Introduction
The Hong Kong Council of Social Service (hereafter the "HKCSS") has conducted an annual NGOs Salary Survey (hereafter the "Survey") for the social service sector since 2003. Overseen by a Working Group composed of representatives from the social service sector, experts from the business sector and human resources management profession and conducted by an independent survey consultant, the Survey aims to provide the most updated reference to assist Non-governmental Organisations (NGOs) in positioning their salary and benefits practices. Starting from 2016, salary survey is conducted annually while benefits survey is conducted biennially. However, this year, a pilot study on comparing the salary data between subvented and non-subvented organisations has been introduced, the benefit survey is therefore postponed to the next year.
In the past decades, the operating environment of the social service sector has kept on changing. The introduction of the Lump Sum Grant Subvention (LSGS) has transformed the resources management of the NGOs in the social service sector, especially in human resources management. NGOs are given the freedom to manage their staff structure, staff-mix and the level of salary and benefits under the LSG funding mode. To facilitate NGOs in determining the levels of salary and benefits with flexibility to meet their organisational requirements, more relevant and timely reference on the salary and benefits policy and strategy of the sector should be made available.
The scope of the Survey and salary data collected have been modified to cope with the changing environment and practices of the sector. In this year, the salary data cover most of the full-time staff in-post including for those whose salary scale are strictly following the Master Pay Scale (MPS). Only snapshot staff members have been excluded. Information on salary structure with both starting and maximum salaries, and detailed salary data for given job positions are covered. Apart from the availability of salary data comparison among large, medium and small organisations, salary data comparison between subvented and non-subvented organisations is newly introduced. In addition, as a pilot study, the salary data of social work positions has been collected in more details with the comparison on subvented and non-subvented posts. The enhancement has provided a clearer picture of the salary information of the benchmarked positions.
With the contributions of the Working Group members and the professional service rendered by the survey consultant, the Survey has been accomplished with satisfactory results. This year, a record high participation rate is achieved with 123 Agency Members joined. In regards of the reference date of the salary data, “31 October” has been adopted, which is the same of the past surveys.
