Sri Lanka can make brain drain a brain gain

Ramani KANGARAARACHCHI

“At a time when skilled labour migration and brain drain is happening, Sri Lanka can make brain drain an opportunity in the medium term to have brain gains. Countries like the Philippines and India have done this.

Therefore having good HR practices and sharing them with others will facilitate support to the HRD efforts of Sri Lanka.” Former President Institute of Personnel Management Janaka Kumarasinghe told the Daily News at an interview about the Young HR Minds Award 2008 initiated by the Institute.

He said that better Human Resource Management practices can lead to institutional strengthening and human resource development(HRD) in the country. Having the best out of the people available and training more people will help our country in many ways he said.

Head of the Panel of Judges for the award Kumarasinghe said that as a premier HR institute the IPM has to play a vital role on this as the country did not have such a platform all this time. However, the young HR professional will be recognised at the forth coming National HR Conference which will be held on June 2 at the BMICH, he said.

Vice President WNS Global Services , Archana Arcot a member of the panel said that as per the theme of the annual conference this year “People Drive Business” the emerging role of the HR is expected to play a multiple role and young HR professionals will be tomorrows HR leaders.

Arcot said that ( HR )the human resource functions around the globe and in leading organisations is undergoing a dramatic change with increasing focus on enhancing HR’s contribution to the business performance and success.

These changing demands on HR have given rise to new challenges such as talent management ,driving cultural and behavioral change in the organizations and building capabilities for meeting organizations current and future requirements.

“It is against this emerging context and changing role of HR we have decided to debut a platform for developing, nurturing and recognising Young HR Professionals 2008, she said.

According to Kumarasinghe Young HR Minds Awards learning forum was launched to encourage young HR practitioners preferably below 35 years of age to share their organization experience on a case study basis. All applicants can submit a paper preferably using an organisation case study approach covering one of the following HR streams before April 25.

The learning platform will be used to recognise 3-4 such trailblazing minds and subsequently the best papers will be invited to make a presentation.

The panel hoped that this would lead to conceive the “Young HR Minds Award” with the aim of encouraging young professionals to share their experience and knowledge.

This platform would also give an opportunity to showcase and do an internal of benchmark local HR practices with global HR practices and more importantly raise the bar of the HR practice and HR talent pool.