HONG KONG, CHINA - Employers in Hong Kong appear to increasingly prefer graduates from mainland China to local graduates as the former are more motivated and proficient in Mandarin, human resource experts said.

The ability to speak Mandarin, or Putonghua, (literally, 'common speak'), has become a key factor of consideration when employers hire graduates in Hong Kong.

Ms Lancy Chui, general manager of Manpower Hong Kong and Macau, said that mainland graduates with a good command of Mandarin had a definite advantage now that companies in Hong Kong have more chance than ever to interact with mainland firms, the South China Morning Post reported yesterday.

'The language proficiency gap between (local and mainland students) is growing, as Putonghua is getting more popular,' she said.

In fact, the language factor has emerged second on a list of perceived deficiencies among Hong Kong graduates in a survey. First on the list was the work attitude factor.

Proficiency in Mandarin and English of Hong Kong university graduates was singled out as the main concern by 8.2 per cent of the 1,201 employers and members of the public interviewed in the latest survey.

This compared to 12.7 per cent who rated work attitude - defined as seriousness, enthusiasm, diligence, responsibility and motivation - as their main concern.

Conduct and honesty ranked third, as singled out by 7.1 per cent of those interviewed in the survey, which was conducted between late May and the middle of last month.

Of least concern was computer proficiency, at just 0.1 per cent in the survey, the Post reported.

The survey was commissioned by the Education18.com website and conducted by the University of Hong Kong's public opinion programme.

Education18.com chief editor Joy Shi said that employers' requirements were rising as unemployment increased.

The survey has prompted concerns that Hong Kong graduates may suffer in comparison with mainland graduates, who are seen as more motivated and who certainly have a better grasp of Mandarin.

Centaline Human Resources director Alexa Chow said: 'Hong Kong graduates tend to make lower demands of themselves and are not clear about their career paths, while mainland graduates are usually elites with greater work motivation.'

The survey also found that University of Hong Kong graduates were preferred by employers, with Polytechnic University second. The University of Science and Technology took the third place.

In an earlier survey conducted by the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, 53 per cent of Hong Kong employers require applicants to indicate their level of Mandarin proficiency in their job application forms.

In addition, 44 per cent of the employers interviewed are considering listing Putonghua proficiency level as one of the criteria for promotion, China's official Xinhua news agency reported.

The survey, which was conducted between September and October last year, interviewed 197 companies in Hong Kong.

More than 85 per cent of those interviewed said that all their employees needed to improve their ability to understand and speak Mandarin.

While Hong Kong employees are more proficient in English than in Mandarin, Hong Kong employers believe that proficiency in Mandarin is almost as important as proficiency in English in making their companies more competitive.

According to the survey, 80 per cent of the interviewees indicated that an employee's ability to use Mandarin will have a big impact on the company's development in the next five years.

GROWING GAP

'The language proficiency gap between (local and mainland students) is growing, as Putonghua is getting more popular.'

Ms Lancy Chui, general manager of Manpower Hong Kong and Macau

This article was first published in The Straits Times.