Nation’s talent retention – priority beyond politics: A strategic approach

One major reason for people to seek greener pastures is economic prosperity and quality of life

Today there is a mass exodus of professionals and not so professional citizens from this country to perceived “greener pastures” overseas. From doctors to engineers, lawyers to accountants, private to public sector employees, academics to students, people are migrating or attempting to migrate.

Some revealing statistics based on Central Bank and Foreign Employment Bureau latest data (2022-2024) show that: over 300,000 people have left the country in 2022 with secured jobs. This is only semi and unskilled workers who register with the Foreign Employment Bureau. The actual number is much higher with skilled category added. According to GMOA over 600 doctors have left the country in 2022 with an average inflow of 60 applications per month to leave. Over 900,000 new passports have been issued in 2022 which is a 129% increase from the previous year. Central Bank’s economic indicators for 2022 shows a number of 92,000 people leaving for skilled jobs in 2022, over 100% increase from 2021 figures.

Be it for a qualified profession, as a student, as a caregiver or even as a refugee, people are leaving the country to settle down in foreign soil and those going as undergraduate or postgraduate students have no intention of returning. In fact parents do not encourage returning. The trend is expected to continue.

During the peak of the economic crisis post-COVID, in 2022, most people migrated in desperation. The Government also encouraged migration even in the State sector with special leave schemes with view of receiving much needed foreign remittances. However now the trend is both public and private sector employees, mostly professionals seeking to move out in numbers. The unemployed and the semi-skilled are making their time. 

The reasons spelt out are lack of promise in the socio economic landscape of the country, increased cost of living challenges in the face of restricted or limited earnings and higher taxation, crippling services and infrastructure, break down in rule of law and disenchantment with governance or the lack of it over the years. Many reasons beyond economic are evident.

While the private sector has in place different and innovative schemes to retain talent with them, they too find it difficult to retain human capital in the face of people losing faith in the country and its political fabric and seeing breakdown in good governance. Therefore the country as a whole is threatened by a diminishing productive labour force for socio-economic progress.

Post-independence various political regimes have promised economic prosperity and employment opportunities to the people of this country. However apart from dishing out Government jobs to their own political supporters politicians have utterly failed to create development and opportunities for wealth creation and employment. In fact by dishing out Government jobs to supporters they have placed undue burden on State owned enterprises making them top heavy, unproductive and unviable. Even the education system of this country has not been employment-friendly until recent times where there has been some reforms driven by the private sector followed by the national schools and institutions.

The result – sizeble number of unemployed graduates due to lack of employable skills and language barriers, increased population of three-wheel drivers in the age productive group from 20 to late 30s, over staffed, heavily unionised State institutions without a culture of meritocracy and performance but only seniority and political affinity.

In a welfare-driven socio political culture the country has been governed by politicians winning popular votes not for their vision, wisdom or competence. While welfare has to be one aspect, handouts and “free everything” from education to healthcare has only brought in politicians to power dragging the country to debt, reducing people to beggars, driving the youth to riot and the nation to depths of despair. The age old comparison of GDP of SL 50 years back surpassing that of Singapore and Japan and plummeting to shocking depths 50 years later is well known.

Governance without vision, politics with corruption, legislators without wisdom, bureaucracy sans skills and a society without rule of law has left us with a country without a national agenda or blue print which doesn’t change with the parties in power. That is why India with its national priorities sans politics is a world power today.

Narrowing down to the subject of talent leaving the country it is high time to think of a national talent retention policy and framework. Of course there is no national human resource development policy for the country which embraces primary education to higher education and professional or trade based learning with emphasis on employability and talent retention within the country. What is available is not linked or integrated towards one end objective. Operating in silos have little or no effect. This article attempts to propose four pillars for a national talent retention framework with emphasis on the public sector.

Long-term approach – National Strategic Development Plan:

A multi stakeholder consensus on where the nation must be in the next 25 years in stages of five-year progressions. This must have key result areas in all related socio economic development, infrastructure development, technology advancement, human resource development, international relations, socio cultural bonds and internal security. A national development think tank consisting of political leaders, academics, industry leaders, religious leaders and youth must be formed. A national blue print addressing what and where do we want to be, when do we get there in broad terms is a must. Specific strategies of HOW and WHO may and can change with political parties in power. But the direction does not change.

One way of ensuring and anchoring implementation can be to base the plan in consultation with resource contributors such as the World Bank, IMF and the United Nations. Not to be dictated by them but to use them to our advantage. Basing on UN millennium development goals would also be an apt framework but localised.

Short-term practical approach – sector based talent retention

1.A national human capital audit and resourcing initiative

A team comprising HR professionals and industry specialists representing growth sectors of the economy and also the sectors that are losing talent rapidly must carry out a talent audit. The objective of this is to determine the sectorial talent requirements in the next five years to meet national demands (example doctors, teachers) and the available talent in the country and also the talent that has left the country. 

A similar laudable exercise was carried out in 2016 through the “National Human Capital Summit” about which an article was written last week by respected professional, chairman of BOI and Port City Commission, FT guest columnist Dinesh Weerakkody with whom the writer was fortunate enough to co-chair the above event through the association of HR professionals as its then president. However the post-summit implementation of findings essentially the responsibility of the establishment did not see fruition to desired or required levels due to lack of committed effort and an accountable single entity.

