National HR Conference to kick off in June

The annual National Human Resource Conference (NHRC) organised by the Institute of Personnel Management (IPM) Sri Lanka will be held from June

21-22 at the BMICH in Colombo under the theme 'HR Ecosystem for Competitiveness'. The conference will feature many international and local speakers, experts in HR and business as they share their thoughts and insights on the wide range of topics.

"The theme of the conference is timely and relevant to the current phase of economic growth and development on a national scale. As Sri Lanka embarks upon a journey amidst indications of a global slowdown enhancing competitiveness would be the key to growth and survival," said IPM Sri Lanka President, Rohitha Amarapala at a media briefing held at the IPM head office in Colombo last week.

He said that competitiveness of Sri Lanka as a country would depend on the competitiveness of each individual entity. All organisations rely heavily on its human capital to set course and steer it through many challenges to achieve its goals and objectives. The conference will evoke many ideas and thoughts on these various interdependencies while creating a platform for discussion and debate amongst HR and business professionals relating to the need to consider competitiveness from a perspective of an HR Ecosystem.

Five broad topics have been identified to be delivered at this year's conference. They are creativity in organisations, competitiveness, governance and ethical leadership, technology and people and public sector HR.

The conference has mainly focused on public sector HR as it plays a major role in the development and competitiveness of public sector organisations.

However, there are only a few cases where the public sector has moved away from the conventional practices of management. Still, there are prominent case studies available for entities that have made progress. At the same time, there are countries in the region in which the public sector HR has matured.

"It is imperative that all leaders look at competitiveness from an ecosystem perspective rather than from a single pillar perspective," said Conference

Chairman Aruna Dayanatha at the media briefing. (RM)