Young population lacks coping skills to ‘self-manage’ stressful situations, says HR professional Noel Debono

Noel Debono, Organisational Development Lead – Human Capital Consulting at Deloitte Malta, on Thursday outlined the need for younger people to be taught coping abilities to manage stressful situations more carefully.

He started off by making reference to “skills before pills”, a phrase that is being used more amid the “growing concern” on a number of lifestyle-related diseases and mental health problems that are being encountered by younger generations on a “daily basis”.

“As a human resources (HR) professional, it is worrying to see an increase in candidates who experience physical and mental health struggles at such a young age,” he remarked.

Mr Debono explained that in his own encounters with this situation, he noticed one common factor: a lack of education when it comes to coping abilities.

“Our younger generation is not equipped with the basic coping skills to self-manage stress-related situation that ultimately impact our physical and mental health,” he added.

He said that these coping skills have “ironically” been listed among the “top 10 skills of the future” by a recent Europass study, with these including reasoning and problem solving, critical thinking and analysis, complex problem solving, resilience, stress tolerance, and flexibility.

Mr Debono concluded by saying: “We learnt these skills by failing and learning at school, at work and within our social network. Are our kids allowed to fail anymore?”

Mr Debono is highly experienced in the fields of HR and business coaching, as aside from his role at Deloitte Malta, he is also a Certified Business Coach on a freelance basis. Additionally, he also has over 25 years of experience at Bank of Valletta plc in a wide array of roles, including as HR Manager, Organisational Design and Workforce Planning Manager, as well as Training Centre Manager, among other positions.

He holds a master’s degree in Business Administration from Institut Universitaire Kurt Bösch, and a degree in Computing from University of Greenwich, aside from other qualifications. He has also volunteered as a Business Advisor at JA Malta for over six years.