by technology and work policies. Employees need to feel supported and secure in being able to work on sensitive information from anywhere. In the study, more managers in Hong Kong gave a higher NWOW Index score (48) compared to non-managers (26).
- Urgency to optimize technology more: Hong Kong SMBs need to know how to better harness technologies available in their workplace. In fact, 45% need to be present in the office to have access to important tools, and 41.5% need to complete their work in office in order to have access to information to do their work.
Also, half of Hong Kong respondents (50%) do not have the breadth of tools in their workplace to be collaborative, break down barriers between organizations and distances as well as to share ideas easily. With productivity and talent retention being a key concern for SMBs in Hong Kong and the region, local SMBs can no longer afford to ignore the needs of their employees to provide enhanced productivity as well as better work life integration in the New World of Work.
When companies, especially SMBs, adopt the New World of Work principles, they are able to gain new business insights, realize greater operational efficiency, communicate and collaborate real time – all while reducing the impact on the environment. In fact, the New World of Work presents four clear benefits for SMBs today: a more productive workforce, a more collaborative workforce, a more innovative workforce and a happier workplace.
In fact, 49.5% of Hong Kong SMBs surveyed felt that the ability to be more responsive to customers would be beneficial to the organization they are working for. Additionally, 48.5% also highlighted that the ability to create quality documents and content would be beneficial, and 47.5% highlighted the ability to be able to work productively from anywhere as well as the ability to share ideas, documents and information with colleagues instantly would be beneficial to their company.
“The goal to enhanced productivity is crucial to SMBs as they don’t enjoy the luxury of scale. SMBs are likely not able to dedicate resources for every challenge, or have a specialist to fill every role. In fact, people in SMBs – whether an employee or entrepreneur – tend to wear multiple hats. Because of this, enhancing productivity – or being able to work on the right things at the right time – is critical to the success of SMBs today,” Chow added.
Local business reinventing productivity through Microsoft Cloud
Cloud services enable organizations to drive work place transformation and can help address business needs from the largest enterprise to the smallest business.
For instance, the cloud-based POS system developed by Microsoft Azure has completely revolutionized the rule of Food & Beverage POS system in Hong Kong. A good example of how SMBs can accelerate their growth through this technology is restaurant chain Cheung Hing Coffee Shop, which specialized in local Hong Kong foods and drinks.
Compared to traditional POS system with limited flexibility and scalability, Cheung Hing Coffee Shop has leveraged POS solution by Everyware Limited[4] built on Microsoft Azure to transform its business. Empowered by the cloud technology, restaurant managers can now access the real-time sales data analysis, and make different decisions instantly to optimize the restaurant’s businesses easily with smartphone, computer or tablet, anytime, anywhere – even when they are out of town. Moreover, restaurant owners can also enjoy the possibility of business expansion based on conceptual ideas, and update the system accordingly.
Additionally, the myFoodies™ feature on Restaurant POS enables staffs to enlarge the font size of order receipts, so they can see the orders more clearly and accurately, leading to improved productivity and efficiency of frontline restaurant staffs.
“Microsoft is reinventing productivity to empower every person and every organization to do more and achieve more. Millions of SMBs across APAC are already reaping the benefits of a more productive and collaborative work place with cloud and mobile optimized solutions, such as Azure and Office 365, with all the security built in to allay concerns of moving to the cloud. We are clear that our goal is not to make more technology, but rather to make technology that does more for you and your business,” Chow added.
Enhancing work and life experiences with Microsoft’s product portfolio
Microsoft joins force with Kiehl’s to introduce SMBs’ best business traveler’s package, aiming to provide the best indoor and outdoor working experience through this creative collaboration.
Upon purchasing every seat of Office 365 online (Office 365 Business Essential, Business, Business Premium, Professional Plus, E1, E3 or E4), the customer will receive a Kiehl’s travelers’ kit for free, from today till 30 September, 2015. For details of the offers, please visit: http://www.microsoft.com/en-hk/business/business-offers/365xkiehls
Furthermore, the Microsoft Experience Zone, which just opened in Mongkok Computer Centre in May, has now added a “Commercial Experience Corner” showcasing more products and solutions for SMBs and commercial customers, including Office 365, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, and Microsoft flagship devices for trial, such as the Surface series and Lumia phones. Store assistants will provide professional advice and guidance on various devices and services, based on customers’ backgrounds and needs.
[1] Employees considering themselves as mobile workers: New Zealand (61%), Australia (65%) and Taiwan (65%).
[2] The Microsoft APAC New World of Work SMB Study was conducted in March 2014 with 2,000 respondents working in small and medium enterprises with less than 250 employees in 10 APAC markets including Australia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.
[3] First Quarter Economic Report 2015, Government of the Hong Kong Special Administration Region, May 2015: http://www.statistics.gov.hk/pub/B6XX00012015QQ15E0100.pdf
[4] Everyware Limited is specialized in cloud-based POS system development using Microsoft Azure. The adaptability of their cloud-based software tailored for any kind of restaurants has been proven by over 350 new restaurants every year.
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential. Microsoft Hong Kong was established in 1991.
