The Guardians of the Silver Age (GSA), a project co‑initiated by The D. H. Chen Foundation and Generation Hong Kong to drive systemic change in Hong Kong’s eldercare sector, has won the Change Management Award (NGO Category) at the HKIHRM HR Excellence Awards 2025/26.

The Problem: A Sector Under Strain

In 2019, The D. H. Chen Foundation and Generation Hong Kong jointly conducted a diagnosis of Hong Kong’s eldercare sector and saw a system under pressure. A looming silver tsunami, chronic talent shortages, and workplaces that aspired to compassion but lacked the structures to make it daily practice. At the same time, government policies were reshaping the sector. With purchasing power placed directly in the hands of elderly clients through the widening of voucher schemes, eldercare units were now competing on quality, trust, and staff empowerment rather than quotas. The sector urgently needed a way to uplift service quality but lacked the right system to do so.

The GSA Journey: From Pilot to Systemic Change

In 2020, GSA began its journey to transform eldercare into a values‑based system. The first phase focused on training and placing compassionate talents into the sector. Graduates were elderly‑centric, committed, and highly valued by employers. Yet reality soon became clear: quality people alone could not thrive in workplaces without supportive cultures. Even with additional training for existing professionals, the system itself needed to change.

By 2024, GSA had moved beyond talent acquisition to ask a harder question: how do we transform the workplace from within? That question led to the co‑creation of the Change Framework with eldercare units, shifting focus beyond hiring to shaping cultures where talents could belong, grow, and stay.

The Approach: Anchoring Talent in a Values‑Driven Culture

The Change Framework provides a structured pathway to build a values‑driven culture: diagnose pain points, co‑create Value Houses, embed them into workflows, and sustain change through role modelling and feedback. Compassion is turned from slogans into habits, embedded into supervision routines and frontline reflection.

In parallel, the bootcamp was redesigned to recruit not just for skills but for cultural fit. New hires entered as “culture carriers,” reinforcing the transformation already underway. Together, the Change Framework and the bootcamp form a whole‑system approach: one that connects the people you bring in with the environment you build for them.

The Impact: Evidence of Change

The result is a values‑driven transformation: workplaces where talents can belong, grow, and stay, and where compassion is embedded into the way care is delivered. Independent evaluation has confirmed meaningful shifts in morale, leadership, and service quality, validating that this model works across different eldercare settings, from residential care homes to day care centres.

Third‑party evaluation by The Hong Kong Polytechnic University tracked progress across intervention units. Early evidence showed managers gaining greater clarity on mission and values, frontline emotional climate improving significantly, relational leadership strengthening, staff resilience growing, and teams becoming more willing to adapt and co‑own change. Even workflow efficiency improved, saving 12 hours per quarter. Beyond the numbers, managers demonstrated stronger application of values, and frontline staff described feeling seen and supported.

Looking Ahead: Vision for the Eldercare Sector

This award recognises GSA as a successful demonstration of cultivating and practising compassion in the eldercare service industry. It affirms that systemic change is possible when talent and culture change together.

The journey has been made possible through the co‑initiation and trust of The D. H. Chen Foundation, whose involvement from the very beginning shaped the vision and direction of GSA. It also celebrates the eldercare units that have worked alongside us, embedding compassion into daily routines and showing that values‑driven change can be sustained.

Looking ahead, we are working with a growing number of eldercare units, from residential homes to day care centres to home care services, who are adapting this approach to their own contexts. Our Vision 2030 is to keep bridging talent and culture, in eldercare and beyond, because sustainable change happens when you invest in both the person and the place.