Thought Leadership and Training
The Institute organised a Climate Change Conference in January 2022 at which the Government, regulators, investors and industry practitioners, came together and provided our members and other stakeholders with insights as to the macro developments on standard setting, financial and regulatory reporting in relation to climate change. This along with the regular CPD training and guidance notes provided by the Institute, as well as the thought leadership research papers published by the Institute, we have contributed significantly to the promotion of ESG best practice in the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong.
Workplace quality
Having a quality workplace culture is essential, not only for heightened productivity and motivation in our professional lives, but also for its proven benefits in our personal lives. The Institute encourages a good working environment for our staff, including through regular cross-departmental gatherings, as well as ongoing training sessions to improve technical knowledge and soft skills.
The Institute was accredited with the Good Employer Charter 2020, organised by the Labour Department of Hong Kong, which acknowledges our good human resource management over a two-year period. In fiscal 2021, we were delighted to be presented with an Equal Opportunity Employer (Gender Equality) award from the Equal Opportunities Commission of Hong Kong, for our commitment to promoting equal opportunities and eliminating all forms of discrimination. Additionally, the Institute has received the Good MPF Employer 5 Years+ and the MPF Support Award for 2020–2021 from the Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) Schemes Authority – of whom we are a ‘Supporting Organisation’ – for our efforts to enhance the retirement protection of our employees.
Environmental responsibility
As an environmentally conscious organisation, we evaluate and update our eco practices and initiatives on a continuing basis, and make efforts to boost the environmental awareness of our staff, members, graduates and students, through such activities as our ESG seminars and webinars.
The ‘reuse, reduce, recycle and replace’ principle is embedded in our workplace culture. We use recycled paper and double-sided printing as a matter of course throughout the office, and have to a great extent replaced hard-copy printing with electronic communication, including with members, graduates and students. In fiscal 2020, we arranged for our annual renewal notices and receipts to be sent exclusively by email, and enrolments for seminars and activities became available online, while in fiscal 2021 we launched online applications for student registration, exemptions and examinations, thus further minimising our resource consumption.
More subscribers are opting for the e-version of our monthly journal, CSj, instead of a print version. As of 30 June 2021, the e-version was being sent to 6,125 readers – including students, who now no longer receive hard copies – representing a 36% increase from fiscal 2020, saving paper and time, while adding convenience.
To help cut the use of electricity, our average office temperature is fixed at between 24°C and 26°C. We also regularly participate in Earth Hour, the annual initiative of WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature), and invite our members, graduates and students to do the same. The Institute’s Hong Kong Secretariat and Beijing offices turned off all lights on 27 March 2021 from 8.30pm to 9.30pm as a sign of our support.
Community involvement
Our Community Service Core Group, under the Membership Committee, is responsible for organizing the Institute’s community service activities. Formed in February 2020, this group is run by our Secretariat team, in conjunction with members, graduates and students, all of whom are dedicated to contributing to the community, and to generating new initiatives and a wider involvement. Despite this heartfelt commitment, serving our community was a challenge in fiscal 2021, with the suspension of social gatherings due to Covid-19. Nevertheless, we found innovative ways to continue our support of the community. Because in-person visits were cancelled, we took part in a ‘caring telephone calls for the elderly’ event for the Mid-Autumn Festival in September 2020, in collaboration with St James’ Settlement, and participated in a number of online campaigns, including Pink Together 2020, for which we also helped pack goody bags, to benefit the Hong Kong Breast Cancer Foundation, and Dress Pink Day 2021, in support of the Hong Kong Cancer Fund. For our online Governance Professionals Career Day in March 2021, we offered a number of free places to students from the Holy Family Canossian College, under the Business-School Partnership Programme of The Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce.
We are pleased to announce that, in recognition of our CSR efforts in caring for the community, our employees, other stakeholders and the environment, the Institute was awarded the Caring Organisation Logo under The Hong Kong Council of Social Service’s 2020/2021 Caring Company Scheme.