Once the talent need has been identified and if there is a dearth or gap a talent resourcing policy and strategy must be put in place. This would include developing sectorial talent within the country by initiating more education and professional learning opportunities through the university system and tertiary education institutions, attracting the migrated or overseas employed talent to return to the country by offering incentives, upgrading the quality of existing talent by professional development and even re orienting unemployed non-specialist graduates towards possible profession switching as a means of obtaining employment. 

In the case of critical talent shortages, migration can be curtailed or retired professionals can be brought into service on contract basis with adequate compensation. A program to train non-skilled labour towards skilled professions is also a must which can receive donor funding whilst the private sector professionals too can be attracted to serve national talent needs from time to time through certain motivators offered

2. A right sizing of the SOEs to create room for new blood and to take away the deadwood

Another reason for exodus of talent is unemployment. Underutilisation and unattractive employment conditions and benefits, toxic cultures in public sector organisations contribute to de motivated employees. Main institutions such as CEB, CPC and the Port, they make profits but they are highly unionised, overstaffed and unproductive due to lack of right sizing and performance management.

A national HRD council or strategy implementation body must address the relevance of all jobs in State institutions, strike off irrelevant jobs, and establish clear job descriptions and key result areas for people with performance metrics thrown in. Such attempts at CEB is a good start. A cadre plan must be put in place based on organisational future plans. The excess cadre can be dealt in two ways. If productive and has potential backed by proven performance they can be re trained, given additional jobs and retained or even given leave without pay for specific periods to serve outside and return based on talent requirements. However the excess, non-productive and non-performing cadre must be retrenched through either compensation schemes, VRS options or forced early retirement. This would need funding as the objective is not to put families on the road. 

Right sizing apart a performance evaluation system must be put in place in the public sector to identify those productive and those not; so that compensation strategies can be aligned towards performance. Trade unions can be a part of the team planning this exercise BUT the Government retaining the right of refusal

3. A merit based compensation and benefit strategy for the public sector

One major reason for people to seek greener pastures is economic prosperity and quality of life. People who complain of high taxes in SL often do not know that in the West taxation is much higher. Even if they do know there is evident tax dollars at work and people’s quality of life is high. A doctor or lawyer working as a caregiver is an example of extreme need to get away for many reasons. The State sector institutions other than one or two do not have a performance based reward system. Rewards are mostly on a set salary scale, with a set of associated benefits and most of the time based on collective agreements with unions. Even the recent atrocious salary increments of central bank employees were justified by them as based on a collective agreement without any mention of productivity or performance but a mere reference to “avoid leaving for overseas jobs”.

In this climate it is laudable that the national airline has cancelled all collective agreements and CEB has followed suit or is attempting to do so or have suspended same pending restructuring. Career progression in many State institutions is not on performance but on seniority or political merit.

The time has come to put in basic performance measurements to start with and introduce performance based monitory and non-monitory incentives to employees. Earning should be not uniform even within a segment of cadre but on performance. Profit-making SOEs can introduce profit sharing bonuses and employee share option schemes. The fixed to variable components of earning must be switched to  at least a 60:40 ratio where out of total compensation or earning potential 40% is on performance and not fixed. This way “whether we work or not salary comes mentality” in the public sector will disappear and people will be attracted to stay with the organisation.

Although intricacies and detailed analysis of a comp and ben system is too complex to present here the basic policy would be less fixed rewards, more performance based rewards, profit sharing, no snow balling of increments, non-cash benefits to make packages attractive

4. A regional G to G job rotation initiative for public servants 

Serving with UN forces in different destinations have been a unique learning experience, best practice exposure, networking opportunity and economic gain for our military personnel. This practice can be introduced in a different format to benefit the state sector employees. For retention purposes and also to manage excess cadre, performing Government servants can be sent to identified regional countries to serve in their national organisations/state institutions for a period of time. Having an arrangement with institutions such as UN volunteers is also plausible. Essentially a G to G and initiative which would pave way for monetary gain and enhanced exposure and experience to our people which can be a very effective retention carrot if executed with objectivity and meticulously. 

In summary, 

For these initiatives to take off there must be political will for good governance, rule of law, meritocracy, an objective education/higher education system, robust monitory policy and commitment to nation building. This would keep the people of this country within. Irrespective of public or private sector, Sri Lankans as a society will love Sri Lanka. Sounds like a page from Alice in Wonderland. But this article is not for the negative minded. This article is for dreamers in society and governance. This article is for those who want Sri Lanka to achieve and prosper. As long as politics remain to be “the refuge of scoundrels and welfare based” this kind of thinking will not see the light of day. But the need to rally and invest time and effort in elevating the human capital of mother Lanka apolitically, has come. We deserve the leader we chose. So far we have utterly failed. It is us who must determine our destiny. Together we overcome, divided we perish.

(The writer is a senior HR professional and a management thought leader with extensive exposure to multi industry strategic human resource development and experienced in HR policy development and both in the public and private sector. A Fellow and past President of the Association of HR Professionals, an academic and an independent HR consultant.)