Maritime Placements expands to face future challenges

As the country poises to launch a series of development initiatives across the land, what would be paramount are the human resources needed to cater to the growing economy.

Maritime Placements Ltd (MPL) has just recently expanded, extending its service lines to cater to the projected demands leveraging on the strength of its three decade experience in the field of human resource search and placement. Maritime Placements Ltd is a familiar name amongst working professionals of all categories and it may be safe to venture that the over 10,000 members of the working class who have crossed its doors  in search and securing of top quality employment would second this statement.  With thirty three years of experience, this well established company could be easily recognised as the pioneers in the staff search and placement industry.

The company has recognised the need to cater to a fast developing economy and has hence diversified into specialised areas to meet new challenges that would need a whole gamut of staff in a several areas of expertise.  The company recently opened three subsidiaries, namely MPL Transport and Engineering Services (Pvt) Ltd, MPL Outsourcing (Pvt) Ltd and MPL Contractual Solutions (Pvt) Ltd.

Established in 1978 and having contracted well over 10,000 local placements for some of the best business houses in the country, the company originally commenced under the name Maritime International Limited.  The benchmark set in 1978 has been maintained to this day, with the company extracting the best of local and international practices to serve its clientele in a truly professional manner. The hallmark of its success has been the personalised service to both clients and candidates by its dedicated work teams resulting in lasting relationships with its clients.

Branching into the outsourcing business has been an exciting challenge for MPL since many local companies had not fully realised the benefits of outsourcing their non- core operational functions to a partner. Hence MPL, through its outsourcing arm had the opportunity of introducing the concept and its practicality which would enable organisations to divest their non-core functions such as accounting, IT, administration, payroll, front office, customer service, janitorial and maintenance work to a partner, thus recalling valuable corporate time to concentrate on their core competencies and improving their businesses.

It may be pertinent to note that outsourcing may be conducted off site or even off shore.

An attractive slant to outsourcing is its cost savings which is why it has been well accepted by many international offshore companies too, eg. in the field of IT. The employer may contract the services of MPL as its outsource partner whilst retaining their own business premises, tools, equipment and raw materials. MPL would provide employees to perform specific tasks or whole areas of non-core activity for the principal employer.

The outsourcing partner (MPL) is thus considered the employer, freeing the principal employer from the traditional employer-employee relationship and responsibilities towards statutory requirements .The outsourcing partner as the service provider is expected to comply with all statutory obligations in respect of the employee. The responsibility of the outsourced partner is to ensure that the outsourced employees are motivated, perform well and enjoy the same perquisites as conventional employees. Outsourcing, a worldwide trend yet new to Sri Lanka, has proved to be an immense relief to small and large organisations that have been impressed with the quality of service of MPL. In fact client referrals have increased its portfolio considerably within a short time of operations.

MPL Contractual Solutions, one of the diversified arms of MPL was established to manage the various obligations and duties of both client and partner since some assignments are time or event driven. The company provides contractual tracking and management processes to ensure that obligations are met by both parties in the context of the agreement whilst assessing and refining processes on a continual basis.  This may cover contract changes that may occur during the course of the outsourcing agreement.  Its operations would also ensure that clients are notified of activities, decisions or events that may have contractual consequences and would also allow efficient access to client personnel including auditors.

MPL Executive Director Soraya Saldin stated that the services offered by MPL through its diversified companies range from searching for the most suitable candidate in mid-management, IT, HR and other specialised technical areas such as positions in the transportation sector to the next phase.  

The company’s services include advertisement preparation, artwork, publishing, interviewing at the company’s own meeting rooms, introductions and recommendation to client.  The rates for each job portfolio have been retained at a modest scale notwithstanding the time, effort and risk involved in executing the tasks associated with such functions. Saldin expressed satisfaction that the company’s expansion has equipped it to face the challenges of the huge HR requirements island wide that would be need to be catered to in the foreseeable future.