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Online practices changing world of work

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HKUST Business School shares insights on how the development of the Internet and social media has affected the online labour market in the BizInsight@HKUST Presentation Series. The talk was moderated by Prof Hui Kai-Lung, Deputy Head of Department of Information Systems, Business Statistics and Operations Management.

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It is important for academics to have a platform to share recent research-based findings with the wider business community and, in return, receive feedback on the likely impact and practical implications.

That, indeed, is the express purpose of the BizInsight@HKUST series of lunchtime presentations. Each event gives expert speakers the chance to highlight emerging issues and then invite comment and questions on what they may mean for management practice and corporate decision making. 

The latest session, held in Central on May 9, focused on how the development of the online labour market (OLM) has affected hiring outcomes of workers of different genders and why social media is shaping the concept of personal branding.

The OLM sector, where both initial hiring and subsequent work are done online, is expanding at an exponential rate. Employers, large and small, see the benefits in terms of cost and efficiency of outsourcing certain types of work, with payment either job-based or at an agreed hourly rate. And a fast growing pool of labour, whether working part-time, on one-off assignments or on longer-term contracts, is coming to appreciate the plus points of having greater flexibility and less restrictive corporate ties.  

Jing Wang, Assistant Professor in the HKUST Business School, explained that OLM work now includes software and web development, multimedia and administrative support, sales and marketing, writing and editing, logo design, and many others.  

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