By Uwin Lugoda
The coronavirus pandemic has brought about a fundamental change in the way people work and how businesses operate. This change has forced companies to reform and restructure in order to adapt to the new realities that will emerge post Covid-19.
Many entities have re-evaluated the types of employment and employment contracts they offer both new and old employees. While many countries had already begun this change in the years prior to Covid-19, Sri Lanka is only now adapting to this new normal due to the virus acting as a catalyst for this change.
Emerging employment types
During a webinar hosted by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce on 27 May, titled “Managing HR in the New Normal: Challenges and Opportunities”, Fairway Holdings (Pvt.) Ltd. Group Director of Human Resources (HR) Chinthaka Premaratne stated that organisations need to identify roles for different employment types and revisit what jobs they can assign to gig workers, part-time workers, cross-functional teams, and agile teams, as that would be the trend of employment in the future. He explained that full-time employees will no longer be the new normal moving forward, because organisations will require employees for different businesses and operations.
According to Premaratne, things like company outsourcing will increase a lot more and go beyond janitorial and security services, also including more routine tasks like HR. He stated that this was similar to countries like India where 90% of their HR teams are already outsourced to other companies.
He went on to state that another emerging employment type would be cross-functional/agile teams which are set to play a major role in the future of many organisations. These are groups of employees with different functional expertise working towards a common goal. “Organisations can continue to carry out their regular tasks while using CFTs to help achieve additional objectives, and the leaders of these teams can be assigned until the task is over,” he added.
Premaratne pointed out that another trend he sees arising is “gig talent”, which entails freelance or contract jobs. He explained that these gig employees will be given very clear-cut objectives, key performance indicators (KPIs), and deliverable time frames for them to complete the assigned tasks. Similar to outsourcing companies, organisations are set to use gig worker companies to reach out to gig workers based on their capabilities and ensure the given tasks are completed.
Most importantly, Premaratne stated that organisations will have to rethink the position of project managers as they will be the ones overseeing all the above mentioned job roles.
“Moving forward, project managers will be responsible for managing gig talent, CFT, and part-time workers to ensure the different types of projects that organisations have are managed effectively. This includes attending the issues and grievances of different work groups. This type of project managers is where true leadership skills will be required,” he explained.
Change in mindset
Premaratne stated that these new emerging employment trends will also require a mindset change in organisations. Factors like new work ethics with more flexibility and trust will come into play for organisations in terms of both current and future employees.
[caption id="attachment_87110" align="alignright" width="300"]
Emerging employment trends will also require a mindset change in organisations[/caption]
He explained that this will include changes to their company policies and employee guidelines to make them more flexible. For example, companies should understand that their staff will have more than one stream of income and the clauses they have in their contract letters against any other earnings will have to be re-adjusted to be more flexible.
When it comes to employees working from home, Premaratne suggested that organisations look into investing on HR technologies, ICT platforms, and information security systems. This is so that organisations learn to assign work to their employees and know what KPIs they should set.
Finally, he stated that this new normal will require organisations to have leaders with compassion, empathy, and understanding in order to build resilience within the organisation. This will include them going beyond the technical aspects of their jobs and learning to manage people, especially when it comes to gig employees and remote working.
“These leaders will also have the job of building individual resilience within teams in order to help employees keep their focus and achieve their given tasks without getting distracted,” he noted.
Rethinking employment contracts
According to Commercial Bank of Ceylon Deputy General Manager (DGM) of Human Resource Management (HRM) Isuru Tillakawardana, a lot of uncertainty has come into the labour market and employment itself in the last few months. Due to this, corporations are currently looking at controlling their fixed cost connected to employment and also at how to manage the compensation cost, while employees at large will be worried about job security and how to sustain their current lifestyles.
He stated that when looking at employment contracts, most organisations are set to try and control their fixed cost associated with it by looking for more short-term employment or employment that is more casual or task-based.
When it comes to remuneration, however, Tillakawardana stated that any changes to the existing remuneration, if permanent, need to be done in a legal way, with the consent of the employee in question. “If the organisation cannot afford to stick to the formerly discussed remuneration, such as increments and bonuses, they will be compelled to renegotiate things with the employee,” he added.
