By Yakuta Dawood
If you're an employee, the place you would be reaching out for any work-related problems to be solved, to get your appointment letter, to receive your monthly salary, or even to get your stationery is the Human Resource (HR) department operating in your respective company right? So now imagine you being stuck at a company where this department is the worst operating department out of all the other operations running in the firm.
Obviously, it would be a nightmare coming true. Unfortunately, many companies in Sri Lanka, or even in other countries, don’t realise that their HR department doesn’t make their employees happy or even do their job as expected, because monitoring the productivity of an employee goes far beyond just tracking the time in and time out of the company.
[caption id="attachment_137626" align="alignright" width="495"]
Gayan Nannayakkara[/caption]
Entrepreneurs are hardworking souls who would love to bring a unique change into the market when something doesn’t fit right in the puzzle. Gayan Nanayakkara is one of the individuals who strived to see a difference in the market by starting up the company named “MosiacHR” in November 2017.
MosiacHR is a global HR consulting and business consulting firm, serving clients since 2017.
The Develop It Yourself (DIY) column this week interviewed him to get an in-depth analysis of the journey of himself and his company.
Nanayakkara, being in a professional HR career for more than a decade, realised that in Sri Lanka there is no proper practical education regarding HR practices in both private and public sector institutions, as well as an adverse loophole of companies not giving sufficient budget allocation for innovative developments to further grow as a department.
According to his expertise, if the HR department makes a mistake, it directly impacts the bottom line of the company. For instance, the managerial line would be happy if the Key Performance Indicators (KPI) system is suddenly implemented, but the bottom line wouldn’t benefit, as this could result in demotivation and productivity going down as employees dislike it.
The reason why he chose to do something unique for the market was due to the fact that he understood the importance of HR operations in any and all organisations. He conceded that even a small mistake can do a lot of damage to the company if HR isn’t done right.
“Because of this, I was motivated to see how we can give exceptional services for companies who are willing to change the concept of HR, and to give more to the people and the company bottom line. It definitely takes more time to give a return than any other department but it is essential as the bottom line takes time to develop. The company should have patience and build the trust within their employees that space for growth and opportunity is available,” Nanayakkara highlighted.
Reminiscing about his journey as an entrepreneur, Nanayakkara said that he was fortunate enough to start a career with people around him who supported him through the journey – even the ones who didn’t have a company of their own, but who began suggesting MosiacHR to their personal connections.
“It's exciting. If you have a passion for what you do, then it's possible to be an entrepreneur. We are committed, available 24/7 for employees, and have always been out networking with people for the entire two to three years of the journey,” he said.
Now let us discuss the new innovative entrepreneurial product that Nanayakkara released to the market to ease operations in a firm. You must be wondering what exactly Mosiac does, right? In simple terms, it is basically a consulting service that covers a full range of leading-edge HR processes tailored to meet unique challenges facing in any and all organisations.
MosiacHR's journey to the present
Bootstrapping the company with available resources and reinvesting into the business, MosiacHR grew from being an HR consultancy firm to a Professional Employer Organisation (PEO), while also simultaneously addressing itself as a Global Employer Organisation (GEO) that caters to all its customers locally and globally.
This is a new and global concept. What this means is that Mosiac does offshoring services for companies. Explaining this, Nanayakkara said that for instance, if Sony, located in Japan, wants to start an offshore company in Sri Lanka, MosiacHR would provide all the services from scratch to them, like registering the company, getting liability approvals, opening bank accounts, hiring people on behalf of them, provide all necessary office spaces, equipment, and other services that generally entail major expenses, after signing an agreement with them.
“We provide everything to them. Instead of putting down thousands of dollars to register the company, pay taxes, buy equipment, etc., they just pay us monthly and get all services in Sri Lanka,” he said.
Likewise, Mosiac also facilitates companies based in Sri Lanka to open up anywhere across the world, while providing all the services as promised without any barriers. Further, another interesting aspect is also the fact that if a company in Malaysia wants to offshore in Singapore, they could do that too without any hindrance to operations.
Aside from these facilities, Mosiac has three other major key areas they also focus on. First is the “Generalist” that handles all the existing HR systems of a company. This service varies from HR legal advisory and communications, day-to-day employee relations, payroll, and manpower outsourcing, to also providing travel visa and work permit facilitation as required.
