Plantations And Faithful Employees

Sri Lankan Plantations has a rich history of talented leaders. Pioneers of the industry were all Europeans who migrated to Ceylon in search of new business avenues. These men Established some high standard plantations. And they brought their European culture with them to Ceylon. They have established Planters clubs, Plantation Bungalows, European style stablishments, etc.  which proudly stands, up until today. These stablishments carry significant cultural values. In the early era of Plantations, there were tough leadership selection criteria which can be explained using trait theory. Planters were selected very carefully and trained in required skills in a long and comprehensive training schedule. Which mostly reminds of military training. These youngsters were from elite families of the country. Their upbringing was a very important factor for the employer. They believed that the leaders were born or made and they should carry elite traits. The employer believed that these traits were only developed in elite families. Most of these young planters significantly contributed to the plantations and made their name in the industry.

A Plantation club in Upcountry

Obviously, Englishmen were forcibly occupying Sri Lanka. During their time in Ceylon, they have done some really horrific things to our ancestors. While doing so, they robbed our rich natural and cultural resources. Hense the Europeans saw an opportunity to come and start new businesses in their Kings' colonies. Which triggered the spread of the plantations, all over the wet zones in the country.

Employee Engagement in the Colonial Era

For obvious reasons, these early plantations had significant employee engagement. The Plantations were ruled and controlled by an employee. Hense he had (Planter, is an all-male profession even at present SL only have one lady planter) the single ruling authority over labours and the staff of the plantation. This factor made the planters effectively and enthusiastically engaged in their job. The long and comprehensive training under seasoned planters made these young leaders very confident in their responsibilities. Which in return profitably contributed to the employer. These early planters were more concerned about standards rather than profits. These high standards made some high yielding plantations. All the proper agricultural practices were followed to the dot. Which in return assured the longevity of these plantations. This early era planters were sincerely engaged to their job. Considering the stories about rich lifestyles they had, it's safe to say that these employees were highly satisfied with their jobs. This picture of an upcountry bungalow which has been occupied by the planters throughout the history will give an insight into the luxurious lifestyle of a colonial-era planter.

Aerial view of an upcountry Bungalow

How did Employee Engagement evolve in Plantations

With time the plantations had undergone some significant developments. These developments were based on several factors. Under Mrs Sirimawo Government(1970-1972) state took over almost all the privately-owned plantations. This made most of the European planters who were still in the plantations leave the industry and return to their own countries. With this, started the transformation which made "Planter" a paid profession rather than an authority to run the plantations. Even though early state-owned plantations were run with the same integrity and authority. Prominent figures such as Minister Ranjan Madugalle once was a planter. Then came the privatization of the state-owned plantations. With this 22 Regional Plantation Companies were established along with various Government bodies to support them.

In the early years of RPC's the employees had the same authority to run the plantations. With low labour costs, companies were making considerable profits. And the plantations were practising good agricultural practices. With high standard estates and comprehensive replanting programmes, the future of the plantations was secured. The employees were actively engaged in their jobs. Planters used many techniques to improve the standards

Then started the beginning of the labour trade union uprising and the demand for higher wages and lower outputs from the labours. Initially, labours had only one trade union to represent them and it possessed the power to stop or disrupt work in the entire plantation industry through union actions within hours. This power made plantation worker a valuable asset to the plantations and the union as well. Well managed Estates often tend to give extra benefits to the labours rather than taking all as profits for the companies. This had serious adverse repercussions in the future. Shares from the benefits must go to their employees this will improve the employee morale highly. But when the companies making loses can employees bare those loses? The labour carder of the plantations does not have any idea neither they care about the company's profits they only know and care about their lifestyle and their survival. Considering the evolution of the plantations it's not a surprise and cannot blame the labours for their attitudes.

These benefits then became something called "walame" which is the Tamil word for "tradition" different estates had unique walames. These are very difficult to change. Trying to do so will call for an immediate trade union action. Within the plantation labours, employee engagement is an idea which can bring harm to people who act on it. The workers who work on their own accord to improve profitability are considered traitors to their community. They always work for the tasks and time limits which are demanded and won by the trade unions. Some of these rules are very unreasonable and costly to the modern-day plantations. High outputs and lower costs are the biggest challenges planters face at the ground level. With all their demands and lower education levels, estates have talented manual labours. When they get a good leader these labours tend to follow them and give maximum outputs regardless of the rules and regulations. They even cooperate in changing long-standing walames. This all depends on the leader on the estate. Author have experienced that they expect a leader with a mix of autocratic and transformational type leadership traits. When labours get such type of a leader all those negative attitudes become positive and their employee engagement gives high benefits to the estate. Author find this phenomenon, a fascinating change of behaviour due to the leaders' influence.

But modern-day plantation companies have successfully managed to discourage ground-level managers and the industry is in the all-time low standards since its begining. But there are some companies in the industry which maintain high standards despite the cost and others made huge profits with low standard estates in the past whilst they were making lower profits. At present, they are making much higher profits than those who only thought of profits. A sustainable plantation is a huge benefactor for the long run of the Plantation industry.

