Hong Kong Financial Services HR and Business Support 2027 Hiring Outlook

Based on hiring activity and employer conversations throughout 2026, Hong Kong’s financial services HR and Business Support market is expected to remain selective and capability-led in 2027.

Headcount controls are likely to continue, with hiring focused on roles that strengthen workforce planning, leadership capability, executive effectiveness and the wider operating environment.

Demand is expected to be strongest for professionals who can work across wider remits, support regional APAC stakeholders and demonstrate commercial impact. Compensation will continue to vary according to functional depth, regional responsibility and proximity to decision-making.

Key hiring trends

• Hiring remains selective, with investment focused on roles that strengthen operating capability rather than increase headcount broadly.
• HR Business Partnering, Total Rewards, Learning and Development, Talent Management and regional HR remain priority areas.
• Regional APAC scope is increasing as firms maintain leaner local structures.
• Executive Assistant and Office Manager briefs increasingly include project, stakeholder, and even investor-activity responsibilities.
• Financial services industry premiums are most visible at manager and leadership level, where scope and business exposure differ most from other industries.
• Buy side packages are often stronger for HRBP, Total Rewards, senior executive support, Office Management and Chief of Staff positions.

Hiring is improving, but remains targeted

The recovery in HR and Business Support hiring is not uniform. Firms remain cautious about fixed costs and are testing each position against a defined business requirement.

Within Selby Jennings’ Hong Kong buy side mandates, HR and Business Support hiring activity increased 13.2% year on year in 2026. This remained below the growth recorded across risk, operations and finance, but marked a return of demand for first internal HR hires, Office Managers, executive support and general Business Support.

The mandates coming to market tend to be specific. Employers may need an HR leader to establish infrastructure, an HRBP to support regional growth, or an EA and Office Manager to improve support around a senior leadership team. Replacement hiring is also being used to recalibrate roles where the previous structure no longer matches the firm’s requirements.
For hiring managers, this creates a smaller relevant candidate pool than the headline job title may suggest. Sector experience, regional exposure, stakeholder level and functional breadth quickly narrow the market.

HR remits are expanding beyond operational delivery

The shift in HR scope is most apparent at manager and HRBP level. Operational delivery remains fundamental, but employers increasingly expect these professionals to contribute across:

• Workforce and headcount planning
• Succession and leadership planning
• Compensation research, benchmarking, and strategy
• Skills assessment in the age of AI
• Organisational design
• Change and restructuring management
• HR analytics and management reporting
• Regional APAC coverage

Three years ago, these responsibilities were more likely to sit across several specialists or remain with senior HR leadership. Leaner structures are moving more of that work into manager-level and business-partner roles.

Pheobe Leung, who heads up the HR and Business Support desk in Hong Kong, has identified the evolvement of expectations surrounding human resources functions and professionals: 

This is also affecting salary alignment. Broad HR Manager, Senior HR Manager and HRBP briefs increasingly overlap. Employers need to benchmark the role according to business coverage, authority and functional scope rather than title alone.

AI is changing the workforce questions HR is expected to answer

AI is already part of HR hiring discussions, particularly in workforce planning, organisational design, skills mapping, productivity and upskilling. The conversation is moving beyond how many people a business needs to hire. Leadership teams increasingly want to understand which skills the organization will need as AI adoption develops.

HR teams are being asked to assess:

• Which processes are suitable for automation
• Which capabilities should be developed internally
• Whether planned hiring should change
• How AI may affect workforce structure and productivity
• Where employees and managers need practical AI training

This is not translating into a uniform mandate to reduce headcount. In most organizations, the immediate requirement is to understand how work will change and where skills investment is needed. This gives HR a more direct role in business planning and places greater value on professionals who can combine operational knowledge with workforce data and commercial judgment.

Regional HR experience continues to attract a premium

Hong Kong-based HR roles are increasingly being structured around wider APAC coverage. Common remits include Singapore, Mainland China and other regional markets, often with a direct reporting line into a global or regional HR leader.

The strongest demand is for professionals who can combine local delivery with cross-border stakeholder management. Relevant capabilities include regional employment knowledge, experience supporting distributed teams and the ability to implement global frameworks without losing local relevance.

Language capability can strengthen a profile where it improves access to employees, managers or external stakeholders. However, employers are generally placing greater weight on the quality of regional experience than on the number of markets listed on a CV. 

Professionals who possess:

• Regional employment law knowledge
• Cross-border stakeholder management experience
• Experience supporting distributed teams
• Relevant multilingual proficiencies

are commanding significant salary premiums compared to locally focused counterparts.

The APAC Financial Services Hiring Outlook also points to greater flexibility over where regional roles are based. Firms are increasingly considering the available talent pool alongside traditional hub preferences.

For candidates, genuine regional ownership can improve both compensation and progression. For employers, it increases the importance of defining which markets, decisions and stakeholder groups sit within the remit.

Total Rewards remains one of the strongest HR markets

Total Rewards and Compensation and Benefits remain central to retention, cost management and workforce planning. The function is also becoming more analytical and governance-focused.

Current priorities include:

• Workforce and compensation analytics
• Executive compensation governance
• Long-term incentive design
• Benefits optimisation
• Employee wellbeing
• Pay-transparency planning

Professionals who can model different compensation approaches and communicate the commercial implications to leadership are in the strongest position. Regional coverage and experience with complex bonus or incentive structures can further increase market value.

The function’s importance is reflected in compensation. At senior level, Total Rewards packages can compete with broader HR leadership roles, particularly where the position covers executive pay, several APAC markets or firm-wide compensation strategy.

