From left: NHRC 2017 Technical Committee Chairman Chris Obeysekere, Trikonsult CEO Ajith Bopitiya, NHRC 2017 Chairman Ken Vijayakumar, Megapolis and Western Development Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka, IPM Sri Lanka President Professor Ajantha Dharmasiri, Global Strategic Sustainability (Pvt.) Ltd Chairman/CEO Dr. Ravi Fernando, IPM Sri Lanka Chief Operating Officer P.G. Tennakoon, IPM Sri Lanka Rohitha Amarapala, IPM Sri Lanka Chief Operating Officer P.G. Tennakoon and National HR Exhibition Committee 2017 Chairperson Primrose Mascarenhas
Pix by Damith Wickremasinghe

By Zahara Zuhair
Taking human resources to a higher level, IPM National Human Resources Conference 2017 (NHRC), organised by IPM Sri Lanka, was inaugurated at the BMICH this Tuesday.
The conference attracted over 1000 local and foreign professionals representing the HR fraternity as well as other industry professionals. The two-day event, which concluded yesterday, had 13 high-profile professionals, 12 learning sessions, with over 10 representations by regional bodies.
The chief guest of the event, Megapolis and Western Development Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka said that from the perspective of Megapolis and Western Development, he believes that it is not merely natural resources of the country but also it is the quality and capacity of the human resources that propel towards national prosperity and productivity. 
He said that the modern-day human resources undoubtedly have become tech savvy and stressed that as a nation, a holistic  approach has to be mapped out  to be  geared to meet the challenges in the technological advances. 
IPM Sri Lanka President Professor Ajantha Dharmasiri said that this being the largest gathering of senior HR practitioners, consultants, academics as well as non-HR-related personnel from Sri Lanka and the South Asia region, IPM NHRC 2017 would undoubtedly be a conference bringing significant value to each and every participant. 
He said that it is a red letter day for IPM as it has the largest number of participants and has wider international participants.
“The conference brings together many experts in the fields of HR and technology to share their insights on how digitisation is fuelling disruption in the HR landscape, driving deep inroads into HR and society at large, changing the way that we have known it and driving the need for change in the way we manage the people in the workplace and the workplace itself,” he said. 
He said that the world is moving towards the 4Ds in HR which are: Digitisation, Disruption, Diversity and Design. He said that the conference would deliberate on these topics.
Meanwhile, Dharmasiri stressed the need for capacity development and competency development in human resources.
He said that they lament the need for the right competency at key positions.
“The key positions should not be filled by connections but they should be filled with competency. But the sad thing is, in some situations, connections have overpowered competency. So here a fundamental question remains if we have the right person, doing the right job in the right manner for the right reasons for the benefit of the socioeconomic development of the country,” he said.
“So, it’s food for thought for us to have competency development at national level,” he added.
He also said that we need to be proud of the hidden potentials of our people, as many Sri Lankans hold top positions all over the world. He said that we need to look at how to tap them back to the country and make them contribute to the economy.
“We need a broad mind-set of national human resource development for the benefit of the entire nation,” he stressed.
In addition to the featured events such as the National HR Excellence Awards, The Great HR Debate and the HR Service Providers’ Exhibition, the IPM NHRC 2017 Conference featured a unique and new event, ‘IPM Great HR Practices’, yet another first by IPM Sri Lanka giving its flagship event an international flavour. 
The print media partner for the conference was Wijeya newspapers.