|
|
 |
| Sunday, 26 May 2002 |
 |
|
 |
Business |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
|
'HRM
will be the heart of businesses in future'
by SUREKHA GALAGODA The greatest asset of the MAS Group is its people; they make the significant difference. The secret of its success is the investment on its workforce, Chairman of MAS Holdings Mahesh Amalean said recently. "We have given them challenges, opportunities and the freedom to produce outstanding results," Mr Amalean said at the National Conference on Human Resource Management 2002, organised by the Institute of Personnel Management (IPM). Addressing the gathering on 'Changing strategic direction - New role of Human Resource Management', he said: "Ours is a performance-driven company. Our group nurtures performance by giving the right tools and environment. Earlier, the best of the Sri Lankan talent was attracted by banks and international companies, but we have changed the mind-set of the people and have created an environment to attract the best talent." The company provides an environment of international standard. The Human Resource Department has performed significantly throughout this process, said Mr Amalean. In the present scenario, everyone must be ready to face the totally unstable external environment, the power of global economic forces and fierce competition. Since the external environment is totally unstable, an unrelated incident can completely change the way one works. For example, the September 11 incident in America resulted in a US$ 400 million loss for Sri Lanka. He said that competition is so fierce that countries not only have to compete with countries, but regions as well. "Come 2005 when the multi-fibre agreement comes to an end, competition in the garments sector will be so intense that 40 - 60 per cent of the companies will perish." Mr Amalean said that in the past a good quality product, competitive price and timely delivery won the hearts of the customers. Now these factors are only entry tickets to the market as customers want speed, flexibility, innovation and integration of the supply chain. "This differentiation will make you win. Therefore, we have to develop people to be better than the best. One of Sri Lanka's greatest assets is its literate and trainable workforce," said Mr Amalean. He said Marks and Spencer, in a recent evaluation, has moved Sri Lanka up several notches due to the cessation of hostilities in the island. Investor confidence comes with stability and good governance. In the past Human Resource Management (HRM) was a very traditional role, but the future will be different since HRM will be the heart of the business while being a champion of employees, a change agent, administrative expert and a strategic partner. HRM will have to focus on setting standards to ensure business efficiency and ensure that the building blocks are in place to meet the future business needs, he said. Mr Amalean added that companies can either align the HR strategy with the business strategy or face failure. Minister of Employment and Labour Mahinda Samarasinghe told the conference that his Ministry hoped to collaborate with the IPM to implement the National Employment Policy. "This is the first employment policy in Sri Lanka introduced to make a conducive environment for employment creation." "The Government has always felt the need for a methodical, scientific approach to the problem of unemployment. Therefore, I will try to solve it according to a time target with absolute transparency," he assured. The Minister said there is a plan to set up employment service outlets where unemployed people could get information and register themselves. "In this endeavour too, the IPM can help us by giving vocational training and skills development to these people so that we could build a talented workforce which would suffice the local and foreign labour market. We are planning to sign a memorandum of understanding with IPM for this," he said. Prof. S. Ramachander, delivering the keynote address said a shift in mind-set on human resource management is essential to succeed in a changing globalised economy. "In our region, people are available in plenty, easily replaceable and inexpensive. But it should not be so. Traditional personnel management is incapable of handling the issues of the present world and to overcome that, we should have an adaptive, opportunistic strategy," he added. The highlight of the conference was the awarding of the Suntel HR gold medal to Dr D.S. Bandarage, a founder member of the IPM and a past president of the institute. An exhibition on HR was also held concurrent to the conference. |
|
News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security Produced by Lake House |
