Stress is weighing more heavily than previously on senior managers and supervisory staff, according to the annual survey of the Hong Kong Institute of Human Resource Management. 'This could be due to a few factors: job insecurity, higher demands and extra workloads as well as higher expectations from bosses, peers, or even external vendor and customers,' says Virginia Choi Wai-kam, the institute's president. One of the best ways to deal with the stress they encounter is to maintain constant dialogue with friends or families. 'Talk to friends and families. Use the local support resources. Be calm and prepared even when an interview does not go well. That is certainly not the end of the world.' Excessive pressure and anxiety directly impacts on staff productivity. As a result of this negative impact, a number of corporations have designed and implemented training courses or support programmes to help employees reframe perspectives and maintain a positive outlook. The survey seeks to find out from corporate members the training needs across frontline, supervisory, middle management and senior staff levels. Among the needs identified for those below senior staff level are language skills, interpersonal skills, problem-solving and resolving conflict/negotiation skills. Employees are also encouraged to learn new sets of skills or competences in order to cope with the increasing demands in the workplace. 'The human resources professionals can help ease the situation by improving employee relations and maintaining a safe and harmonious environment. Besides the efforts of organisations, I think employees should also take ownership of the problem. 'It is down to individual responsibility on keeping up one's proficiency and capabilities to add value to the workplace, hence help relieve stress,' says Ms Choi. In addition to people-at-work, those who are out of job also face tremendous stress in the job-search process. As a human resources veteran, Ms Choi advises job-seekers to understand opportunities in the market. 'They should know the market and opportunities well. There is no point in writing a good application when the targeted opportunity is not there,' she says. They should be prepared not only in interviews, but also at the application stage. Prior to applying, they should gather sufficient information about the corporation, check on the corporate Web site or job sites to find out its mission and vision, corporate culture, and the required competencies, in order to confirm if they can fit in. CJOBNges
