NCE to conduct vital forum on Human Capital Management on 27 February

The National Chamber of Exporters of Sri Lanka (NCE) will host a forum on Human Capital Management from 4.30 p.m to 7.30 p.m. at the Diamond Ballroom of the Marino Beach Hotel on 27 February.

HCM is an approach to people management that treats it as a high-level strategic issue and seeks to systematically analyse, measure and evaluate how people, policies and practices create value.

In this respect, the forum to be conducted by the chamber will mainly focus on:

• A strategic approach to people management which focuses on issues that are critical to the success of an organisation. 
• A form of asset management, and a plan for securing, managing and motivating the workforce to be capable of achieving business goals. 
• How to assess the impact of people management practices and the contribution of people to the bottom line performance of an enterprise.

The forum will also serve to address how a business could pursue a strategy that takes into account and makes best use of available resources, specifically focusing on human resources.

The keynote speaker at the forum will be Prof. Ajantha Dharmasiri, who is the Director and Chairman of the Postgraduate Institute of Management (PIM). He is a renowned corporate trainer, strategy consultant and accomplished academic with decades of experience at leading public and private sector organisations as well as with consultancy engagement overseas in Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

The forum will also include a panel discussion featuring the Employers’ Federations of Ceylon Head of Solutions Assistant Director General Sewwandi J. Wijesekera, Commissioner General of Labour R.P.A. Wimalaweera, Linea Aqua Human Resources Director Deirdre Candappa and Executive Coach and HR Consultant Deshika Rodrigo.

The panel discussion will be moderated by Hatton National Bank Plc Chief Transformation Officer Chiranthi Cooray.

The event presents a unique opportunity for business leaders and participants to learn the techniques of HRM by developing the skills of their human capital and approaches to motivate and retain them as well as enhance their effective contribution to increase the productivity, efficiency and profitability of an organisation.

The panel discussion will also serve as a platform to clarify the issues of participants relating to human capital management as well as to make suggestions to policymakers as to how the overall issue of the shortage of required skills of their human resources should be addressed through training programs, incentives and other means of assistance, to accelerate the envisaged economic development of the country, especially through exports.    

Sri Lanka currently faces a shortage of skilled human resources, which has a particularly adverse impact on the productivity, efficiency and profitability of export-oriented enterprises.   

There is greater demand for skilled labour, as against unskilled labour, for growth of the economy. In Sri Lanka, demand for skilled workers is concentrated in the manufacturing and services sectors as opposed to the agriculture sector. Labour is seen to increasingly exit the agriculture sector, which comprises small land extent and generally employs simple technologies with resultant low productivity, efficiency and profitability, which in turn creates opportunities mostly for low skilled occupations with relatively low wages and low returns for entrepreneurs. On the other hand, the manufacturing and services sectors require skilled workers to employ modern technologies in order to be competitive in international markets.   

The dearth of skilled workers has been a frequent topic of discussion for business leaders at the council meetings of the chamber, who point out that their business efficiency and productivity are hampered by the unavailability of skilled labour. They also point out the difficulty in accessing required overseas skills to fill the void created by regulatory and procedural bottlenecks.   

Furthermore, they find it difficult to retain available skills even with relatively attractive emoluments and other fringe benefits that are offered. This in part is due to the fact that Sri Lanka has achieved the status of an upper-middle-income country and is no longer a low-cost labour market which is also impacted by the high cost of living.   

It is known that the skilled labour shortage is not only a problem of not having enough people for available occupations but also a problem of the skills and aspirations of jobseekers not matching available jobs on the market.   

This skills mismatch affects demand and supply in the labour market in two ways. On the one hand, employers find it hard to fill vacancies for low-skilled jobs, as most are reluctant to engage in such jobs, demonstrated by the large number of unfilled vacancies that remain for security guards and labourers. On the other hand, employers find it difficult to fill vacancies in high-skilled occupations as many jobseekers do not have the requisite skills. With technological advances, the nature of available jobs in the market is changing fast.  Secondary level education alone does not prepare youth to take up available jobs on the market, while on the other hand, many youth do not engage in career-oriented education and training after leaving school.   

In the absence of a clear policy to deal with the issue of the skilled labour shortage, industries, especially export-oriented enterprises, are struggling to maintain their productivity and efficiency levels, which constrains industry activity and growth, due to the misalliance of the education system itself.    

Against this background, it is noteworthy that Human Capital Management extends well beyond Human Resources (HR) Functions. It encompasses a total people-centred strategy of an organisation and management practices that are needed to optimise productivity and drive value-creation. Human capital impacts all business leaders as well as everyone within an organisation. As such, human capital management is seen as a bridging concept between the HR function and the business strategy of an organisation.