Knowledge and happiness increase with sharing – words of wisdom from Lord Buddha
A globally renowned Human Resource (HR) professional quoting Lord Buddha said that knowledge and happiness shared across the world would not retard one’s knowledge but in fact increase by sharing.
Achal Khanna, CEO of the Indian chapter of the global Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), participating at the launch of the HRM Awards 2014 organised by the Association of Human Resource Professionals (HRP) Sri Lanka last week in Colombo, said that Lord Buddha had said that “Thousands of candles can be lit by one candle but the light of one candle cannot get shortened when it lights thousand candles”. She said that similarly knowledge and happiness is to be shared across the globe and it would only increase one’s knowledge; it would not be reduced.
While she acknowledged that SHRM is the largest global HR Association in the world with 275,000 members from many countries, she was emphatic that they are all the time learning to understand the laws of the land at local level. She said that her visit to Sri Lanka is also a part of the journey of learning. Some US$30 to $50 million year on year is spent on research to advance and support the profession, she asserted. She pointed out that they cannot be global unless they add to it a local flavour and that is why they are in Sri Lanka to understand the HR world in this part of the globe and to see how Sri Lanka functions.
Their endeavour, she said, is to transform the HRM Awards to the highest level and to be the best award across this region – to be the most inspirational award.
Chiranthi Cooray, Chairperson, HRM Awards 2014 and Chief Human Resources Officer, Hatton National Bank, said that the ‘Awards’ has contributed immensely to uplift improve and benchmark Sri Lankan corporate best HR practices with local companies and global corporations. She said that it is essential to understand the importance of bringing in international expertise to uplift Sri Lanka’s corporate HR practices.
She said that they have taken all steps to make these awards rid of bias, ensure transparency and avoid conflict of interest.
Asitha Jayatunga, President, HRP said that other than HR Awards they are also marking the strengthening of the relationship between HRP and SHRM India in particular to ensure best practices available to Sri Lanka from across the globe. In keeping with this commitment, he said that they have moved forward and established relationships with SHRM and today marks another important event with a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the two organisations.