Evening seminar on managing expatriates

Friday, 23 January 2015 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The Institute of Personnel Management Sri Lanka (IPM), the pioneer human resources management institute and thought leader, has organised a seminar with the objective of enhancing the knowledge related to the management of expatriate personnel in Sri Lanka. The seminar will be held at 3 p.m. on Wednesday 28 January at the IPM Auditorium in Colombo 5. The seminar, in the form of an expert forum will identify and discuss matters pertaining to the entire cycle from hiring to repatriation of expatriate employees and will include socio-cultural, legal and policy related issues that require special considerations for successfully hiring and integrating of expatriates in order to obtain their maximum contribution to organisational success.

Hence the seminar will be useful for those who are managing expatriates in Sri Lanka, those companies who sent employees on expatriate assignments or those who wish to go on expatriate assignments. The resource personnel will be members of IPM with hands on experience in managing expatriates or who have been expatriates themselves. They include HR professionals who have had experience at Loadstar, WNS Holdings, Ansel, Qatar Bank,, Samapath Bank, Export Processing Zone, Tropical Findings – Katunayake, SriLan

kan Airlines and IUCN. Academic contribution will be provided by Dr. Bhadra Aracchige, Senior Lecturer, University of Sri Jayawardenapura. “Sri Lanka needs to be globally competitive. This requires cross cultural exchange of competencies, and personnel,” said Janaka Kumarasinghe, Director of Kent Ridge Ltd., Past President and Chairman International Affairs, IPM. “Since employing expatriates is an expensive task, it is imperative that companies hiring expatriates obtain the maximum benefit. In this context, HRM has a pivotal role to play in ensuring that this expatriate assignments are managed in such a way to optimise the return on investment and the expatriate themselves to have a positive feeling about the organisation and the country,” he added. Over 4,300 expatriates currently work for local BOI companies, and with the growth and expansion in the economy, international expertise will be required to drive industries such as pharmaceuticals, petro-chemicals, shipping and aviation. Many expatriate workers are employed by several industries informally as well. Sri Lanka will also need expatriate workers in hospitality, supply chain and for international marketing of products and services such as tea, shipping and aviation related industries. Expatriates bring many different competencies which benefit local companies. In this context, the forum will also discuss measures required to increase organisational productivity and efficiency through expatriates and how to integrate them to the Sri Lankan culture. IPM was founded in 1959 and was subsequently incorporated by an Act of Parliament in 1976. It has the mandate and responsibility to develop the intellectual capital related to management of human resources in the country.