Second is the “Specialist” service that helps organisations create and develop their HR systems by providing independent judgement on the issues they face. This service has another batch of different branches ranging from audits, training and coachings, labour relations to recruiting, and also conducting exit interviews on behalf of the firm they have partnered with.
Third is the “Strategist” service that integrates corporate and HR strategy by providing the partnered company with an objective, vision, and best practices. This also has a lot of branches of services that focus on strategic planning and forecasting, business development, startups, mergers and acquisitions, and redesigning, to even changing the existing management of the company.
Commenting on this topic, Nanayakkara said that there are more than 75-plus clients working with MosiacHR and obtaining their services, out of which 70% of them are international clients. Additionally, MosiacHR is also based in India, Turkey, and Australia, with national, regional, and global affiliate partners, while their main focus is on clients in China and the US, who are looking in the Asia Pacific for talent and cost-factoring services.
According to him, the benefit of working with MosiacHR is the fact that CEOs or the higher authority management could now give their 100% attention to developing their growth and the success of the firm, rather than draining all their energy by focusing on and handling employee relations and problems.
He added: “70% of their time is focused on managing their employees. the company has to only give their KPI, targets, budgets that should be met every month. Hence, as an outsourcing party, we ensure all those requirements are met with a non-compete, non-disclosure agreement by also abiding by the local legal compliance, tax compliance, finance compliance, data protection, and all the other necessary requirements.”
After grasping the diverse services and operations they offer, we were curious about how many employees MosiacHR engages. When inquired about this, Nanayakkara said that they do not hire employees on a permanent basis, but through a contract on a consultancy, or freelance basis.
“Right now we have 25-30 consultants working with us right now. Through this, we get the best quality people in the field, which is easier and relatively cheaper than a permanent basis. We are very flexible without any structural barrier, as our employees can work from anywhere they wish, and we don't monitor them working since that culture is gone. We believe in getting their work done at their freedom,” Nanayakkara explained.
Adding further, he said that companies also prefer outsourcing their employees, as the productivity is high when an employee is on a contract or a freelance basis, while also eliminating barriers such as payments of EPF, ETF, liability, and also termination process that would only require one month’s notice.
“There is a change in employees too. They also prefer working on a short-term contract basis, as they could earn more than in any fixed job role. We ensure that we promote it more and enable it to employees,” he added.
As we switched topics from the employee base to the marketing techniques they use, Nanayakkara said that the company for the past three years has been mainly focusing on Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Research and Development (R&D), and through their global representatives.
--
Challenges and targets
--
When inquired about the challenges MosiacHR faces as an organisation, Nanayakkara expressed that there are several obstacles faced by them.
Firstly, the support from the Government is very little in comparison to what they want. Explaining this, he said that when a foreign company wants to offshore in Sri Lanka, a lot of regulations and red tape are present that delay the operational process of the company from doing what’s required.
“Let’s say we need furniture, we need approval from Environmental authorities, and Ministry of Industry and Commerce approval, which is very very long, with a lot of paperwork that also takes a lot of time to get done. If you’re a first-time applicant you have to get through with documentation and check if it's available, and the problem is if one is not available, then you can't register the company,” he said.
Second is the constant rupee depreciation problem. This causes a lot of money to be spent for their international marketing and other promotions. Third is the current political and economic challenges Sri Lanka faces as a country that causes Mosiac to lose international clients, as they do not wish to operate in Sri Lanka.
The final challenge is handling HR virtually, which is comparatively harder to do than in person, because it’s harder to understand the charismatic personality of the person they are engaging with through a Zoom call or virtual space.
Giving a suggestion to the problem, Nanayakkara said that Sri Lanka should see how well a company can bring foreign income to the country.
“We should relax our labour laws, we should ensure tax relaxation, we should support bringing companies down to operate here to make money, because when they do, a huge percentage goes to the Sri Lankan market. We can do so many operations if the regulations are relaxed,” he said,
Switching the topic to the targets set for the year 2021, he said that for this year MosiacHR aims to establish their operations in at least another five to six countries as soon as possible. “This has been the focus, and throughout, we are looking for more avenues to go global than the local market, as their market is actual virtual space, and to move their operations across the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC).”
Accordingly, Mosiac is also currently working with Colombo Port City. “We are investing our own money to promote and go further to bring down projects from the US and other European markets to Sri Lanka. But if a country's regulatory system doesn't support this, then these markets won't come as they will go to Indonesia, Malaysia, etc., since those countries are very flexible and open, with cheaper labour,” Nanayakkara highlighted.
