How Cathay Pacific is evolving
- HKIHRM
- 5 days ago
- 5 min read
Its staff support framework in response to a changing demographic reality
Key Takeways:
Hong Kong’s ageing population is driving a rethink of traditional ‘family-friendly’ workplace policies designed around parents.
Cathay Pacific is extending its benefits framework to support the growing eldercare caregiver population.
Its partnership with a social enterprise offering one-on-one eldercare support has been applauded by participating employees.
Many Hong Kong employers have expanded their family-friendly policies meaningfully in recent years. Parental leave enhancements, lactation and nursing rooms, bringyour-kids-to-work days, flexible arrangements for new parents — these repre
sent real progress in how companies support employees through family life stages.
But “family-friendly” has, in practice, largely meant “parent-friendly.” There is an increasing need for eldercare in light of changing demographics, and the city’s workforce needs better resources to cope.
The 2021 Census identified around 330,000 persons aged 60 and over living in Hong Kong households with long-term care needs. The Hong Kong Council of Social Service estimates more than 1.1 million people in the city are carers, a large share of them caring specifically for elderly relatives, combining caregiving with paid work. Many caregivers are effectively balancing two jobs, which can lead to fatigue and reduced focus.
Recent research underscores the scale of this burden: a Baptist Oi Kwan Social Service survey in July 2025 found that 10% of full-time employees spend between 41 and 60 hours a week on family caregiving on top of their paid work, while a Hong Kong Polytechnic University study in August 2025 highlighted that the Social Welfare Department’s self-service Information Gateway for Carers remains inaccessible to 80% of carers aged over 60.
One Hong Kong employer that has started building the answer is Cathay Pacific, through a partnership with social enterprise AgeWhale.
UNCOVERING THE ELDERCARE BLIND SPOT
The partnership did not begin in a boardroom, but its impetus was formed via listening to its staff. In 2024, Cathay expanded its annual engagement survey to include a voluntary demographic disclosure section, and asked employees whether they had caregiving responsibilities.
Of the employees who disclosed, 70% reported some caregiving need.
Children accounted for 31%, but a further 27% said they were caring for elderly relatives.
“Given that a lot of our current wellbeing or benefits support is targeted at parents, we identified a gap in caregiving support that we were not equipped to address,” says Sonal Chugani, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging Lead at Cathay Pacific.
CAREGIVER STRESS AS A RISKMANAGEMENT ISSUE
Cathay’s workforce includes a large population in safety-sensitive roles: pilots, cabin crew, engineers, ground operations. For these employees, caregiver stress is not only a wellbeing concern. It is a riskmanagement concern.
Chugani puts the point directly. Frontline employees, she says, “need to be healthy, both physically and psychologically, when working. Caregiving needs, if they aren’t catered to, could create additional stress and burdens for these employees that could impact their work.”
HOW THE PROGRAMME WORKS
The AgeWhale offering Cathay adopted has three components: information workshops, a WhatsAppbased support line, and one-toone consultations with Registered Social Workers who act as eldercare planners. The first workshop, delivered in a hybrid format combining in-person and online attendance, covered the emotional and practical considerations of elderly caregiving and how employees can prepare for the journey regardless of what stage they are at. Consultations are of fered in both English and Cantonese, also in hybrid format.
The workshops build awareness, while the one-to-one consultations help employees navigate complex caregiving decisions. The programme is woven seamlessly into Cathay’s existing wellbeing infrastructure rather than replacing it, ensuring that caregiving support adds a capability rather than duplicating one.
THE FIRST-YEAR PARADOX
The first year surfaced what many HR prac titioners will recognise: strong endorsement from those who engaged, but modest uptake overall. Feedback from employees who used AgeWhale’s consultative services was emphatic: 100% said they would use them again. But overall participation was modest. Many employees attended a workshop to learn about caregiving; fewer took up the WhatsApp service or individual consultations.
Chugani is clear-eyed about what that means. “This is not unusual given that it is a new initiative, and it takes time to build awareness,” she says. Part of the challenge is that many employees do not yet recognise themselves as caregivers, even when they are already taking on the role. “Elderly caregiving is still a relatively new and sensitive topic, so employees may feel uncomfortable discussing this in the workplace.”
Measurement of the programme’s efficacy is therefore multi-dimensional. Cathay tracks utilisatiom and qualitative feedback, but also retention — par ticularly among women, who Chugani notes are more likely to leave the workforce or take extended absences for caregiving reasons — and presenteeism as a productivity proxy. Implementing a programme like this, Chugani notes, is closer to change management than benefits administration. Early adopters are the bridge.“If those early adopters are respected or more senior in the organisation, they can be quite influential when it comes to building trust or inspiring other employees.”
THE ROAD AHEAD
Chugani sees caregiving support it self as a starting point, not a destination. “Ultimately the way work is structured will need to evolve to support not only caregivers but all employees as their needs change,” she says. Younger employees no longer expect a classic 9-to-6 workplace; caregivers need the same flexibility for different reasons. Shift work, job-sharing, and fuller flexiwork models will become a shared retention agenda.
On benefits, she points to dependent insurance — covering parents and elderly relatives, not only spouses and children — as an area beginning to appear in Hong Kong employer pack ages and likely to become more common. Cathay’s early move on caregiving is a bet that the HR questions of the next decade will be defined, more than anything else, by who is caring for whom.
FOUR LESSONS FOR BUILDING CAREGIVER SUPPORT THAT LASTS
Building caregiver support is a long-term investment in workforce resilience. The following four lessons shape whether such programmes deliver lasting value.
Measurement must be multi-dimensional
Track utilisation, satisfaction, retention (especially among women) and presenteeism together — no single number tells the whole story.
Line managers are critical
No benefit reaches employees reliably without linemanager engagement; build eldercare into existing toolkits such as Mental Health First Aid rather than from scratch.
Early adopters build trust
When a respected senior leader speaks openly about caring for an ageing parent, the conversation shifts across the organisation.
Caregiver support within the wider flexibility agenda
Shift work, flexi-work and job-sharing serve caregivers and every other generation of talent alike
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