Financial Times

Hayleys white collar staff told to perk up
Hayleys Chairman Rajan Yatawara has sounded a word of warning about complacency and inadequate productivity among the conglomerate's 'white collar' staff, saying that performance standards need to be improved.

The Hayleys group has some 36,000 employees on its payroll, with around 28,000 in the plantation companies and a large number of others in rural areas.
"While productivity among blue collar employees is easily measurable, that of the white collar staff is less so," Yatawara told shareholders in his annual report.

"Comparative analysis of value addition over employee costs highlight causes for concern," he said adding that greater restraint on new recruitments, shifts to outsourcing and raising the 'bar' on performance is warranted.

"The complacency brought about by labour laws and compensation packages, or the 'glory' of working for a good and benevolent 'blue chip' blinds many employees from earning their own work output and quality, thereby burdening others with the load of sustaining or deepening the blue hue on the 'chip'," Yatawara said.

"This needs urgent correction without necessarily taking recourse in reducing cadres, but by improving realization and productivity."

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