Performance management techniques have played a big role in lowering employee morale in the industry. When they were compared unfairly with others they tend to let go of the efforts made to improve the outputs. This has been discussed comprehensively in another article. This also made employee engagement challenging in the industry. But several companies have managed to adapt proper systems which encourage employees rather than discouraging to the benefit of the company.

Answer to the question raised in the topic is not something which can be provided easily. In the plantations industry, if the companies have unfaithful employees especially ground-level planters, it is very difficult to manage plantations. If the company does not properly manage plantations it's impossible to maximize outputs and make profits. Understanding this and re-evaluate the company policy is beneficial to the industry in the long run. Because of some leaders' short-sighted decisions, modern-day plantation industry is suffering a lot. With the proper adaptations of HRM practices, this can be revamped and can secure this valuable industry's future.

Performance Management in Plantation Sector

Performance Management is a controversial subject. As it has contradicting research outcomes, present Organizations are having the doubt of whether to continue this costly exercise. An employer should have a mechanism to monitor or evaluate his or her subordinates. This way, the employer knows about his or her employees and what are the actions which should be taken about any employee. When employees also have access to these evaluation results, they also know where they stand and what are the areas they should improve upon. 

Considering these facts, this is a very good and effective system. But there are research findings which indicate performance management will not result in higher performance, IPM (now the CIPD): (1992). However, these studies indicate the employer's awareness of companies' performance. This obviously has an impact on employees' performances. This can be either negative or positive. Based on how the employee handles the pressure. Sometimes a very talented employee can come under pressure and underperform due to this public evaluation. Also, another employee would perform much better due to the recognition he or she is getting.

Another positive outcome of this is that bonuses and incentives also can be based on these evaluations. This way no one can complain about what they are getting. Since the high performing employees are publicly highlighted, they are also well compensated. Which gives a fair reward for their efforts.

There are 3 main components in PM. (Henderson,2010)

1.     Planning for performance.

2.     Supporting performance.

3.     Assessing performance.

let's consider these aspects in an organizational context.

Performance Management in Plantations

In Sri Lankan plantation sector, like most of the industries in SL, there are scientific methods to evaluate and grade performance. These have drastically evolved from the colonial era where there was no any kind of Performance Evaluations. Even though this industry is based on agriculture, Key Performance Indicators are mostly based on profits. All the agricultural indicators are also directly related to profits. Some of the main Key Indicators are as follows.

• Profit per Hectare.
• Profit increase/decrease percentage against 3 years' average profit.
• Plucking/Tapping average.
• Yield per Hectare. 
• Revenue labour output
• Factory labour output per kilo  

These are some of the main indicators which the performance evaluation is based upon. Even though the last four indicators seems not related to profits, they are directly connected to profit margins.

Planning for Performance

In an Industry based on agriculture, most of the plans and forecasts are based on several exterior factors. Such as,

• Weather patterns.
• Climatic conditions.
• Political demography of the country. 
• Availability of skilled employees.
• World political arena which affects the Sri Lankan market.

Clearly, these are factors which cannot be controlled by Organizational entities. Which makes planning for performance even more challenging. To overcome these challenges Research Institutes and seasoned professional Planters have come up with several ideas.

• Planning in advance and be proactive according to weather patterns.
•  Giving Instructions to practice timely agricultural practices based on detailed weather pattern & climatic condition analysis.
• Executing pre-planned social practices according to countries' demographical fluctuations such as election periods, terrorist attacks, religiously important time-periods etc.
• Investing in R&D departments to catch up with the fast-developing technological advancements in the world.
• Training employees on various relevant programs to maximize their inputs to the organization.
• Introduce attractive payment schemes to skilled workers to attract them to the organization.

One of the worlds’ largest outspoken topics at the present is Climate Change and its effecting Sri Lankan Plantation Industry as well. In the early days, weather patterns were predictable, and planters knew when there will be rains and which will be the drought period. Hence, they made their agricultural plans according to these predictions. But at present, all these patterns have gone haywire. Which made planning very difficult.

Also being ready to face a sudden terror attack is not an easy task. when the civil war was taking place in the country Planters had pre-planned systems in place to face such incidents. But after the killing of terrorists’ leader Prabhakaran, Island nation never thought that it would face suicide bombers again. Even though, due to the clear incompetence of the Government we as Sri Lankans had to face terrorism again.

Such type of unpredictable factors makes planning for performance very hard in the plantations industry. Even though, Planters always find ways to sustain and secure the future of the industry.

Yet the biggest challenge is to sustain the Industry while losing the worlds largest buyers due to conflicts in Middle East countries. This is something Sri Lankan plantation companies do not have any control upon.

Supporting Performance

For all these plans to become a success Plantation companies need to provide,

ØTimely advice.

ØTimely approval of funds.

ØMonitoring progress of agricultural practices.

ØSupporting fast recruitment process.

ØHave goodwill of the ruling entities of the country.

ØProvide proper legal advice and legal personal (company paid lawyers).

Ø Make estimates based on scientific methods.

