An Exploratory Study on Entry Level HRM Job Opportunities and Their Requirements in Sri Lanka

The objectives of this study are to explore the types, categories and requirements of entry level HRM job opportunities available in Sri Lanka. In order to achieve the objectives, an exploratory study on all the HRM related employment advertisements appeared in the Sunday Observer newspaper for the period of 3 years (2006, 2007 and 2008) was conducted by using comprehensive and systematic content analysis along with descriptive statistics. The results revealed that a few number of entry level options are available in Sri Lanka. These options can be grouped into two broad classifications such as generalized and specialized way of entry options. Sri Lankan organizations have a practice of recruiting young people as Management Trainee (MT) to fill the current or future job vacancies. In connection with entry-level HRM jobs, MT has been identified as one of the main sources of entry options in Sri Lanka. Based on the needed educational qualifications, the MT option is classified into eight categories. In case of MT, a placement process and conditions were identified. From entry level job seekers, organizations expect twenty nine skills and eight types of personal qualities. The implications of these findings are useful to all stakeholders of HRM especially current and potential job seekers, organizations and HRM workforce developers in Sri Lanka.


Introduction
Entry level jobs are the primary jobs which persons will have to hold in order to enter into any field of working.Currently many universities, other educational and professional institutes are offering specialization degree, diploma, certificate programs, and professional courses in HRM in Sri Lanka.Business organizations also advertise various entry level jobs in HRM in order to attract young HRM workforce or HRM job seekers from the labour market.In this context, it is important to explore this phenomenon systematically in order to provide empirical knowledge to the stakeholders of HRM.
These are the specific entry level jobs (employment opportunities) available in the field of HRM in Sri Lanka (see Table 1).The above Table 1 provides the answers for what and how many entry level jobs are available in the field of HRM in Sri Lanka annually.There were 118, 247 and 275 job vacancies in 2006, 2007 and 2008 respectively showing an upward trend of increasing.Even though there were 23 entry level HRM jobs identified according to this study, not all jobs are very frequently demanded by the organizations.
Out of these 23 entry level HRM jobs only very few jobs were demanded by the organizations frequently and they include Management Trainee, Human Resource Assistant and Personnel Clerk etc.The most frequently demanded entry level HRM job is Management Trainee (total of the four types is 292).The next most frequently demanded entry level HRM job is Human Resource Assistant/Staff Assistant and then is Human Resources/Personnel Clerk.

Categorization of Entry Level HRM Jobs and their Requirements
In Sri Lanka, several entry level options are available and these options can be grouped into two broad classifications such as generalized way of entry options (e.g.Management Trainee, HR Assistant and HR Clerk) and specialized way of entry options (Training Assistant, Recruitment Assistant, Recruitment Clerk etc.) (See Figure 1).

