Million-rupee salaries no longer rare in Sri Lanka-HR expert

Million-rupee (monthly) salaries for top CEO’s are no long rare in Sri Lanka as wage levels for Finance and HR professionals, Software and Telecom engineers reach new highs, a top HR expert says

“To find the right people companies are paying good money to lure the best and the brightest.

The greatest challenge for business will be in attracting and retaining experienced staff capable of delivering the revenue growth potential,” says Dinesh Weerakkody, Managing Director Cornucopia Lanka, during a recent presentation on the ‘Human Resource Challenges for Sri Lanka’ at the The Future Work Force Skills MBA Alumina Seminar in the UK.

He said these changes are being felt despite Sri Lanka’s economy being hit by war, high oil prices and high inflation. Last year the Telecom Sector, the Banking sector, the BPOs and the IT sector continued to grow and compete for top talent resulting in salaries rising across all levels.

In terms of compensation the BPOs, the Garment Sector, Financial Services and the Telecoms continue to lead in terms of better packages.

This can be seen most significantly for talent at management levels with demand for top management and management outweighing supply, he said adding that many companies overall had insufficient talent or were chronically talent short across the board. Weerakkody said many young Lankan accountants are seeking opportunities in Australia, UK and Canada. Sri Lankan professionals are wanted for middle management positions in finance and engineering in the Middle East.

Lankan talent in other markets enjoy a strong international reputation for strong language skills, high integrity, and analytical thinking and people management skills. Sri Lankan managers are both cheaper and flexible than their counterparts in South East Asia.

Unlike in India the movement of good Sri Lankan talent could and will create a severe talent shortage, which could hurt the country’s economic potential, he said. “Therefore, like India, we too need to start developing a growing cadre of managers, and establish management practices that enable a competitive effective workforce. If the country situation improves we may see the emergence of the local expatriate market supply to fill top roles,” he said. The manufacturing sector continues to lag in terms of the level of compensation provided to management, compared to other sectors.

On the benefits side most companies provide basic benefits like medical, leave, insurance and provident fund. Perks such as motor vehicles and club membership are now quite common across all management staff. Housing benefits are mostly limited to the financial services sector. Long term incentives and short term incentives are still limited to the MNCs (multinationals) and some of the blue chip companies.

“I believe that the demand for talent is only likely to intensify further; we are already struggling to find enough good quality engineers, technicians, HR and marketing professions and even English teachers,” he said.

“The talent shortage will become a crisis in the near future, but like any crisis it’s also an opportunity, “ he said adding that the government and the private sector need to be more imaginative and recognize the fact that ‘we need to retain and build the talent we have on an ongoing basis.’

Weerakkody said one of the best programmes for drawing in good human capital was initiated in the 80s by the Singapore government.

The initiative helped Singapore to attract some of the best brains in the region and even today continues to go out of its way to attract and import foreign talent. Though Singapore has been traditionally known as an importer of talent, but over time it has also gained a reputation for being a talent source itself.

“For a start our government should focus on wooing our professionals working abroad by making it very attractive for them to come back. But the government’s effort will all depend on whether the country is backed up by a vibrant economy and also managed professionally. Our best bet would be to woo back some of our top expatriates who have gone abroad to make their money but still feel the tug of their home country,” he said, noting that for this attractive incentives are needed to entice them to return and also to retain existing talent.

“In addition to this the government should initiate a programme in consultation with the private sector to equip our university graduates with the required skills set.

Our final challenge and the most important one is the need to have the best and the brightest leading our businesses to thrive in the global market place. So we cannot have all the big brains we have flocking to support other economies. We need them front and centre to build our economy,” he said.