He stated that there will also be a trend of reducing the number of casual and contractual employees as much as possible in order to serve the obligations the organisations have towards permanent employees. Furthermore, he stated that some organisations might even consider voluntary retirement schemes to bring down the total compensation cost.
When it comes to contracts, Tillakawardana explained that most organisations will look at making contracts more short term; less about a fixed pay and more towards variable pay, which is compensation determined by employee performance, so that the organisation can sustain the cost associated with employing a person.
He went on to state that while remuneration is the foremost factor when it comes to employee mindsets, a lot of organisations will try to do reductions due to the particular economic problems they might face. However, he explained that employees themselves will have to co-operate with this in order to ensure the survival of the organisation.
"In these remuneration matters, there should be greater co-operation and understanding on both sides on how to do it in a way that causes the least harm to the organisation," he added.
In terms of rewards, Tillakawardana stated that going forward, there would be more rewards tied to productivity enhancements, which will in turn motivate employees to come out and improve their practices and improve the organisation’s ability to compete in the marketplace. At the same time, organisations can approach things like sales rewards, incentives, and collection rewards so that the payment is connected to a certain outcome or result.
Speaking on benefits, he explained that most organisations will try to control the cost associated with the benefits they offer, and instead will try and convert some of the benefits into a cash-based mode. This way, time spent on managing these benefits and administering certain connected matters would also be reduced, and employees will have a choice as to how they could best utilise that cash.
However, Tillakawardana stated that the most important thing coming out of this crisis would be retaining and motivating the current teams. He suggested that in order to do this, organisations can start by helping employees by restructuring the work, such as giving them transport or work-from-home capabilities if there are salary cuts.
“Organisations should help employees weather the storm if they are going through salary cuts; this is because it would allow for a better employee net cash position,” he said.
While these changes in employment may seem new, they have been growing in popularity throughout the last decade in other parts of the world. Sri Lanka’s slow adoption of these methods has now been accelerated due to the current economic situation in the country, and interestingly, it may help the very survival of businesses.
The coronavirus pandemic has brought about a fundamental change in the way people work and how businesses operate. This change has forced companies to reform and restructure in order to adapt to the new realities that will emerge post Covid-19.
Many entities have re-evaluated the types of employment and employment contracts they offer both new and old employees. While many countries had already begun this change in the years prior to Covid-19, Sri Lanka is only now adapting to this new normal due to the virus acting as a catalyst for this change.
Emerging employment types
During a webinar hosted by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce on 27 May, titled “Managing HR in the New Normal: Challenges and Opportunities”, Fairway Holdings (Pvt.) Ltd. Group Director of Human Resources (HR) Chinthaka Premaratne stated that organisations need to identify roles for different employment types and revisit what jobs they can assign to gig workers, part-time workers, cross-functional teams, and agile teams, as that would be the trend of employment in the future. He explained that full-time employees will no longer be the new normal moving forward, because organisations will require employees for different businesses and operations.
According to Premaratne, things like company outsourcing will increase a lot more and go beyond janitorial and security services, also including more routine tasks like HR. He stated that this was similar to countries like India where 90% of their HR teams are already outsourced to other companies.
He went on to state that another emerging employment type would be cross-functional/agile teams which are set to play a major role in the future of many organisations. These are groups of employees with different functional expertise working towards a common goal. “Organisations can continue to carry out their regular tasks while using CFTs to help achieve additional objectives, and the leaders of these teams can be assigned until the task is over,” he added.
Premaratne pointed out that another trend he sees arising is “gig talent”, which entails freelance or contract jobs. He explained that these gig employees will be given very clear-cut objectives, key performance indicators (KPIs), and deliverable time frames for them to complete the assigned tasks. Similar to outsourcing companies, organisations are set to use gig worker companies to reach out to gig workers based on their capabilities and ensure the given tasks are completed.
Most importantly, Premaratne stated that organisations will have to rethink the position of project managers as they will be the ones overseeing all the above mentioned job roles.
