The evolving role of the modern HR professional

 From left: NHRC 2017 Technical Committee Chairman Chrishantha Obeysekara, IPM Sri Lanka Treasurer Ajith Bopitiya, IPM Sri Lanka Vice President C. Gannile, NHRC 2017 Chairman and IPM Secretary Ken Vijayakumar, Megapolis and Western Development Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka, IPM Sri Lanka President Prof. Ajantha Dharmasiri, Global Strategic Corporate Sustainability (Pvt) Ltd Chairman and CEO Dr. Ravi Fernando, IPM Sri Lanka Immediate Past President Rohitha Amarapala, IPM Sri Lanka Chief Operating Officer P.G. Tennakoon, National HR Exhibition 2017 Chairperson Primrose Mascarenhas

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By Madushka Balasuriya

Human Resource Management is the function within an organisation that focuses on the recruitment of, management of, and providing direction for the people who work there; while this role definition still holds true, its scope is rapidly evolving. 

According to Dr. Ravi Fernando, the modern HR professional needs to be a “builder” of talent – not just a “recruiter” – an “enabler” of emerging technologies changing the way we do business, and a “sensitiser” of issues, emerging trends, and global challenges.

“If you really want to play a role in your company’s future then be a builder of talent with a global mindset, be an enabler of the technologies that are going to change the game and impact HR, be a sensitiser to the entire company’s management and leadership team of the issues that are going to create risks for that company,” he explained, addressing an audience of HR professionals not just from Sri Lanka but across the region.

As a career academic, a business leader, a published author, and a lecturer at the world’s leading business school, INSEAD, Fernando is many things; what he is not, however, is a Human Resource professional. It is just this outsider’s perspective, though, that made him the ideal candidate to deliver the keynote address at the National Human Resource Conference 2017 held in Colombo last week.

“I believe that every HR manager is an expert on talent development and unleashing talent, but should also be a business manager. Some of the C-Suite leaders that I come across in Sri Lanka are so engrossed in delivering their next month or next quarter results, that the quality of time they spend on the strategic direction of their company is few and far between.

“The C-Suite of a company is the talent that should be driving a company’s future not simply running a company today.” 

The key roles of an HR professional in any company is to ensure that its top leadership team are able to think about strategic issues and not be “fire-fighting” and trying to deliver on results, according to Fernando.

“[Delivering results] really should be the responsibility of the operations team. What I find in a lot of leadership positions, is that most of them are engaged in what I call, CFO roles. No not Chief Financial Officer – what I find with a lot of CEOs in Sri Lanka is that they're the ‘Chief Follow-up Officers’ and that’s a very sad situation.

“If the best paid talent in the company is trying to figure out how to follow up on things then when does that team get a chance to develop strategy? When does that team get an opportunity to create a future?”

Building global mindsets

A critical problem among Sri Lanka’s labour force is the lack of global exposure, believes Fernando. This is the reason why, he says, that Sri Lanka, despite having an abundance of natural resources as well as being positioned in a key strategic geographic location, is still unable to shift away from being primarily a commodity exporting nation.

“Every nation has three leverages which they can use to build strategy; the first is its natural resources; the second is its geographic location; and the third is its HR. It’s when you bring these three things together that a country has a national strategy.”

While Sri Lanka emphatically ticks the first two boxes, it’s in the third that it is found wanting.

“We have some of the best natural resources on the planet. We are in fact the ninth largest titanium resource in the world, and we have the most peerless graphite in the world, but what have we done with it besides exporting it in gunny bag form?” he asks rhetorically.

“And if you look at China’s Silk Road strategy, we are so brilliantly placed to deliver the East to Africa and Southern America. But then we have to be beyond a commodity exporting nation.”

The solution lies in how HR managers go about building global exposure to the talent of Sri Lanka. According to Fernando, it is a matter of getting young talent into the “real world” of business, so that they understand the realities of operating in an international market. This, he says, is the only way to unlock Sri Lanka's “true potential”.

“People tell me: ‘yeah but they travel abroad quite a bit, they spend time in international markets.’ If you want to build an international mindset, if you want to build a global mindset, that’s not enough. These talented young people must be placed in markets, and must live in those markets.

“This should be something that every HR director, every HR person, should be seriously engaging time in. Otherwise another 50 years from now we will say we are still a commodity exporting nation.”

Attracting Millennials 

For the modern HR professional the modern day workforce is a different beast to what it was just a decade ago, and even less recognisable if you go further back. The latest generation of graduates and potential graduates were born into an era of uber connectivity, with a metaphorical smartphone in their laps. 

As such Millennials are connected to the world and the workplace in ways that were inconceivable just a generation ago; in an age of instant gratification, Millennials want the effort they put in to any particular job to mean something, to have a purpose.

Fernando, citing research that had been conducted at INSEAD, explains that it found that “65% of Millennials wanted an opportunity in their country, in their city, and in society” to make a difference.