Management Trainee (MT)
In Sri Lanka, organizations have a practice of selecting young people (with or without experience) as a management trainee to fill the job vacancies (current or future) after giving an adequate training.After comprehensive analysis of collected data   It was possible to find number of job advertisements under each type of entry level job as per industry.Table 3 gives number of job advertisements by industry.It indicates that Manufacturing, Trading and Retailing is the industry that had the highest number of job advertisements.The second is Banking, Finance, Insurance and Leasing and the third being Consultancy/HR/Professional Service and Education.
Table 4 gives number of job advertisements under each type of entry level as per types of ownership of firms.According to the Table, Sri Lankan Private Sector organizations had the highest number of job vacancies.The next highest number was in Foreign Companies and then Multi National Companies.One implication is that it is very important to let Sri Lankan Private Sector organizations grow with the Government support so that they expand job opportunities.As far as experience requirement is concerned, for entry level options most of the organizations do not expect experience from the applicants.They expect to give their own training to mould the trainees into their specific requirements.However there are some organizations that have specified 6-12 or 12 -24 months experience in their job advertisements.A reason is that those organizations are very keen in targeting to attract a trained or well prepared young workforce which has already been developed/ prepared by other firms/organizations (competitors /noncompetitors to their organizations).General implication is that it will be an advantage if the person, who expects to enter the field, has a sort of training or exposure to the real world of HRM work for about a period of six months or one year.Most frequently required age is 30 or below 30.There were 70 job advertisements which had no specified age limit.However it seems that an organization recruits a person who is young not matured or old to work in the capacity of Management Trainee who is supposed to take the business into the future as a future manager.
People who get university admission will take four years studies (for special degrees) and if there is no any system delay or personal delay they can complete their studies at the age of 23 years old or 24 years old generally in Sri Lanka, and after that they will be ready to be absorbed by the industry.For a non-graduate management trainee (common) and a non-graduate management trainee in HR/HRM, most of the organizations expect 25 or below 25 as an age limit.For a graduate management trainee (common), and a graduate management trainee in HR/HRM, most of the organizations expect 28-30 as the age limit.An important implication is that an undergraduate has to become a graduate before his or her age of 30 to enter as a Management Trainee in Sri Lanka.It is possible to see a gender bias for some jobs in industries.As far as HRM entry level jobs are concerned it seems no gender bias.The above Table shows the gender pattern of Management Trainees in Sri Lanka.There were job advertisements exclusively for males and exclusively for females but the numbers were small, 08 and 03 respectively within the three years under study.149 job advertisements were not gender biased implying that organisations do not discriminate candidates in terms of gender which is a good practice in Sri Lanka where a large number of females are studying management related educational and professional programmes.
Table 7 presents nature of place preference and Management Trainee.Out of 160 job advertisements 48 advertisements (about 30%) had specified place preference.Thus many organizations do not specify place preference when hiring people for MT considering the entire Sri Lanka as the employee market.However there are a considerable number of organizations which expect the candidates who become eligible to apply for management trainees job vacancies if they are living permanently closer to their company/factory/workplace. Explicitly they mentioned 20 KM (radius) away from their workplace in order to reduce traveling problems, late attendance and imbalance between work life and family life.For any job pay is an important factor for attracting best/appropriate people to fill vacancies in an organization.The above Table 8 was constructed by using available data about pay/allowance and MT.During the training and development period organizations have a practice of rewarding with reasonable or generous training allowances or payments.In Sri Lanka it may vary from Rs.15,000 to 50,000 depending on size, financial strength, market share of organization and its industry norms/standards.Next section will present placement process and conditions for MT.
6 To observe and record trainees' performance and involvement in all the areas during the transformation/training period To observe and record trainees' performance and involvement in that specific/particular functional area during the transformation/training period (e.g.HRM) 7 Finally (if organization is satisfied) assign/appoint to a suitable/best fit division/functional field (specialized) based on their performance during the T&D period and observed interest.
Finally (if organization is satisfied) assign/ appoint to a specific functional field (for which they have been initially selected) based on their performance during the T&D period.

Period of T & D Programme
After selection the candidates who are selected as management trainees in the HRM or related to the HRM will have to undergo a period of one (01) or two years (02) of comprehensive training and development programme in all aspects based on organizations' needs.

Training Period/Duration
As per Table 9, there are organizations numbering 104 (out of 160) which have not specified about training and time frame.22 organizations have specified about training but not mentioned about the duration.18 organizations have specified a training of one year duration.

Contents of T & D Programme
This comprehensive training and development programme content consists of several components.Exhibit 2 presents its components.
If a candidate fails to complete his/her training and development programme successfully, his or her training and development period may be extended or terminated by the organization.Figure 2 was developed in order to show the placement process and conditions of management trainee in Sri Lanka.advertisements) under the eight (08) types of major qualities/attributes such as leadership, performance achievement, attitude, personality, good character, physical character, team orientation and business related.Accordingly dynamic, young, challenge-enable/willing to take challenges, self-motivated/relentless self-motivations and team player/excellent team player are the top five key personal qualities/characteristics/attributes expected by the organizations.Regarding expected personal qualities/attributes, the highest count indicates the most demanded attribute.For example, dynamism is the most demanded trait under the type of leadership quality.According to management expert, Bruce Kaufman (As in Kleiman, 1997) Companies want entry-level HRM candidates to possess: • Leadership and management skills; • Cross-functional HRM expertise (for generalist positions); • Technical skills (e.g., computers, management information systems); • Knowledge of international HRM issues; and • Knowledge of business basics (i.e., accounting, finance, marketing, management, and economics).
Therefore, based on Bruce Kaufman literature, it is possible to reach a conclusion that these are some of the key aspects for the candidates who are seeking jobs in the HRM field at entry-level.
Based on this study, in the Sri Lankan context, out of 29 skills, communication skills, computer literacy/IT skills, interpersonal skills, analytical skills, human relations skills, leadership skills, ability to work long hours, public relation skills, presentation skills and ability to work independently are the top ten skills companies expect from entry-level HRM candidates.
In Sri Lanka, cross-functional HRM expertise (for generalist positions), knowledge of international HRM issues and knowledge of business basics (i.e., accounting, finance, marketing, management, and economics) which were mentioned by Bruce Kaufman are normally included in HRM specialised degrees offered by the leading Sri Lankan universities' HRM departments.Therefore, there were no significant differences between the results of this study and the view of Bruce Kaufman.
Apart from the Management Trainees, HR Assistant and HR Clerk can also be considered as generalized way of entry options in the field of HRM in Sri Lanka because some organizations expect to fulfill these HRM job vacancies with or without experience.

