People and Organisations

    Talent Migration (Brain Drain) and Its Impact on HR in Sri Lanka       The migration of talent, also known as brain drain, has emerged as a severe issue of the Sri Lankan context, and it is gradually influencing human resource management (HRM) practices in organisations. Over the past few years, the magnitude of the outward migration has grown tremendously as a result of economic instability, global labour demand and the shifting career expectations. Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE) reported over 314,000 Sri Lankans migrated to foreign employment in the year 2024, the highest number of labour migration recorded in the history of the country (SLBFE, 2024). Moreover, the rate of migration remained high in 2025 and more than 144,000 workers as of the first six months alone had left the country (SLBFE, 2025). These numbers demonstrate the severity of talent migration as a challenge at an economic and organisational level.   Quantitat...

  Hybrid Work in Sri Lanka: Are Employees More Productive at Home or at the Office?   Is productivity really about where people work, or how they work? This question has become very important in Sri Lanka today. After years of conflict, economic instability, and rapid social change, organisations were forced to rethink how they manage employees. Traditional office-based HR systems are no longer suitable for the modern workplace. Instead, many organisations are now moving towards hybrid work models where employees work partly from home and partly from the office.  Recent research also shows that working from home has become an important part of the Sri Lankan corporate sector, especially in the IT industry (Jayanandana and Jayathilaka, 2023) The long-term impact of war and later economic challenges significantly changed the Sri Lankan labour market. Many skilled employees migrated abroad, organisations tried to reduce costs, and employees started to look for flexible...