Financial Times

After successfully training human resource professionals in the country for more than a decade, the Institute of Personnel Management of Sri Lanka (IPM) is looking to further its potential by expanding the institute both in size and in training methods.

Daya Bollegala, President, IPM Sri Lanka, told The Sunday Times FT that Rs 90 million would be invested on a seven-story building to expand the premises to better serve the training programmes.

“Sri Lanka has a high literacy rate and there are many educated people in the country, but we are unable to keep them here. Although Sri Lanka has a lot of human resources, we have not tapped into the correct resources as yet,” he said.

Mr. Bollegala said the educated segment of the country leave mainly due to either political reasons or unrest. “Qualified people are not being properly compensated for the knowledge they offer. Looking for good returns for your work contribution is a high motivator, but it shouldn’t be misunderstood as the only motivator,” he said.

“On the other hand, intellectual people seek further development, but there are less opportunities and very little room to grow. There are certain jobs, for example an engineer, who would prefer to be out in the factory innovating projects, but he may not necessarily get the opportunity. He might end up in administration with all the perks but no job satisfaction and cases like this are happening again and again,” Mr. Bollegala said.

He said that human resources are the key element that contributes to an organisations’ advancement, but Sri Lanka has yet to improve in terms of achieving a competent workforce.

“IPM trains people on both the administrative and practical sides of HR, together with counselling skills, grievance handling and leadership skills. We also teach them communication methods and how best to motivate people. We have being trying to inculcate at the CEO level through various forums,” he said.

He added that corporations and the government know they have to develop human resources in Sri Lanka. “Growth in human resources would give higher productivity, not only in numbers but also in quality. There is a chain effect when developing the people factor from organisational to national development,” he explained, adding that HR is not merely about hiring and firing people. Choosing the correct person for the correct job and motivating him or her to give the maximum is a valuable contribution to a business.

Meanwhile, he said that in a bid to progress with this understanding, as well as the need to promote the “New HR”, IPM has organised the “National HR Conference 2006” to be held on June 28 and 29. A service provider’s exhibition and career guidance fair will also take place at the same event. The key note speaker will be Bob Morton, Head of the People Development Competence Centre for the European, Middle East and African region, CIBA, who with other key speakers will stress on aligning HR management with business strategies to bring greater shareholder wealth.

IPM has also worked closely with the government in projects like “Tharuna Aruna” and JobsNet in trying to take HR practises to the public sector. In the private sector, however, the institution is working closely with CEOs in designing in-house training programmes to develop their manpower needs through tailor-made programmes.

Mr. Bollegala highlighted some of the national HR issues, such as the need of labour rules to be modified, being allowed independence when it comes to selecting people, among others. He said that IPM will give weight to the quality of the programmes offered, although they are a little costly.

“We have established study centres in Kandy, Galle and Kurunagela, and now we are adding Rathnapura. But we are sending the lecturers from Colombo because we will not offer any franchises that would compromise on quality,” he said.

However, IPM is compelled to compete with other local and foreign institutions offering similar programmes at lower costs. The president said that the institute was ready to face such challenges and improve their own positions in Sri Lanka as the only national leader in HR.

“We have to safeguard people against the mushroom organisations that are coming up. That is why we have branded our products to ensure quality and clarity,” he said, explaining that the programmes will be branded as “IPM Foundation Courses in HRM”, among others, in the future.

Also in store will be a distance-learning programme, as well as those with role playing to provide better understanding of the function of human resources.