“I have yet to see too many advertisements for any position, where the company is talking about the purpose they have and how employees can be part of that purpose. Have a clear purpose, and have a clear mission in terms of a bigger purpose if you want to attract Millennials. Don’t simply deliver shareholder profits quarter after quarter.”

In a separate study, Fernando revealed something even more striking: for most Millennials, it wasn't about the money.

“Recently we did some research with the last two batches which passed out of the INSEAD Business School, which today has overtaken Harvard to be the number one business school in the world. They said that they were ready to take a 15-20% cut in their income if they were in organisations which had the right purpose and where they could easily associate with that purpose and contribute to that purpose.”

Enabling change

The workplace as we know it is changing, whether we like it or not. While Sri Lanka may not be at the forefront in terms of innovation, or even the adopting of modern practices, change is one phenomena that cannot be outrun for long.

On a global scale some, if not all of, the biggest changes in business are coming from the world of technology. Technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), 3D printing, and nanotechnology are shaking the very foundations of traditional concepts of global competitiveness. Fernando believes, that since human beings by nature are averse to change, it is up to HR to “enable” these shifts towards a better, more efficient future. 

“Many, many years back I was a management trainee at Unilever, and I used to remember the HR team at Unilever saying that they were going to put the top 500-600 executives of Unilever through computer training. Why? Because they wanted everybody to be competent.

“Now, there are so many new technologies coming into being, and I want know what is HR doing to make those concepts truly understood and truly embedded in business strategy? It is our role and job to demystify science and technology so that the rest of the organisation embraces and not avoids because it somehow seems just too farfetched. AI is one of those things.”

Fernando is particularly interested in AI. Citing that the four biggest companies in the world – Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Apple – have all already “mobilised artificial intelligence” in some way, shape or form, it is crucial that Sri Lankan companies begin to do the same.

“I think we have embrace this otherwise we will be left behind in terms of a massive change in terms of decision making and making strategic decisions in the future.”

Sustainability and supply chain management

Having built talent and enabled them to navigate today’s rapidly evolving technological landscape, the final role of the modern HR professional is in “sensitising” companies to the potential risks and opportunities of the marketplace. This, explains Fernando, will boost strategic competitiveness on both a regional and global scale. To illustrate his point Fernando relates an anecdote on his experiences with companies and their handling of the problem of our times: climate change.

“I was told last year, when Sri Lanka was affected by extreme weather conditions, there were three or four companies that were completely hamstrung. One of them was Coca Cola, there was also Fonterra, and also Ceylon Breweries,” said Fernando.

“I was talking to one of the people in one of the companies, and they told me: ‘Last year we had six feet of water in the factory, this year we have four feet of water in the factory.’ Well, if you had six feet of water last year, what if you did a couple of things to ensure that there is no water in the factory this year? And we know these extreme weather conditions are going to be happening.”

Indeed, the frequency of extreme weather-related events is only growing, and according to Fernando, these events are causing significant disruption to supply chains “at every stage, from production to packing to logistics to processing”. While the traditional role of HR in a crisis is to “try and sort things out, relocate people, relocate the plants,” Fernando says now they have to take a more proactive stance and sensitise companies to the huge challenges of climate change.

“In 2015 Sri Lanka had in the upcountry region 197 days of rain, in 2016 this figure is down to 157 days of rain, that’s 40 days less rain. What plantation can succeed if in another few years we’re going to have a massive problem with rainfall? I believe that just like the HR department of Unilever got all of us focused on computers, ask yourselves, how many of the companies here have sensitised their entire management team to the impending challenges and risks that climate change is going to bring about in Sri Lanka?” 

Invariably variation in rainfall, increased frequency in droughts, and extreme temperatures, are all going to impact supply chains. Fernando urges that HR executives not shirk from these issues but instead see them as opportunities.

“Sri Lanka has always been blessed with excellent water management in the past thanks to Kings like Parakramabahu, who actually had the rainwater harvesting system, and today Sri Lanka still collects about 29% of the rainfall that falls on its land, but 71% of it is let go. If the planet is going to have a massive water crisis in the next few years, with massive declining fresh water resources, shouldn't we begin to look at that 71% of water wastage and begin to have strategies to harvest rainwater?”

Strategic competitiveness

If as an HR professional you're reading this article and in your mind you are still of the belief that issues such as climate change still do not fall under your purview, fret not, you are not alone. Major global players are yet to fully comprehend the fast-changing landscape that exists in all markets today. This is something Fernando acknowledges, but is also the same thing that grants any company bold enough to seize these opportunities the chance of securing an unparalleled strategic edge in their field.

“I believe that HR has a huge role to play in the survival and sustainability of the company. Recently I was working with the L’Oréal team in France, and we were discussing their supply chain strategy in China and India. I asked them to pinpoint on the maps of China and India their top two plants – now L’Oréal of course needs lots of water for their products – and their top four plants were all in water-stressed areas.

“I was quite surprised that the supply chain team hadn't realised that five to six years from now the very places they have built their plants are the very places which will be without water. Now, that’s a business issue. A business issue is something HR should be involved in.”

Pix by Shehan Gunasekara