SLRA forum shares insights on efficient HR management

By Shannon Jayawardena

The Sri Lanka Retailers’ Association (SLRA) recently organised a forum to share insights and information on efficient Human Resources (HR) management, inviting MAS Group HR Director Shakthi Ranathunga and Kapruka Founder Dulith Herath as key speakers.

The event focused on making a difference in the retail industry through HR which is a key component in capability and capacity building of an employee or an organisation as a whole. The SLRA hopes to identify the vital areas in the industry and help companies achieve the results and success that they are aspiring for which the forum played a major role in.

Ranathunga said: “There is a significantly large informal sector in the retail trade and that poses a lot of challenges. I have had eight different roles at MAS, from merchandise to HR, marketing, logistics and administrating and so forth and we move people around. Today the notion of a functional expertise is deformed because you have to be able to move people across different competencies as they bring different outlooks. Vertical and horizontal movements are very important. It’s about trying to do more and be more.”

He stressed on the fact that human resources are the people who make up the workforce of an organisation, business sector, or economy and hence creating a connection and alignment between every employee and business, creating a coaching culture and developing a framework to measure engagement levels and make strategic interventions are very important.

“Today the workforce doesn’t want to work in a set place, they don’t necessarily work at a table and open plans are common. The evolution of the boss having a cubicle, manager having a designated table and all the minions having other seats has changed. The concept of office has become fairly deformed and today we are looking at work place redesign. You have to have community spaces if you want to engage in your teams,” added Ranathunga.

The event underlined the true qualities of a great HR leader stating that it is crucial to create an inspiring vision and motivate and inspire others to reach that vision while embodying decisiveness, awareness, focus, accountability, empathy, confidence, optimism, honesty and inspiration.

Herath stated: “Kapruka is unique in multiple ways. Up to today we haven’t raised any funds and the company was built from scratch. It’s the innovation and how we ran the teams that led to the immense success of Kapruka. Today we are 200 employees and do 1200 orders a day. Letting your management listen all the way to the grass root level can make a huge difference in a company and this applies to all HR sectors within institutions. 

Human resources focus on maximising employee productivity. Training and development professionals ensure that employees are trained and have continuous development. HR departments are responsible for overseeing employee-benefits design, employee recruitment, training and development, performance appraisal, and rewarding. Likewise HR also concerns itself with organisational change and industrial relations, that is the balancing of organisational practices, he noted.

Pix by Lasantha Kumara