To guarantee their viability and ability to contribute in today’s organizations, HR managers need to think of themselves and reposition their roles as strategic partners of their companies, contributing to the development and accomplishment of the organization-wide business plan and objectives.

This workshop provides HR Practitioners with concepts of Strategic Human Resource Management as well as ways to become partners with business leaders. 

Workshop Outline:

• Definition of HR
• New Roles of HR Professional
• Challenges for HR Professional in Nowadays Business Environment
• Difference between Traditional and Strategic Human Resources Management (HRM)
• New Trends of HRM and Approaches
• How HR Can Add Values to Business Success?
• The HRM Cycle: Talent Recruitment, Selection, Development, Management & Retention
• Implementing Business Strategies through Development of HR Strategies & System
• Measuring HR Effectiveness
• Tips for Getting a Seat at the Executive Table
• Grow Your Strategic HR Consulting Skills
• The Strategic HR Coach
• Communication Tactics with Line Managers and the "Cs": CEO, CFO, COO, etc.

Workshop Details:
Date: July 9, 2009 (Thursday)

Time: 9:30am - 5:00pm
Medium: Cantonese with English/Chinese Handout
Fee: HK$1,100 (Regular), HK$1,000 (Before June 30, 2009)
Remarks: Group Discounts Available! Please call 3627 3673 for enquiry.

Who Should Attend:
HR Practitioners and anyone who wants to develop strategic HRM skills

To register for this workshop, please click HERE.

 

To learn more on how HMI can help your company to enhance performance, please email to info@hmi.hk

 

Economic Overview

Hong Kong’s economy shrank a worse-than-expected 7.8% year on year in the first quarter. It was the biggest contractions since the Asian financial crisis 11 years ago and three times as bad as the previous quarter’s drop. The quarter-on-quarter contraction was 4.3%, the worst since at least 1980. Goods export fell the most since 1954, plunging 22.7% year on year. Services exports fell 8.2%. Fixed-asset investment was 12.6% lower than a year earlier. With the global downturn hitting the city harder than feared, the government doubled its forecast for economic contraction this year. It now expects output to shrink by 5.5% to 6.5%, rather than the 2-3% it forecast three months ago. [Source: SCMP (A1)/ HKEJ (P1)/ HKET (A1), 16 May 2009].

Meanwhile, jobless rate in Hong Kong has risen to 5.3%, the highest level in 41 months, but the increase was the mildest since the financial downturn began in September. According to the latest figures released by the Census and Statistics Department, the unemployment rate for the February-April period stood at 5.3%, up from 5.2% for the first three months of the year. Jobs were lost mainly in construction, food services and manufacturing. The underemployment rate rose from 2.1% in January-March to 2.2% in February-April. Increases were seen largely in construction and wholesale businesses. Secretary for Labour and Welfare Matthew Cheung Kin-chung said the unemployment rate was expected to remain high in the short term as labour market demand remained weak under the deepening impact of the economic recession. Swine flu was also creating uncertainty and putting pressure on the labour market. [Source: SCMP (A2)/ The Standard (P6)/ HKEJ (P8)/ HKET (A4), 20 May 2009].
 

While the economic slump continues, the new Inland Revenue (Amendment) Bill 2009 allows for a one-off reduction of salaries tax and tax under personal assessment assessed in 2008-09 of 50%, subject to a ceiling of HK$6,000. The government estimated the amendment would cost it HK$4.1 billion in 2009-10.  [Source: SCMP (A5), 1May 2009].

Beyond Hong Kong, Japan's jobless rate in March jumped to its highest in more than four years. Unemployment rose to 4.8%, up from 4.4% in February and the worst reading since August 2004. The actual number of unemployed rose 25% to 3.35 million from a year earlier, while the number of employed workers fell 1.4%.  Meanwhile, Europe's unemployment rate rose to the highest in more than three years. Unemployment in the euro-zone jumped to 8.95 in March, the highest since November 2005, the European Union statistics office said. [Source: SCMP (B5 – A2/ B4, May 1)].

In United States, new jobless claims by American workers fell to 631,000 in the past week, the Labour Department said in a report slightly worse than expected by most analysts. The agency said seasonally-adjusted initial claims in the week to May 16 dropped by 12,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 643,000. Analysts had expected the number of requests for weekly unemployment benefits to be around 625,000. A labour official said the newly unemployed were mostly from the troubled auto industry, where top players General Motors and Chrysler were undergoing major restructuring as a prolonged recession took a heavy toll on the world's largest economy [Source: Channelnewsasia.com, 21 May 2009].

With a gloomy economic outlook this year, hiring expectations among companies in Hong Kong were at their lowest in 11 years, a survey of 612 executives by recruitment firm Hudson found. Only 14% of the respondents expected to increase hiring in the second quarter of this year, down from 18% in the first quarter. Those expecting to shed jobs doubled to 22% from 11%, the highest record since 2001. Meanwhile, the survey reveals over 40% of respondents cut staff as a measure to reduce cost, followed by reduction in bonus payment and only 4% of respondents implemented unpaid leave policy [Source: SCMP (A6)/ HKET (A26), 3 Apr 09].

The following summarized the recent actions taken by different organizations under the financial turmoil:

• Sands to cut up to 4,000 jobs in Macau and HK [Source: SCMP (A5), 14 May 2009]     
• BT slashes dividend and axes 15,000 more jobs [Source: SCMP (B4)/ Channelnewsasia.com, 14 May 2009)]
• Nike to lay off about 1,750 employees [Source: People’s Daily Online, 15 May 2009]
• Dealership closures by GM and Chrysler creating huge job losses  [Source: SCMP (B4), 18 May 2009]
• AmEx to shed 4,000 jobs in global restructuring  [Source: Channelnewsasia.com, 19 May 2009]
• Air France-KLM reports first loss, 2,700 job cuts [Source: Channelnewsasia.com, 20 May 2009]   

Disclaimer: Should there be any different views in the interpretation, please always refer to the original media source as reference. HMI Consulting accepts no liability in respect of the accuracy and truthfulness of the materials included in this newsletter.