A human resources body on Thursday said its research shows that employers are casting a wider net than ever to find staff amid a manpower shortage.

The Hong Kong Institute of Human Resource Management worked with JobsDB on a survey of almost 905 people, including 385 employers, between June and August.

Two thirds of bosses said they were seeking recruits from other industries, while almost half said they were trying to find workers outside Hong Kong.

The survey also suggested that firms are keener than before to hire retirees and women who have left the workforce, the institute said.

The body's president, Lawrence Fung, said employers are reviewing workflows and how tasks gets done, so they can slot in suitable talent.

“Maybe for those retirees who rejoined the workforce, because of their experience [employers] may want to use them to pick up a training role. They’ll try to look at skillsets, matching with tasks. I would say there’s a lot of variety. They can use a different combination of methods to make sure work gets done,” Fung said.

Meanwhile, almost two-thirds of the 316 employees surveyed said they thought big data analytics and AI machine learning will be the top two skills they will need over the next five years.

Bill Lee, JobsDB Hong Kong’s managing director, said workers are keen to learn such skills in order to stay competitive.

“Some of the roles that are available in five years may not exist today… That’s why we talk about this continuous learning mindset. They adopt this technology as early as possible and they ensure they keep abreast of it," he said.