Hong Kong Broadband Network Employer overview
What it does: HKBN is an internet and telecommunications technology services provider that caters to both individual and enterprise requirements.
Best known for: HKBN is based in Hong Kong but operates across Asia. It is one of the largest telecommunications companies in Hong Kong with a large share of both residential and enterprise markets.
Staff stats: About 3,000 across Asia.
The good bits: Very good career path in one of the most prestigious workplaces in Hong Kong and Asia. Great work-life balance and perks. With well over 300 co-owners, the company encourages investment from its employees.
The HKBN story
The Hong Kong Broadband Network was founded in Hong Kong in 1999 by Ricky Wong Wai-kay. It was previously a subsidiary of City Telecom and it became independent in 2014. It is also active in mainland China, Singapore and Macau. The company set laudable benchmarks such as being the first to offer 1Gbps internet speeds to customers in Hong Kong in 2005 as well as building the world’s largest metro Ethernet network in 2004. In 2007 HKBN was ranked by Speedtest as the fastest internet service provider in Hong Kong.
Fast forward to the present day, the current CEO is Ni Quiaque Lai, who has been in the position since 2018. HKBN enjoys a Hong Kong market share of half of the enterprise customers and a third of households. HKBN employs over 3,000 people with a revenue of about 4 billion Hong Kong dollars.
The culture
There appears to be a very flexible work model in place at HKBN where employees can expect five day work week, a seven-hour workday and paid personal leave, such as maternity leave, paternity leave, birthday leave and even a one-year unpaid sabbatical leave.
Social contributions
HKBN has a core purpose, ‘Make Our Home a Better Place to Live’ and this is a slogan that inspires their philanthropy and environmental behaviour. Projects through HKBN’s Talent CSI (Corporate Social Investment) Fund such as Net’s Be Wise, The Hope Makers, Community Routers, PC Doctors, Youth Upward Mobility (YUM) program are ways HKBN tries to give back to the community.
HKBN’s compliance with WWF Hong Kong – Low Carbon Operation Program, Hong Kong Green Organisation and CarbonCare Action shows their commitment to protecting the environment.
The vibe of the place
A lot of the employees who hold management or supervisory positions are co-owners of the company which means they are personally invested in its growth and success.
The recruitment process
Competition for jobs at HKBN can be extremely high especially for niche positions and the company prides itself in only selecting the best candidates possible. The recruitment process starts at the company’s careers page on their website, where an applicant can apply for a suitable vacancy. In the application, the applicant is expected to write a customised resume and cover letter wherein they state their qualifications and express their expected salary range.
A successful candidate may expect a response between a day and three weeks and be invited for a physical interview. The interview might be an individual or group interview depending on the role applied for and/or the number of candidates. The first round of interviews will focus more on the applicant’s technical ability and experience and it is overseen typically by a team leader. If the applicant passes through the first interview successfully, they will attend another interview which is usually overseen by an HR executive. Both interviews can last one to three hours depending on the format adopted.
It is expected that the candidates not only study HKBN’s history but also those of their competitors, and the candidates are expected not only to answer questions about how much experience they have or how well they did at school but also about how they can specifically add value to the company.
Career prospects
HKBN operates graduate trainee programs which are geared towards turning fresh graduates into specialists in several chosen fields such as finance, marketing, talent management, development and acquisition, and more. The most prominent program is the NEXT CTO which projects chosen graduates into a technical career path. Other programs exist to assist current employees to better themselves through study and training, to position themselves for higher positions especially in management.
As a policy, every year, HKBN identifies the lowest 5% performers and gives them an opportunity to turn around their performance through their enhancement programs. If they are found lacking again, they are then invited to leave the company. This way, the company seems to continuously eliminate the lowest performers.