HR professionals should be change managers

Themed "Strategic HR: Challenges and Opportunities", the inaugural LBR-LBO Human Resources (HR) Forum, in association with Microimage, was held at the Oak Room Cinnamon Grand Hotel.

The moderator for the event was Director, Kent Ridge (Pvt) Ltd/Past President IPM, Janaka Kumarasinghe. The panelists comprised Group Senior VP/HR Facilities Management, Dialog Telekom PLC, Ranjeeva Kulatunga DGM HR Management Commercial Bank, Chitral Amarasiri, Director HR Virtusa Corporation, Ishan Dantanarayana Managing Director, MAS Active, Shirendra Lawrence and Director Finance, Unilever, Sri Lanka Srihan Perera.

Speaking at the event, Ishan Dantanarayana of Virtusa said, "For HR to play a strategic role, HR professionals must not only have a thorough HR knowledge but also possess the skill to speak the business language, enabling them to be trusted advisors. HR professionals should possess good communications skills and reach people, not only to motivate but also to balance people's interests with organizational interests, with a focus on adding value. They need to be brand ambassadors of the company".

He emphasized the importance of HR professionals working together with the corporate communications team to identify and align the brand with excellent internal processes and systems to attract the best talent in the market, since excellent brands attract excellent people.

Discussing the challenges of HR in the IT industry, Ishan added that employee attraction and retention is an urgent situation facing the IT industry, as most IT graduates are bearers of a global passport, and competency management is an important role in building one's leadership skills.

Ishan closed with the statement that HR agents also need to be change managers, leading change and opportunity within the organisation. During this period of global financial crisis, pressure is on companies to minimize costs and ensure high efficiency and performance from employees. HR professionals are summoned to play in the game, rather than to be spectators.

Virtusa Corporation a globally-renowned IT solutions provider and the leading IT services company operating in Sri Lanka, was one of the Gold Sponsors of the event.