“Moving forward, project managers will be responsible for managing gig talent, CFT, and part-time workers to ensure the different types of projects that organisations have are managed effectively. This includes attending the issues and grievances of different work groups. This type of project managers is where true leadership skills will be required,” he explained.
Change in mindset
Premaratne stated that these new emerging employment trends will also require a mindset change in organisations. Factors like new work ethics with more flexibility and trust will come into play for organisations in terms of both current and future employees.
[caption id="attachment_87110" align="alignright" width="300"] Emerging employment trends will also require a mindset change in organisations[/caption]
He explained that this will include changes to their company policies and employee guidelines to make them more flexible. For example, companies should understand that their staff will have more than one stream of income and the clauses they have in their contract letters against any other earnings will have to be re-adjusted to be more flexible.
When it comes to employees working from home, Premaratne suggested that organisations look into investing on HR technologies, ICT platforms, and information security systems. This is so that organisations learn to assign work to their employees and know what KPIs they should set.
Finally, he stated that this new normal will require organisations to have leaders with compassion, empathy, and understanding in order to build resilience within the organisation. This will include them going beyond the technical aspects of their jobs and learning to manage people, especially when it comes to gig employees and remote working.
“These leaders will also have the job of building individual resilience within teams in order to help employees keep their focus and achieve their given tasks without getting distracted,” he noted.
Rethinking employment contracts
According to Commercial Bank of Ceylon Deputy General Manager (DGM) of Human Resource Management (HRM) Isuru Tillakawardana, a lot of uncertainty has come into the labour market and employment itself in the last few months. Due to this, corporations are currently looking at controlling their fixed cost connected to employment and also at how to manage the compensation cost, while employees at large will be worried about job security and how to sustain their current lifestyles.
He stated that when looking at employment contracts, most organisations are set to try and control their fixed cost associated with it by looking for more short-term employment or employment that is more casual or task-based.
When it comes to remuneration, however, Tillakawardana stated that any changes to the existing remuneration, if permanent, need to be done in a legal way, with the consent of the employee in question. “If the organisation cannot afford to stick to the formerly discussed remuneration, such as increments and bonuses, they will be compelled to renegotiate things with the employee,” he added.
He stated that there will also be a trend of reducing the number of casual and contractual employees as much as possible in order to serve the obligations the organisations have towards permanent employees. Furthermore, he stated that some organisations might even consider voluntary retirement schemes to bring down the total compensation cost.
When it comes to contracts, Tillakawardana explained that most organisations will look at making contracts more short term; less about a fixed pay and more towards variable pay, which is compensation determined by employee performance, so that the organisation can sustain the cost associated with employing a person.
He went on to state that while remuneration is the foremost factor when it comes to employee mindsets, a lot of organisations will try to do reductions due to the particular economic problems they might face. However, he explained that employees themselves will have to co-operate with this in order to ensure the survival of the organisation.
"In these remuneration matters, there should be greater co-operation and understanding on both sides on how to do it in a way that causes the least harm to the organisation," he added.
In terms of rewards, Tillakawardana stated that going forward, there would be more rewards tied to productivity enhancements, which will in turn motivate employees to come out and improve their practices and improve the organisation’s ability to compete in the marketplace. At the same time, organisations can approach things like sales rewards, incentives, and collection rewards so that the payment is connected to a certain outcome or result.
Speaking on benefits, he explained that most organisations will try to control the cost associated with the benefits they offer, and instead will try and convert some of the benefits into a cash-based mode. This way, time spent on managing these benefits and administering certain connected matters would also be reduced, and employees will have a choice as to how they could best utilise that cash.
However, Tillakawardana stated that the most important thing coming out of this crisis would be retaining and motivating the current teams. He suggested that in order to do this, organisations can start by helping employees by restructuring the work, such as giving them transport or work-from-home capabilities if there are salary cuts.
“Organisations should help employees weather the storm if they are going through salary cuts; this is because it would allow for a better employee net cash position,” he said.
While these changes in employment may seem new, they have been growing in popularity throughout the last decade in other parts of the world. Sri Lanka’s slow adoption of these methods has now been accelerated due to the current economic situation in the country, and interestingly, it may help the very survival of businesses.