Annual Report 2021

27 ANNUAL REPORT 2021 EMPLOYEES AND REMUNERATION As at 31 December 2021, the Group employed 8,495 fulltime staff, of which 195 worked in Hong Kong, 5,486 worked in Mainland China, and the remaining 2,814 worked overseas. The remuneration paid by the Group during the year amounted to HK$2,218 million, representing 27.6% of the total operating expenses of the Group. The Group’s remuneration management followed the principle of first priority in efficiency and due consideration to fair and sustainable development. The Group paid continuous attention to global economy growth trend, took into account market changes and corporate benefits and implemented dynamic remuneration management strategy to ensure the market competitiveness of compensation. During the year, the Group constantly promoted the incentive mechanism building featuring the combination of short-term incentives and medium- and-long term incentives as well as the mutual complementation between cash incentives and equity incentives. By virtue of promotion and application of intellectual human resources management platform HR-MAX, the Group improved the appraisal incentive mechanism, strengthened the linkage between performance assessment and incentives, and reasonably applied the appraisal results. The Group insisted on the concept of performance-oriented marketisation of revenue distribution, in order to stimulate potential and creativeness of employees and further improve the efficiency of resource allocation. The employees’ remuneration adjustment and their bonus distribution are linked with the Company’s profitability and individual performance. The Group’s performance will be improved through increasing the effectiveness and accuracy of remuneration incentives. During the year, the Group launched a scheme of strategic appraisal performance’s linkage with remuneration, in particular, deferred bonus of middle and senior managers will be granted based on their strategic appraisal results, to guide and focus on medium and long-term development of the Company and facilitate to achieve the strategic goal of the Company. Directors’ remuneration is determined with reference to their position and responsibilities in the Company, experience and current market conditions. In 2021, there were repeated outbreaks of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the relevant control and prevention was still under severe and stringent condition. The Group attached equal importance to normalisation of pandemic prevention and control and its operation. The Group also took good care of employees and fulfilled corporate social responsibility while achieving production and operation goal, to minimize the impact of the pandemic. The Group provided consulting service for employees through online and offline professional medical teams to take care of and guarantee the physical and mental health of front-line employees in all-round and multi-channel manner. The Group used the special funds as related subsidies for staff working overtime due to the pandemic prevention and control, formulated pandemic prevention grant scheme for employees who are assigned to engage in overseas pandemic prevention, increased reward and incentive level of front-line employees of pandemic prevention and control and recognized the prominent example of pandemic prevention. In addition, the Group conducted construction of health management platform for overseas employees, to provide all-round guarantee for physical and mental health of overseas employees through systematic management involving online enquiry, evaluation reminder, file storage and information searching. CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY While being committed to improving its operating results and generating returns for shareholders, the Group also actively undertook its responsibilities for employees, the environment and society to facilitate sustainable development of the enterprise and society. The Group strived to pursue the vision of building ecological green ports, strictly abided by the relevant local laws and regulations regarding environmental protection in the region where the operation was located in, strengthened pollution prevention and control efforts. In order to improve the results of energy conservation and emission reduction, as well as environmental management capabilities, the Group further improved its environmental management system and revised the related articles regarding corporation energy conservation