Need for national HR policy stressed:

‘Recruit disabled soldiers in private sector’

There should be a legitimate structure for the private sector to recruit disabled soldiers for their workforce, said President, Institute of Personnel Management Sri Lanka (IPM) Lalith Wijetunge.

Wijetunge said that the private sector needs to have a certain percentage of disabled soldiers in their workforce.

These disabled soldiers could contribute heavily to the economic development in the country by joining the workforce. The country needs to address disabled soldiers and their productivity through a national HR policy.

To facilitate this initiative it is important to provide vocational training for these disabled soldiers. The private sector could easily source these soldiers with sufficient training, he said.

“We need to change the mindsets of Internally Displaced Persons and motivate them. This needs to be done by targeting different age groups and adults need to be guided on rebuilding and developing their livelihood. They also need to be guided on the future of their children,” he said.

Young people who are below 30 years need to be guided to develop their future career. This segment had only war experience for their entire life and motivating their mindsets is important, he said.

IPM is willing to expand its services to the north east areas with the assistance of the Government. We expect to design special courses according to the needs of these people.

All professional bodies in the country need to focus on the northern and eastern areas and professionals in the country need to play a pivotal role in rehabilitating these areas, he said.

IPM also congratulated President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the Forces for the recent victory.

AS