The rapidly transforming business landscape in the Real Estate and Property Management Industry means that there are several human resource management challenges that will continue to evolve in the future. Human resource management is an essential driver to the success of the real estate sector and the property management industry. Human-related factors and human resources management practices will affect the bottom-line of real estate and property management companies.
Apart from the hustle and bustle of selling and managing properties, HR professionals in this field face various HR challenges that demand compliance with labor regulations and ethical practices, from labor retention and tenant turnover to collecting rent and managing employees. A successful HR team can undoubtedly bring a lot of benefits to your real estate business.
Challenges
- Changes in MPF Management
i. Abolition of MPF Offsetting Arrangement
The Legislative Council passed the Employment and Retirement Schemes Legislation (Offsetting Arrangement) (Amendment) Bill 2022 on 9 June 2022 to abolish the use of the accrued benefits of employers’ mandatory contributions under the Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) System to offset severance payment (SP) and long service payment (LSP) (MPD offsetting arrangement). The Government has announced that the abolition of MPF offsetting arrangement will take effect on 1 May 2025.
Key points of the abolition of MPF offsetting arrangement:
- Starting from the implementation date of the abolition (i.e. the transition date), employers can no longer use the accrued benefits derived from their mandatory MPF contributions to offset an employee’s SP/LSP.
- Accrued benefits derived from employers’ voluntary MPF contributions as well as gratuities based on length of service can continue to be used to offset SP/LSP.
- To reduce the risk of large-scale dismissals before the transition date, the “grandfathering” arrangement will be put in place for the pre-transition portion of SP/LSP of employees who are already in employment before the transition date.
ii. eMPF Platform
To streamline, standardize and automate the existing MPF scheme administration processes, the Government and the Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Authority (MPFA) are pressing ahead to develop the eMPF Platform. The eMPF Platform will serve as a one-stop electronic platform for employers, employees and scheme members to manage their MPF accounts across different MPF schemes anytime and anywhere, as well as to reduce paper work and human errors.
The eMPF Platform is the most significant reform of the MPF System since its establishment. Through adoption of the platform, it could drive greater operational efficiency, create room for fee reduction and enhance user experience.
The migration of MPF account information to the Platform is expected to commence in the second quarter of 2023, and the MPFA aims to complete the onboarding of all MPF schemes within 2025 and make the Platform fully functional in the same year.
