Creating the best work culture

does not hesitate in hiring the candidate, irrespective of their sex. Furthermore, once recruited, these employees will undergo an induction training program which is conducted by professional Trainers and these newly acquired uncut diamonds will be kept as an understudy of a senior officer who will cut and polish them in to perfection in their respective career paths.

As the HR head of these Organizations Mr Sudath Berugoda Arachi personally spends time to speak to freshers to follow up their socialization with the Organization. In addition to this, a performance appraisal is conducted annually where the management spends about 30-45 minutes with every employee where the career goals, paths and plans of each employee will be discussed in detail and the path in which the employee chooses to trod down and the qualifications that he or she wishes to achieve which will be fully or partially sponsored by the Company depending on the company requirements rather generously in the development of the competencies of its own people, thus lending a helping hand in the upward climb up the ladder of success.

In addition to the copious amounts of care bestowed upon its employees by the company, working at Abans is a rather enjoyable experience says Mr. Sudath having served this organization for nearly 5 yeas. Abans holds annual get-togethers both for its administrative and operational staff where every employee, irrespective of positions and job roles participate, incorporating their families in to this rewarding working experience.

The open door policy of Abans is such that even the most junior of all employees is well capable of approaching the highest officers of the company, without even taking the trouble to make a prior appointment. Open communication between the management and the employees is encouraged to such an extent that the employees are given a mobile connection from the company corporate package itself where communication within the group is given absolutely free of charge. ''Some even call me in the middle of the night and ask me for advice" says Mr Berugoda Arachi who is only too happy to answer to all his employees' issues personal or official .

At Abans, every employee is allowed to bring their grievances to the very top of the company by themselves without the assistance of a senior officer. "People feel the need to get unionized when their problems are unanswered and individual issues are not entertained. So if they are listened to personally and remedies are provided accordingly, there is no need for workers to unionize" says Mr Berugoda Arachi, commenting upon the open and harmonious relationship between the employees and the management. To prove his point, we were told that in Abans, there exist no workers' unions among the employees. What other proof does one need for the satisfied and the harmonious relationship that exists between the management and the subordinates of a company other than the absence of a workers' union itself?

Speaking of himself, Mr Sudath Berugoda Arachi says that the secret to every successful person is unyielding commitment and passion that a person harbors for his or her respective field of work. In his fourteenth year as an HR personnel and holding an extremely responsible position at Abans at present, Mr Berugoda Arachi states that he has absolutely no boundaries at work and is always prepared to carry out any task which relates to his field without waiting on others to complete them. Further on, he believes that a leader should essentially lead by example as he has done throughout his successful career. "I am on this seat at 6.45 Am and I have done so every day for the past fourteen years of my career" he says and continues to state that it is this lead by example strategy that has made him a successful HR personnel who holds a top level managerial position today.

As a graduate from the University of Colombo and a National Diploma Holder in HRM from the Institute of Personnel Management , Mr Berugoda Arachi is not only an HR professional, he is also an artist and a musician. However, it was during his undergraduate years that he discovered that he possessed a knack for convincing people , gathering them driving them to a specific destination. This is why Mr Berugoda Arachi has always felt that he should pursue a career which merges his creativity along with his work where he strives to provide customized, creative solutions for every issue that is brought before him. "Problems cannot be solved with tools , Molds and technicalities" he states. He thoroughly believes that seeking solutions for human issues require a great deal of customization and this is a process where his abounding creativity comes in to play.

Commenting upon the requirements that an employment seeker should cultivate in him or herself in order to reach the desired heights, he states that every youngster must have a thorough knowledge of what career opportunities society holds for them. He also believes that they should fashion their path from a very young age itself and take care to acquire the professional qualifications that their desired field requires in order to fare well in the employment sector once they graduate. Mr Berugoda Arachi also harps upon the importance of communications and language skills in English , the global language , stating that he himself was rather weak in English once. "Where there is a will, there is a way" he states, continuing to say that it was through sheer perseverance that he overcame the many obstacles that he faced in life, including the language barriers he confronted as a young undergraduate. "I had a fever to achieve unachieved goals" he says and believes that everyone else should have such ardor and passion in them as well. He believes that every aspiring youngster should be "mad enough" to go to the very heights to achieve the goals that they have set for themselves. Mr Berugoda Arachi also recognizes the many issues that an employment seeker faces in the current competitive job market. "A degree alone will not be enough for you to perform well in an organization" he states, an observation that he has made over years of extensive experience in the field. Therefore, his message to aspiring young students of today would be to choose a field of study that they are passionate about and strive to achieve external qualifications as well as extensive and in depth experience that will enable them to raise their heads far above the rest. -

The work culture is the key to high performance.

More important, influencing the work culture is a manager's best opportunity for creating high performance. "Culture" is a 24-hours-a-day training program that exists inside any organization. It's teaching and influencing all the time. Sometimes it's teaching what we like it to teach, and sometimes it's not. It's very difficult to "swim upstream" against the culture.

For example, you can teach value added and long-term relationships all you want, but if the work culture is really about shortterm, adversarial relationships with clients, that's what you're going to get--that plus a lot of confusion.

The best of all possible worlds is a consistent, positive, reinforcing culture--and good sales managers are discovering that the best way to leverage their efforts is to manage the culture. After more than 10 years of research, we've come up with five factors that are critical to creating and maintaining a high-performance work culture. Listed in order of importance, they are: 1. A Shared Sense Of Mission Or Purpose. It's the culture equivalent to purpose. It answers the questions "What's expected around here, what do we do, and why do we do it?" If the only answer that you have is "making money," be prepared for your people to ask for as much as they can get for doing as little as they can. On the other hand, if you've taken the time to establish a mission-and especially if you've taken the time to involve your people in the process--that larger sense of mission will help people focus on achieving their part of the mission. 2. Clear And Attainable Goals. People perform best when they have specific goals. Goals that are reachable yet that stretch them. Don't tell people what to do, or how to do it, but give them the map, the destination, and sometimes the general direction in which to start. 3. Frequent Objective Feedback. People learn quickly and work well when they are told how they're doing. Debrief and summarize every joint call you make. Don't assume that people know how they're doing or know what you think. Lead with positive information first, but always be honest, objective, and specific. Help your people learn from every selling experience. 4. Positive Rewards For Appropriate Or Approximate Performance. Selling is like playing tennis: Very few people get it right the first time. Sincere, positive reinforcement ("You did that really well." "You really understand this." "You're doing a great job.") helps people learn. Catch people doing something right, and tell them about it. 5. Timely Support And Help When Requested Or Needed. This is an issue of priorities for most sales managers. It's deciding what your job is. Are you there to track numbers and quotas, or are you there to support your people? Clearly, both jobs have to be done, but the job of coach is the critical job in creating a high-performance team.- 123oye.com