Today's workers aim for many jobs in a short spell

Young Sri Lankans regularly changing jobs is one of the biggest dilemmas faced by CEOs and heads of organisations in sustaining an organisation with the best of talent.

Today's youngsters who look for jobs after A/L or university graduation often are disinclined to be attached to one organisation for a long spell.

The Business Times raised these issues on this particular trend with Kamal Abeysinghe, Chairman of EDEX Exhibition, on the sidelines of a media briefing to launch EDEX, in Colombo recently.

Since the exhibition happens twice a year and brings together school leavers and job seekers looking to start higher education and find jobs, the Business Times asked Mr. Abeysinghe what is on the minds of today's youngsters who favour short employments spurts in different organisations.

He said that there is a transformation in employee loyalty to one company today which is happening across the globe. "Everyone is looking forward to gain experience in more than one industry which has its own merits. Because the more exposure you get in diverse industries and trade sectors, you will be enriched. Today technology is cutting across many traditional pathways and boundaries and you need to have an exposure or a grasp of what happens in more than one industry," he added.

Looking at the competition among organisations today, your competitor comes from a totally unknown source. Through disruptive technology, the dynamics are such the convergence effect and technology are able to cut across boundaries and segmented industries. "I don't think the loyalty of an employee will remain in one organisation itself, as it was in the past. What we need to recognize is the phenomenon of transformation in this direction which will be the trend in the future as we are witnessing it right now,"

noted Mr. Abeysinghe.

He also stressed that Sri Lanka is in a dilemma where there are no assured outcomes in the education system. "Our education system is continuously producing dropouts at O/L, A/L and university graduation; that is something radically wrong and we have not been able to reform this process. Our system doesn't cater to all potential abilities of people. This is one of the strongest and foremost root causes for the dilemma that we are in. There should be flexibility offered to anyone who has various talents to unleash the full potential. It is the countries that have this kind of flexibility in education system that have developed fast like South Korea, Germany, China, Singapore and Thailand . Today's generation is very tech savvy and innovative in thinking but our education system does not promote or provide a conducive environment to unleash this potential."

In the Sri Lankan context, Mr. Abeysinghe pointed out, "First and foremost it's parents who restrain the development faculties of a child. When a child tries to climb a chair, tree or a ladder, the first thing they say is don't do that. We have been trained to avoid taking risks starting from the parents, relations, neighbourhood, school and finally to the employer. All the way through we limit their potentialities and abilities. We don't train them to take calculated risks, but avoid them completely. Today this is changing drastically and that is why you see that the employees don't value or treasure loyalty anymore. They want to explore and take risks, which is a good thing," he added.

But also there should be checks and balances which should come from the parents, teachers, employers who need to recognise the strengths and weaknesses too.

Speaking of what he called 'selfish' bosses, Mr. Abeysinghe stressed that in Sri Lanka most companies think of training the employees only for themselves. They need to understand that as an industry you cannot survive in that fashion today. "We don't have that altruistic kind of attitude among many corporates in Sri Lanka. But certain sectors which have that attitude of developing employee's competencies to make them employable in the industry as a whole grow very well. The ones who are inward looking and selfish oriented, find employees leaving. Also the other side of the threat is from unknown quarters when the whole industry is threatened. Where is the job security? In a way it can be justified that one gains the exposure and experience in multiple industries, so if they lose one job, they have another choice."