‘Knowledge workers need motivation’

Ramani Kangaraarachchi

Customer service, corporate agility and efficiency are fundamental to creating a sustainable competitive advantage to any bank in the industry, Hatton National Bank, Managing Director, Rajendra Theagarajah said at the CIMA technical symposium. Speaking on “Creating a knowledge workforce to ensure competitiveness and agility

 in the industry,” he said the aspirations of a knowledge workforce require precious nurturing, precise planning and professional management in the current business context because specialized industries such as banking depend heavily on creating a knowledge workforce to ensure competitiveness and agility in the industry.

Theagarajah said new models and concepts dominate today’s HR thinking and success of the HNB has been to ensure that some of the arrogance and superiority of such models do not impede the basics. He said competitiveness and agility in an industry at all times requires innovation, experimentation and continuous learning.

Furthermore, core components of such competitiveness and agility are innovation and the pool of knowledge workers. “The basis of competition continuously shifts. Therefore it is essential to learn and shift from one phase to another with least demand on incremental resources and in shortest timeframe.

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In this dynamic era not only top management but each and every employee needs to sense environmental change and be geared to respond efficiently and effectively to such change,” he said.

The HR challenge is to increase effectiveness of training strategies which increase productivity of a knowledge workforce because next-generation technology will enable accessibility to quality information at any time from anywhere.

A flexible working environment and caring human relations is crucial to maintain worker loyalty and a sense of belonging to the company.