AHRP ‘HR Big Bus Tour’ champions knowledge -sharing to uplift nation’s HRM standards

Regardless of the industry, the next few years are likely to bring unprecedented levels of change to Sri Lankan organisations and their HR leaders responsible for gearing them to be future-ready. 

This makes it even more important that creative vehicles are designed for the dissemination, sharing and exchange of knowledge, good practices and lessons learned from top-notch businesses. 

Association of Human Resources Professionals (AHRP), the only professional network of HR practitioners in Sri Lanka, has successfully concluded a creative knowledge-sharing programme called the HR Big Bus Tour as part of their Learning and Development pillar of activities. 

The three-month HR Big Bus Tour is designed to provide the opportunity to young HR practitioners to collaborate anda learn from each other by gaining insight into HR best practices and governance across key corporates. Fonterra, Unilever, Brandix, Ceylon Tobacco Company, Virtusa and Standard Chartered Bank participated in the program.

The study tour resulted in strong engagement from AHRP members and coveredHR best practices across the six organisations including HR Strategy, Employer Branding and Recruitment, Capability and Outsourcing, Industrial Relations and Talent Management, Use of Artificial Intelligence in HR and Diversity and Inclusion.

AHRP Vice President – Professional Development and Knowledge Sharing and Director – HR of Fonterra Brands Lanka, Dinusha Jayamanne says, “The HR Big Bus Tour is another step taken by the AHRP to create a movement of corporates taking ownership and collaborating to enhance HR practices in Sri Lanka.

“Every organisation has their own unique HR best practices, built over time – and we call out to all corporates to get involved in sharing, which will ultimately help catalyse our nation’s human talent building.”

Project Lead for the HR Big Bus Tour, Kanishka Paternott, Assistant Human Resources Business Partner at Fonterra Brands Lanka says, “The purpose of the HR Big Bus Tour is to facilitate learning and help bring organisations to the forefront of HR in Sri Lanka.

“We understood the potential to collaborate with the industry towards championing knowledge-sharing from each other. It offered an unparalleled opportunity for AHRP member organisations to learn from some of the country’s most successful companies at the forefront of HR strategy in Sri Lanka.”

Fonterra Brands Lanka was the first member organisation to open its doors to share its people strategy and best practices on key areas of people strategy.

AHRP President Pradeepa Kekulawala commended this innovative approach of the “Knowledge share” execution team and stated that this  initiative reflects the people transformation catalytic role that the association has embraced in their quest to introduce  world class HR practices to Srilankan business and industry.

Brandix Manager – Talent Engagement and Development Mifaz Ahamed says, “As a young HR professional the HR Big Bus Tour offered me an opportunity to learn from the brightest corporate minds and discuss strategies that serve as bases for building future-readiness.

“It was a great platform for learning and experience sharing – and the value behind the interaction is in how we can tweak, adapt and apply such learnings into our own organisation.”