First HR Hacks breaks new ground

Tuesday, 19 February 2013 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Sri Lanka’s first ever ‘HR Hack’, organised by 361° Edge which saw leading Human Resource professionals from local and multi-national companies coming together was held at Café Pascucci recently.

Speaking about the event, Rukmal De Silva, the Chief Visionary Officer of 361° Edge says the idea of the hack is to hack away at something old until one is able to extract a new form: ‘Our intention with the HR Hack is to create a platform to share uncommon ideas and uncommon insights.

“The HR Hack is all about innovation, we want the Hackers to tackle mundane everyday HR issues from a new perspective,” De Silva said.

De Silva added that several great ideas were discussed throughout the meeting: “A fringe idea we had was the possibility of developing people and then selling or trading them with other organizations once they reach a certain maturity level or they’re unable to grow further in the current environment. We also discussed how any performance management system should be reviewed in three six month blocks while being linked to the overall five year or ten year strategic plans.”

General Manager of DMS Electronics Lal Chandranath who was present at the HR Hack said that he hopes the Hack culture would catch on fast: “The topic that was chosen the first Hack; Performance Management does not work, was indeed a controversial one. Whether your belief is that KPIs stifle people or allow them a framework to grow, it was refreshing to see so many new ideas being thrown about. Of course we may not be able to immediately put all of these ideas into practice but the HR Hack is a breeding ground for ideas and that is what is important at the end of the day.”

HR Director for Gamma Pizzakraft Anushka Ranasinghe, said that the HR Hack was an opportunity to broaden one’s thinking scope: “More often than not we spend so much time following the routines of our jobs, we forget that broadening our knowledge in the experimental domain is equally, if not more important.”