New HA Board Member: Helping employees pivot to a more sustainable future

“Hospital Authority employees are at the forefront of the pandemic fight. All of you deserve a lot of respect, and you should be proud to be part of the healthcare team.”

Human resources expert Margaret Cheng, the Human Resources Director of the MTR Corporation Limited, one of the new members of the Hospital Authority (HA) Board, says management should liaise closely with employees to help them transform the way they work and realise their potential in an exciting new era of opportunity. This coincides with the strategic development of sustainability at HA.

“A lot of administration tasks, such as payroll and leave calculation, are now computerised,” she says. “It is time for us to deliberate how our colleagues can transform and acquire new skills to meet changing needs. So that both employees and the department can develop sustainably. I suggest starting with a review of the training content, and equipping trainees with skills that can be applied in the long run.”

Building trust and understanding in an organisation with more than 80,000 employees is challenging. Margaret concedes and proposes a number of strategies to improve communication between people in different age and seniority groups. For instance, the management should engage key opinion leaders among younger employees who are concerned about the development of the HA, discuss and formulate important messages and policies with them and through them to reach their peer group more effectively, she suggests.

A task force could be formed comprising the management and younger employees to solve problems together after getting feedback from staff, Margaret says. Younger employees could even take a reverse mentoring role, sharing their ideas and experiences with senior colleagues to establish mutual trust.

Margaret comes to the HA Board with a positive impression about public hospitals when her father was admitted to Queen Elizabeth Hospital because of heart attack around 10 years ago. “The medical staff were very busy, but they were very attentive in taking care of patients,” she recalls. “Although my father’s attending doctor was young, his work was impressive and I could rest assured that he would take good care of my father.”

In her spare time, Margaret is a Lego fans. “I have loved Lego since I was a child and I now enjoy finding accessories to create various objects by myself,” she says. “For example, one of my friends likes to travel with a doll, so I built a palm-sized Lego suitcase for her.”