Giving the concluding remark, he said that Mosiac wants to be one of the biggest global technology innovation companies in APEC within the next five years. “What I believe is by the next five to 10 years, Asia will be dominant. We want to be bigger giants that provide innovative solutions in PEO and GEO in the world.”
Gayan Nannayakkara[/caption]
Entrepreneurs are hardworking souls who would love to bring a unique change into the market when something doesn’t fit right in the puzzle. Gayan Nanayakkara is one of the individuals who strived to see a difference in the market by starting up the company named “MosiacHR” in November 2017.
MosiacHR is a global HR consulting and business consulting firm, serving clients since 2017.
The Develop It Yourself (DIY) column this week interviewed him to get an in-depth analysis of the journey of himself and his company.
Nanayakkara, being in a professional HR career for more than a decade, realised that in Sri Lanka there is no proper practical education regarding HR practices in both private and public sector institutions, as well as an adverse loophole of companies not giving sufficient budget allocation for innovative developments to further grow as a department.
According to his expertise, if the HR department makes a mistake, it directly impacts the bottom line of the company. For instance, the managerial line would be happy if the Key Performance Indicators (KPI) system is suddenly implemented, but the bottom line wouldn’t benefit, as this could result in demotivation and productivity going down as employees dislike it.
The reason why he chose to do something unique for the market was due to the fact that he understood the importance of HR operations in any and all organisations. He conceded that even a small mistake can do a lot of damage to the company if HR isn’t done right.
“Because of this, I was motivated to see how we can give exceptional services for companies who are willing to change the concept of HR, and to give more to the people and the company bottom line. It definitely takes more time to give a return than any other department but it is essential as the bottom line takes time to develop. The company should have patience and build the trust within their employees that space for growth and opportunity is available,” Nanayakkara highlighted.
Reminiscing about his journey as an entrepreneur, Nanayakkara said that he was fortunate enough to start a career with people around him who supported him through the journey – even the ones who didn’t have a company of their own, but who began suggesting MosiacHR to their personal connections.
“It's exciting. If you have a passion for what you do, then it's possible to be an entrepreneur. We are committed, available 24/7 for employees, and have always been out networking with people for the entire two to three years of the journey,” he said.
Now let us discuss the new innovative entrepreneurial product that Nanayakkara released to the market to ease operations in a firm. You must be wondering what exactly Mosiac does, right? In simple terms, it is basically a consulting service that covers a full range of leading-edge HR processes tailored to meet unique challenges facing in any and all organisations.
MosiacHR's journey to the present
Bootstrapping the company with available resources and reinvesting into the business, MosiacHR grew from being an HR consultancy firm to a Professional Employer Organisation (PEO), while also simultaneously addressing itself as a Global Employer Organisation (GEO) that caters to all its customers locally and globally.
This is a new and global concept. What this means is that Mosiac does offshoring services for companies. Explaining this, Nanayakkara said that for instance, if Sony, located in Japan, wants to start an offshore company in Sri Lanka, MosiacHR would provide all the services from scratch to them, like registering the company, getting liability approvals, opening bank accounts, hiring people on behalf of them, provide all necessary office spaces, equipment, and other services that generally entail major expenses, after signing an agreement with them.
“We provide everything to them. Instead of putting down thousands of dollars to register the company, pay taxes, buy equipment, etc., they just pay us monthly and get all services in Sri Lanka,” he said.
Likewise, Mosiac also facilitates companies based in Sri Lanka to open up anywhere across the world, while providing all the services as promised without any barriers. Further, another interesting aspect is also the fact that if a company in Malaysia wants to offshore in Singapore, they could do that too without any hindrance to operations.
Aside from these facilities, Mosiac has three other major key areas they also focus on. First is the “Generalist” that handles all the existing HR systems of a company. This service varies from HR legal advisory and communications, day-to-day employee relations, payroll, and manpower outsourcing, to also providing travel visa and work permit facilitation as required.
Second is the “Specialist” service that helps organisations create and develop their HR systems by providing independent judgement on the issues they face. This service has another batch of different branches ranging from audits, training and coachings, labour relations to recruiting, and also conducting exit interviews on behalf of the firm they have partnered with.
Third is the “Strategist” service that integrates corporate and HR strategy by providing the partnered company with an objective, vision, and best practices. This also has a lot of branches of services that focus on strategic planning and forecasting, business development, startups, mergers and acquisitions, and redesigning, to even changing the existing management of the company.
