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Sunday, 19 October 2014

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Retaining experienced workers, a challenge for apparel industry

Creation and maintenance of values and good working environment is the way forward to face labour issues in the apparel industry. Today, there is a severe labour shortage in the industry and retaining experienced workers has become a challenge for the industry, said Group Manager, HR and Compliance, Orient Garments Plc., Chanaka Bitra.

He said that there is high competition for skilled labour within the industry and that experienced labourers are leaving the industry. The main competition is from the service sector such as supermarkets and retail shops, despite the lower salary offered.

Increasing salaries to retain labour is not practical because the competition in the international market is always with countries which have low labour cost.

Today, the industry offers attractive salaries, free transport and meals and various other incentives. Comparatively, work in industrial production is stressful compared to the service sector and, therefore, HR managers should focus on reducing stress and creating a better working environment in the factory, he said.In marketing management, the focus is on customer satisfaction. Some companies have processes for customer value management. Similarly in HR management, employees are the assets to the organisation. Retaining skilled and experienced workers is a challenge in a competitive environment and replacement is not easy.

Employees leave organisations due to various reasons but most of these reasons develop due to the working environment the employee are exposed to. The environment in a factory consists of material, machinery and people and you have to manage all factors at precise levels to provide a good working environment.

You have to control the behaviour of the workers and the problem is how. You can make rules and regulations and get them to follow it. But you can't expect 100 percent success in controlling behaviour and sometimes these rules and regulations may work negatively.

Therefore, the solution is to make them disciplined by recognising their value to the company and creating a better work environment. It is important to consider employees' instinct values and incorporate them into company values.

The value setting should be practical. You can say 'no gossip' in our organisation. But typically workers do gossip and it is hard to make them to understand its effect on the organisation. But if you set a value like 'no gossip to let others down' then they may be more careful to not gossip to let others down.

It will make the working environment more peaceful for all employees. Setting up a mechanism to recognise and reward employees who maintain their values and periodically organising events such as training programs, outings and religious activities to refresh values in their mind are also important, he said.

- GW

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