Message from Chief Executive

HKCSS Institute - A databank for training and knowledge sharing

The HKCSS Institute often invites high profile speakers to share their management expertise with NGO representatives. Last semester, we invited Mr. Tang King Shing, Commissioner of Police, and Mr. Shih Wing Ching, Chairman of Centaline Group, to be our honoured guests of the CEOs meet CEOs Luncheon Series, where they shared their valuable experiences on different organization cultures and management styles. Mr. Tang believed that to create a caring organization culture, management should lead by example and value internal communication among employees. The “hands-off” management approach of Mr. Shih, on the other hand, advocated a nurturing working environment for the committed front line staff, empowering and engaging them with full responsibility in operation and decision making as they understand market needs most. His resolve of devoting himself to philanthropy upon retirement impressed the attendants much. In this semester, we are delighted to invite Professor Anthony Cheung Bing Leung, BBS, JP, President of the Hong Kong Institute of Education, and Ms. Connie Lau, Chief Executive of Consumer Council, to talk on knowledge management with various NGO board members and agency heads.

Social service organizations recognize the importance of customer service as much as business enterprises. In this pursuit, we will invite awardees of Customer Service Excellence Award 2007 to share their first hand experience on quality customer service in our Customer Service Forum for NGOs 2008 which is co-organized with the Hong Kong Association of Customer Service Excellence. The use of the Internet as a publicity and public relations tool has gained huge momentum, and its power to circulate information is also increasing every day. The PR Forum for NGOs 2008 will discuss on the ways NGOs may maximize the use of the Internet as a platform for publicity, as well as on success case studies. 

With increasing public expectations on NGOs, the HKCSS Institute conducts a series of workshops, providing specific, focused courses to help raise service standards. These workshops cover human resources management, corporate partnership building and accounting practice. Furthermore, there are short courses on staff recruitment and selection tools, as well as skin care for the elderly. We will also continue to arrange site visits for social service organizations, providing them the opportunity to understand the running of commercial corporations. The visit to the Cathay Pacific Catering Services will increase their understanding on food quality, hygiene and distribution, while the visit to the MTR Control Center will help them gain understanding on management and logistics behind large-scale operations. Complemented by success case studies on operation model, it is hoped that these visits will put insight on enhancing work efficiency and service quality of social service organizations.

The HKCSS Institute always encourages continuous learning and therefore founded the Continuous Learning Recognition Scheme together with Citi. A year on, the scheme has awarded six HKCSS Agency Members, as well as over 100 NGO practitioners. The aim of the scheme is to nurture a culture of continuous learning within the welfare sector, so that organizations and practitioners may continuously learn new skills and self-improve.

Established last February, the HKCSS Institute has become a platform for NGO training and knowledge management. In this new semester, our management courses and activities will accord NGO practitioners with more information and skills in an effort to raise service standard of the profession to a new level. We would like to take this opportunity to especially thank our supporting partner organisations, including Citi, AR Consultant Services (H.K.) Ltd., BC Reinsurance Ltd., Cathay Pacific Catering Services, CPA Australia, Hong Kong Association of Customer Service Excellence, Hong Kong Public Relations Professionals' Association Limited, Hong Kong Institute of Human Resource Management, MTR Corporation Limited, Knowledge Management Research Centre of Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and Department of Psychology of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. We assure you that we will strive unceasingly to develop innovative, quality courses for the social service sector. Together, we will move forward on the pathway to service excellence.