HR Assistant
HR Assistant is one of the most frequent HRM job opportunities in Sri Lanka.In addition to certain HRM qualifications (such as certificate/diploma level qualifications) G.C.E (O/L) or G.C.E (A/L) qualifications are also needed to secure the HR assistant job opportunities in Sri Lanka.After the entry, candidates are able to go to higher levels of career in the HRM career ladder by expanding his/her HRM educational qualifications, in addition to gaining experience and his/her enthusiasm in the HRM field.

HR Clerk
Same as HR Assistant, HR Clerk is also an operational level as well as entry level HRM job option in Sri Lanka.Depending on job performance and enthusiasm in the HRM field/career, he/she is able to climb the HRM career ladder step by step by enhancing his/her job competencies and education(See Table 19).In addition, certain job advertisements of the organisations for HR Executives in Sri Lanka expect the appropriate candidates without experience.They only expect the required knowledge supported by recognized HRM education.These types of opportunities can also be treated as generalized way of entry options in the field of HRM in Sri Lanka.

II. Specialized way of entry options
In Sri Lanka, there are few job titles in entry level specialization areas of HRM such as training and development, recruitment, pay management etc.Out of these jobs certain jobs can be figured out as entry-level HRM jobs in those specialized areas.The interesting candidates can join those areas by substantiating their specific and formal HRM qualifications or showing with some little exposure or some previous volunteer work/temporary assignment or by qualifying certain relevant academic/professional courses on those areas.Some of these specialized ways of entry options are listed in the Exhibit 4. A sort of model is presented to give an answer for the question: how does one enter the HRM profession?Or how can one enter the HRM profession?Out of the 10 possible ways of entry options shown in the Figure, this study was mainly dealt with the first one, i.e.Due to HRM/Related educational background (e.g.Degree in HRM, postgraduate qualification in HRM).The results of this study confirmed that HRM related educational background (degree or related) leads to generalized and specialised way of entry options into the HRM field in Sri Lanka.In the generalized way of entry options the Management Trainee option (graduate or nongraduate) is one of the leading options found in this study in the Sri Lankan context.

Figure: 1
Figure: 1 Types of Entry-Level Jobs in HRM

Figure: 2
Figure: 2 Placement Process and Conditions: Management Trainee

Figure
Figure 3 Possible Ways of Entry Options into the HRM Field

Table 5 presents
age limits required for Management Trainee.Accordingly minimum age for a person to apply for the post of Management Trainee seems to be 21 and maximum age is 35.

Table :
Number of time mentioned in the job ads.).From the collected data, 29 types of abilities/skills/competencies have been identified and they are indicated in Table18.According to the Table, the most highly demanded competence is communication skills.IT skills, interpersonal skills and analytical skills are other very important competency requirements.By using content analysis, lists of competencies were developed for all types of management trainee.After studying those 29 types of abilities/skills/competencies, the top six competencies expected by the organizations from a management trainee are communications skills, computer literacy/IT skills, interpersonal skills, analytical skills, human relations skills and leadership skills.The individuals who have planned to enter into the HRM field must develop those types of abilities/skills/competencies which are valued by the organizations/employers in Sri Lanka.