Commenting on this topic, Nanayakkara said that there are more than 75-plus clients working with MosiacHR and obtaining their services, out of which 70% of them are international clients. Additionally, MosiacHR is also based in India, Turkey, and Australia, with national, regional, and global affiliate partners, while their main focus is on clients in China and the US, who are looking in the Asia Pacific for talent and cost-factoring services.
According to him, the benefit of working with MosiacHR is the fact that CEOs or the higher authority management could now give their 100% attention to developing their growth and the success of the firm, rather than draining all their energy by focusing on and handling employee relations and problems.
He added: “70% of their time is focused on managing their employees. the company has to only give their KPI, targets, budgets that should be met every month. Hence, as an outsourcing party, we ensure all those requirements are met with a non-compete, non-disclosure agreement by also abiding by the local legal compliance, tax compliance, finance compliance, data protection, and all the other necessary requirements.”
After grasping the diverse services and operations they offer, we were curious about how many employees MosiacHR engages. When inquired about this, Nanayakkara said that they do not hire employees on a permanent basis, but through a contract on a consultancy, or freelance basis.
“Right now we have 25-30 consultants working with us right now. Through this, we get the best quality people in the field, which is easier and relatively cheaper than a permanent basis. We are very flexible without any structural barrier, as our employees can work from anywhere they wish, and we don't monitor them working since that culture is gone. We believe in getting their work done at their freedom,” Nanayakkara explained.
Adding further, he said that companies also prefer outsourcing their employees, as the productivity is high when an employee is on a contract or a freelance basis, while also eliminating barriers such as payments of EPF, ETF, liability, and also termination process that would only require one month’s notice.
“There is a change in employees too. They also prefer working on a short-term contract basis, as they could earn more than in any fixed job role. We ensure that we promote it more and enable it to employees,” he added.
As we switched topics from the employee base to the marketing techniques they use, Nanayakkara said that the company for the past three years has been mainly focusing on Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Research and Development (R&D), and through their global representatives.
--
Challenges and targets
--
When inquired about the challenges MosiacHR faces as an organisation, Nanayakkara expressed that there are several obstacles faced by them.
Firstly, the support from the Government is very little in comparison to what they want. Explaining this, he said that when a foreign company wants to offshore in Sri Lanka, a lot of regulations and red tape are present that delay the operational process of the company from doing what’s required.
“Let’s say we need furniture, we need approval from Environmental authorities, and Ministry of Industry and Commerce approval, which is very very long, with a lot of paperwork that also takes a lot of time to get done. If you’re a first-time applicant you have to get through with documentation and check if it's available, and the problem is if one is not available, then you can't register the company,” he said.
Second is the constant rupee depreciation problem. This causes a lot of money to be spent for their international marketing and other promotions. Third is the current political and economic challenges Sri Lanka faces as a country that causes Mosiac to lose international clients, as they do not wish to operate in Sri Lanka.
The final challenge is handling HR virtually, which is comparatively harder to do than in person, because it’s harder to understand the charismatic personality of the person they are engaging with through a Zoom call or virtual space.
Giving a suggestion to the problem, Nanayakkara said that Sri Lanka should see how well a company can bring foreign income to the country.
“We should relax our labour laws, we should ensure tax relaxation, we should support bringing companies down to operate here to make money, because when they do, a huge percentage goes to the Sri Lankan market. We can do so many operations if the regulations are relaxed,” he said,
Switching the topic to the targets set for the year 2021, he said that for this year MosiacHR aims to establish their operations in at least another five to six countries as soon as possible. “This has been the focus, and throughout, we are looking for more avenues to go global than the local market, as their market is actual virtual space, and to move their operations across the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC).”
Accordingly, Mosiac is also currently working with Colombo Port City. “We are investing our own money to promote and go further to bring down projects from the US and other European markets to Sri Lanka. But if a country's regulatory system doesn't support this, then these markets won't come as they will go to Indonesia, Malaysia, etc., since those countries are very flexible and open, with cheaper labour,” Nanayakkara highlighted.
Giving the concluding remark, he said that Mosiac wants to be one of the biggest global technology innovation companies in APEC within the next five years. “What I believe is by the next five to 10 years, Asia will be dominant. We want to be bigger giants that provide innovative solutions in PEO and GEO in the world.”