China Staff articles from March 2006

China Staff archives from March 2006

Time for part-time?(Job Sharing)
March 1, 2006... Despite being home to many multinational corporations that practise job sharing in their other country offices, Hong Kong and Chinese companies are not subscribing to the practice of job sharing. Is it because employees haven't made such...

Global team-building: developing, deploying and connecting: global teams are quickly becoming the standard for worldwide organisations. James H. Wall and Lynda Spielman detail how to build effective global teams and why ensuring their effectiveness is one of the key business and international human resource challenges for multinational organisations.(International Talent Management)(Reprint)
March 1, 2006... Why did you not respond to my e-mails in a timely fashion?--asks a Japanese team member to his Argentine colleague, in a training video, "Worlds Apart: Building Effective Teams Globally," by Enterprise Media. The Argentine replies, looking...

Court overturns decision on including contractual commission in annual leave payments.(Legally Speaking)
March 1, 2006... In the October 2005 issue of China STAFF, we reported on the Court of Appeal decision in the case of Laing & Ors v Lisbeth Enterprises Ltd t/a Phillip Wain International, which found that an employer is required to include contractual...

Fit for duty.(Workplace Safety & Health)
March 1, 2006... Whilst there is no doubt sickness absence can be detrimental to an organisation's business costs and productivity, sickness policies and procedures should not unduly concentrate on the measuring, monitoring and recording of absence or...

Accounting for HR--the new wave: everyone recognises and acknowledges the value of people in a business. The age-old issue is how does one measure its value? Patricia Chua of PricewaterhouseCoopers explains how companies can now tap a new generation of solutions to help them turn human capital management into a strategic advantage.(Human Capital ROI)
March 1, 2006... The balance sheet reflects current assets, goodwill, fixed assets, liabilities, etc., but how does one account for HR? Human intellectual capital, although intangible and not directly accounted for in the financial statements, has direct impact...

Leading the leaders.(Profile)
March 1, 2006... Serving more than two thirds of the Fortune 500, impacting 20,000 leaders and 3,000 organisations each year, the Centre for Creative Leadership (CCL) continues to develop and improve the leaders of tomorrow. Tess Lyons talks with CCL's Maria...

Restrictive covenants: how far can restrictive covenants protect your business interests when an employee leaves to go work for the competition? Pattie Walsh explains the use of such anti-competition clauses in line with reasonableness and consideration in Hong Kong.(HK Employment Watch)
March 1, 2006... Q: Our company is part of an international stock broking group. Mr X, one of our stockbrokers, resigned and left his employment with us approximately 2 weeks ago. A member of our staff told us recently that Mr X has joined Company A, one...

Confidentiality: what's the correct time period?(Labour Law Forum)
March 1, 2006... Q: We have our employees sign a confidentiality agreement as part of their employment contracts. The confidentiality agreement states that they must keep our information confidential for two years after they leave us. Recently, a new hire has...

Hong Kong's jobless rate flat at 5.2%.(Hong Kong News)(Brief article)
March 1, 2006... Hong Kong's jobless rate stayed unchanged at 5.2% in February 2005, as the impact of a shrinking workforce was largely negated by a slackening demand for workers, the government said. The South China Morning Post reported that February's...

Workplace discrimination up.(Hong Kong News)(Brief article)
March 1, 2006... The number of complaints filed with the Equal Opportunities Commission rose dramatically last year. From 2004 to 2005, the number of complaints under the three anti-discrimination, the Sex Discrimination Ordinance, the Disability Discrimination...

Pay and wage cuts.(Hong Kong News)
March 1, 2006... Economic revival in Hong Kong notwithstanding, some companies have not been spared the scrutiny and pain of wage reviews and salary cuts. Sales representatives of the Shun Hing Group, a major agent for electronic products in Hong Kong, had...

Provinces and cities proposing to increase minimum wages.(China News)(Brief article)
March 1, 2006... Various provinces and cities in mainland China are proposing an increase in their minimum wages. According the vice-president of Federation of Hong Kong Industries, many Pearl River Delta enterprises have been facing the problem of increasing...

Shenzhen tops in social insurance coverage.(China News)(Brief article)
March 1, 2006... According to the Municipal Labour and Social Security Bureau, Shenzhen's social security fund earned RMB15 billion (US$1.85 billion) last year, a rise of 21.3% over 2004, with more than 15 million insurance policies sold. More than 6 million...

New contract law to cover work contracts.(China News)(Brief article)
March 1, 2006... The latest draft of a law designed to bring ordinary workers under the protection of labour contracts will benefit hundreds of millions of labourers as well as their employers. If enacted, the law will be the first in China that provides...

Where is China on flexible benefits?(Data Page)(Table)(Brief article)
March 1, 2006... Where is China on flexible benefits? Will implement Flex but not too sure when 52% Never had a flex plan and are not interested in developing one 52% Once had a flex plan but...