There will be a rise in “affordable luxury,” a manpower agency said yesterday, while predicting a pay rise of 3-5 percent for employees this year, the same estimate as last year.
Adecco said as mainland tourist numbers and spending fall, some luxury retail shops are being replaced by affordable luxury brands in busy districts. The human resources solutions firm published its Greater China Salary Guide 2017 yesterday.
From its database of vacancies it received from clients – about 600 companies in accounting, finance and banking, office, sales and marketing, retail, merchandise and logistics, pharmaceuticals, information technology and technical engineering sectors in Hong Kong – Adecco said companies are adopting a relatively conservative approach to employee salaries.
It found that adjustments tend to fall into the usual range of 3-5 percent this year, which is the same as last year.
“While hiring more talent who are familiar with new technology to meet the digitalization needs, enterprises have to at the same time bridge the value gap between new and old generation employees,” said Audrey Low, managing director of Adecco in Hong Kong and Macau.
“This led to a more cautious approach in searching for the right talent. Apart from making the interviewing process more complex and raising the standards for the skills and attitude to work required, this has also led to an increasing number of enterprises choosing not to fill their vacancies.”
In retail, Adecco said a lot of luxury brands such as Prada and Coach moved from busy districts because mainland tourists are increasingly visiting other destinations and because of weak economic sentiment. Salespeople in some luxury brands who do not meet targets are redundant.
Henry Chu, practice manager of the retail sector at Adecco, said: “A lot of salespeople in the luxury brands told me in 2016 that they are pressurized into meeting sales targets and some have to meet 2015 targets.” He also said a small number of sales managers in the luxury sector went into insurance.
Although a lot of luxury brands are closing their stores in business districts, Adecco found that they are being increasingly replaced by affordable luxury brands such as Tory Burch, Michael Kors, Lululemon and Kate Spade as consumers are switching their focus and these brands will need to hire more frontline salespeople.
“Instead of selling their products through distributors like Lane Crawford, some of these brands have decided to go for their own stores. We have a number of affordable retail brand clients planning to expand in 2017,” Chu said.
“They are also looking for talent who have experience in e-commerce and customer relations management.”