Learning and Development is moving closer to talent strategy

Learning and Development hiring is increasingly connected to succession, internal mobility and organisational capability rather than standalone program delivery.

Learning and Development teams are already seeing greater demand for AI and digital upskilling programmes. The strongest professionals can identify capability gaps, work with business leaders to set priorities and measure whether training improves performance or technology adoption.

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority's Capacity Building for Future Banking 2026-2030 study identifies AI, sustainable-finance regulation and new cross-border business as major forces reshaping banking roles and skill requirements. This reinforces the need for HR and L&D teams that can plan capability requirements and support reskilling at scale. 

This favours L&D professionals with experience in stakeholder consulting, coaching, programme evaluation and organisational development. Regional roles also require the ability to build programmes that can operate across different markets without becoming too generic to be useful.

For employers, the hiring brief should distinguish between delivery-led L&D, strategic talent development and organisational-development capability. The available candidate pools and salary expectations differ materially.

Executive support roles are taking on greater commercial responsibility

Executive Assistant positions within hedge funds, private equity firms, family offices and asset managers are increasingly being designed around executive partnership as well as core support.

Depending on the firm, the remit may often include:

• Strategic project coordination
• Investor-related activity
• Preparation of senior materials
• Global stakeholder management 
• Process improvement 

These responsibilities are most common where the EA supports a founder, CIO, portfolio manager or C-suite leader within a lean structure.

The market remains divided between conventional EA positions and broader Executive Business Partner roles, although job titles do not always make that distinction clear. Compensation is being influenced by the level of executive supported, complexity of stakeholders, availability expectations and degree of independent judgement.

Employers should be precise about which responsibilities are essential. Candidates will assess whether a broad brief provides genuine exposure and progression or combines several positions without sufficient support.

Office Management is becoming part of the people proposition

Office Manager briefs increasingly include workplace strategy, budget management, employee experience, hybrid-working programmes, office expansion, vendor management, and benefits initiatives.

Within smaller financial-services firms, the role may also include executive support, onboarding and project coordination. These hybrid positions can work effectively, but only where priorities and decision rights are clear.

The growth of workplace-focused responsibilities is changing how the position is valued. Office Management is being assessed less as a purely administrative cost and more as part of the infrastructure supporting retention, culture and operational continuity.

At senior level, the boundary between Office Manager, Workplace Experience Manager, Business Services Manager and COO Office roles is becoming less consistent. Employers should benchmark the underlying remit, particularly where several offices, budgets or functions are involved.

Chief of Staff hiring continues to develop

Chief of Staff positions are becoming more visible across family offices, hedge funds, private equity firms, FinTech companies and founder-led businesses.

Demand is strongest where leadership needs additional execution capacity across strategic projects, operating priorities and cross-functional coordination. However, the title continues to cover a wide range of roles - from executive coordination through to responsibilities resembling a deputy COO.

Successful hiring depends on defining the role’s primary purpose. Employers need to establish whether the priority is strategic advice, project execution, operational oversight or leadership leverage. The expected profile and compensation change substantially between these models.

For candidates, reporting line and decision-making authority are more informative than title. Chief of Staff roles with limited access or unclear ownership can be difficult to distinguish from senior executive-support positions.

Financial services and buy side salary premiums

Based on Selby Jennings’ market observations, HR and Business Support roles in financial services generally attract salary premiums of approximately:

These are directional estimates rather than universal market statistics. The premium varies according to specialisation, employer, remit and total compensation structure.

Buy side employers typically pay more for HR Business Partners, Total Rewards specialists, Executive Assistants, Chiefs of Staff, Office Managers and Business Services Leaders. The difference is most apparent where lean teams create wider responsibilities and closer exposure to senior decision-makers.

Bonus potential also contributes, but candidates should assess it alongside base salary, role stability, resources and availability expectations. Not every buy side position will outpay an equivalent sell side role.

Candidate priorities are affecting offer acceptance

Compensation remains central, but career progression, leadership exposure, flexibility, firm stability, culture and learning opportunities are all influencing decisions. For HR and Business Support professionals, the clarity of the role is particularly important. Candidates want to understand whether broader scope comes with authority and progression or simply additional workload.

Employers with a clear mandate and credible development path are better positioned to compete for professionals who are not actively searching. Interview efficiency and consistent communication also matter in a market where specialist candidates may be involved in more than one process or receive a counteroffer.

Selby Jennings’ employer guide to counteroffers in financial services outlines how candidate motivations and retention risk should be addressed throughout the hiring process rather than at resignation stage.

Priorities for professionals considering a move

Professionals should benchmark themselves based on scale and impact rather than title alone. Relevant evidence includes markets supported, stakeholder level, budgets owned, workforce decisions influenced, programmes delivered and measurable improvements achieved.
This is particularly important for broad roles. Employers need to understand both the responsibilities held and the candidate’s level of autonomy, decision-making authority and measurable impact.

Beyond compensation, professionals are successfully negotiating flexible working arrangements, regional exposure, promotion pathways, leadership responsibilities and learning budgets. Firm stability and growth plans are also carrying greater weight. Candidates should establish what the role could look like in two or three years and whether its broader scope is likely to result in greater authority and career progression.

Outlook for 2027

Hong Kong’s financial-services HR and Business Support market is expected to remain steady and selective. Demand should continue to concentrate in roles that strengthen leadership, retention, regional coordination and organizational effectiveness.

HR Business Partnering, Total Rewards, Learning and Development, executive support, Office Management and Chief of Staff hiring remain the main areas to watch. Across each function, compensation will be shaped increasingly by scope, regional coverage and proximity to business decisions.