Five members of the Payroll Team from the Finance Office and a colleague from the Human Resources Office responsible for operations of pay review formed an interdepartmental team named the Backpay for Salary Review 2014/15 Team (the ‘Backpay Team’) to carry out the near-impossible task of resolving the ongoing uncertainty surrounding the approval of the 2014/15 Civil Service Pay Adjustment by the Finance Committee of the Legislative Council. The members of this interdepartmental team worked closely together to ensure the success of the backpay and advance payment exercise. 

Since the advance payments could not be processed by the system, the Backpay Team was required to complete a considerable amount of manual work with high accuracy in a very short time to provide advance payments for approximately 1,300 staff members at The Hong Kong Institute of Education (HKIEd). The members of the team worked resourcefully and creatively to generate feasible solutions in compliance with accounting and legal requirements. Their teamwork benefited from efficient interdepartmental coordination and a robust team spirit. 

The backpay and advance payment exercise is the first of its kind in the history of HKIEd. The members of the Backpay Team worked diligently on this project alongside their normal duties to support the Institute by boosting staff morale. They collaborated enthusiastically and constructively with related parties, and delivered a ‘happy ending’ to 2014 for the Institute’s staff, who received their advance payments a week earlier than projected in the original schedule.