Q: How does HR leadership impact the effectiveness of today’s business landscape?

A: Over the last five years, HR leaders have been compelled to drive significant organisational transformation, enhancing workforce flexibility, employee wellbeing and equity, surpassing expectations amid global challenges.

Therefore, the impact of HR leadership on the effectiveness of contemporary business environments is profound and multifaceted.

As per the Gartner survey in its publication ‘Leadership Vision for 2024: Chief HR Officer,’ key trends impacting HR leaders in today’s business environment include persistent skill shortages, unsettled employee-employer relationships, transformative technology innovations and pressure for operational efficiency.

In the context of rapid global changes exacerbated by ongoing wars in Ukraine and Gaza, a new conceptual framework presented by American anthropologist Jamais Cascio named BANI – coined from the terms brittle, anxious, nonlinear and incomprehensible – has emerged. BANI encapsulates the challenges of navigating a VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity) reality.

Today, leaders prioritise leadership development, organisational culture transformation and people-centric leadership. According to the survey, boards of directors view skill shortages as the most significant risk to organisational growth in 2024/25.

Q: What are the challenges facing HR leaders today?

A: HR leaders face millions of challenges. Among those as per some research findings, most of them experienced key challenges such as low confidence in rising leaders, leveraging a human-centric approach to attract qualified talent, difficulty in delivering an employee value proposition, encountering talent management approaches to create ‘trapped resources’ to map career progression around differentiating knowledge and skills, stimulating employees, optimising employee retention, flexibility controversy, employee engagement, productivity anxiety, IT transformation deficit, mutual mistrust and so on.

Q: And what are the challenges faced by HR leaders in Sri Lanka?

A: According to the World Happiness Index, Sri Lanka’s rank fell from 112th in 2023 to No. 128 in 2024. As Sri Lankans, we have encountered numerous challenges, leading to a severe brain drain in the country.

We are now experiencing moving from the frying pan into ‘chaos fire,’ exemplifying the BANI concept. The severe consequences we’re facing now resemble a ‘chase study’ rather than a case study, where ‘chase’ implies a game.

As Sri Lankans, we expected significant progress. However, we only experienced minor advancements. Many view emigration as their only viable option, a trend supported by a Chartered Institute of Personnel Management (CIPM) survey.

With that, Sri Lankan HR leaders face major challenges including skills migration, low employee happiness, lack of employee engagement, high recruitment demands, ER (employee relations) and IR (industry relations) issues, collective misconduct and lack of IT literacy.

These issues contribute to a decline in employee quality across personal, official and interpersonal areas, impacting organisational effectiveness and the country’s overall productivity.

Q: So what strategic approaches are being implemented to address these issues?

A: To navigate the BANI reality, Sri Lankan HR leaders can now evaluate their business environment by leveraging existing strengths to confront external threats. Additionally, they can capitalise on external opportunities by minimising or eliminating weaknesses.

HR leaders must view the macro picture of employee resourcing requirements while maintaining substantial profitability. They should understand that the key to a thriving business lies in the power of its people.

In the new normal, all industrial leaders are concerned with transforming their passion for people into a performance driven organisation.

Companies should be looking to identify new opportunities by initiating the concept of differentiation and a low-cost model powered by the blue ocean strategy. This approach moves HR beyond its traditional scope, from conventional training and development approaches, to prioritising strategic talent development and technology integration.

– Compiled by Allaam Ousman
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