With all these done by the plantation companies, still, the industry is facing its biggest challenges since its beginning. Losing markets in the Middle East is the main problem in the tea industry at present. Due to this, "sale averages" (selling price) are drastically coming down. Most estates are running under losses due to the higher production costs than the selling prices. This is where the Government interventions are much needed to,

• Find new markets.
• Market the “Ceylon tea” name and the unique qualities via embassies & Government agents etc.
• Stop the illegal rackets from ruining “Ceylon tea” name by blending Ceylon tea with “refused tea”(unconsumable tea) and exporting them under “Ceylon tea” name.

These are some of the key factors which the industry can be profited by the Government interventions to support performances.

Main commercial crops in Sri Lanka(Tea, Rubber, Coconut, Oilpalm)

Assessing Performance

If all the above-mentioned criteria are met, then the assessing company performance and evaluate employees based on the outputs is justified and fruitful. The real questions are that

v do plantation companies have taken actions to fulfil those two initial steps?

v Have the Government provided that necessary support for performances?

It's fair to say most of the companies are trying to fulfil those two initial steps. But have they taken care of all those requirements? That’s a question for its employees to answer. Then again, the problem is, are the employees’ grievances/difficulties considered when assessing performances?

Whether these supports are provided or not, performances are analyzed and key decisions on employee’s future have been made based on them. Bonuses are decided based on these numbers. Employees’ capabilities are judged based on them. This might be one of the biggest mistakes in Sri Lanka’s Plantation industry. Also, this is a good case study to provide evidence to the fact that the Performance Management would not affect performance. PM is effective to a certain level when the exterior factors are satisfied but when the exterior factors are overwhelmingly out of control from the employee, is it fair to asses him based on the same key indicators as in the past?

How can a company have a personal development plan when employer haven’t recognized employees’ talents and weaknesses?

When considering any sensible employer, he or she has a personal development plan for his or her employees. This will benefit the employer in the long run. If the employees are performing at exceptional levels the company will thrive. To develop individual employees in plantations there are many programs in specialized institutions. Young Planters are required to follow these programs and enhance their knowledge. These programs spread from certificate level to masters’ level. Obviously, these programs are useful to improve knowledge of planters. But selecting which program to follow is the problem. If the company decide them solely based on the Performance analysis, would it be a proper or fair selection? Fortunately, in most cases, senior planters who are at the top management, make these decisions by truly recognizing young planters’ talents and weaknesses. This is one of the biggest advantages in the industry. Veteran planters tend to recognize their subordinates’ talents and weaknesses at a more personal level. But when these seasoned Industry professionals step down, would this trend continue? There are many examples as to this trend had perished with those Seniors.

In conclusion, the problem comes to authors’ mind is

Does Performance Management as effective as expected in the Plantation Industry?

I believe the answer has been provided ..

Employees' expectations

When an employee joins an organisation, he or she has certain expectations. These expectations vary from basic needs to luxurious lifestyles to certain high status of society. If these needs cannot be satisfied with the earnings or the status of the job the employee is certainly unhappy. Which could result in many outcomes, maybe he or she might work harder to achieve said goals. Perhaps employee might try to gain certain needs via unethical means such as robbing from the employer. Also, a nagging employee who always sees the bad of the employer. These are a few of the adverse outcomes of not identifying the needs of an employee. Which will obviously result in lower output employees in the organisation

According to Maslow's "theory of motivation"(1954), (figure:1), people at the initial stage of the career are more keen on the most basic needs. Such as food, water, sex, sleep which comes under physiological needs. This is correct for most of the cases. But for people who comes from privileged families, these needs are not important since they have been already fulfilled.

        Figure:1, Abraham Maslows' "Hierarchy of Needs",        (https://www.verywellmind.com/)

This theory explains the needs of the people at particular stages of their career. Which brings me to my question, are all organisations aware of these needs? Do they have plans for their employees?

Are organisations aware of employee needs?

Modern HR practices focus on each and every employee. Organisations have placed systems to evaluate employees individually. These evaluation systems put extra pressure on the employee to do better or sustain the work they are already doing at acceptable levels to the Organisation.

Modern organisations emphasis on having job designs to the satisfaction of the employees while meeting the organisation's goals. Job design is a concept which specifies the parameters of the job assigned to an individual employee, which will satisfy the duty requirements of the organisation and the personal needs which are shown in the above diagram, also psychological satisfactions. Ultimately resulting in employees' more enthusiastic engagement in the organization.

Considering my earlier questions do Sri Lankan Organisations consider these theories? , Granted theories are there to have a better understanding, not to follow them to the dot. But in Sri Lankan context such theories can be used to maximise the productivity with a more satisfied workforce. Especially in the private sector, these theories can be applied easily. Of course, all the organisations have their unique identity and work environment, hence the productive adaptation of these theories is the duty of the Leader.

When considering the Government sector, before adopting any of these theories, the employee's mindsets should be changed. Most of the state employees in SL are not career-driven. But they find ways to satisfy their social and professional needs through unethical means. This is the main reason for the bad reputation the general public has on Government servants. This is the single biggest challenge any Government face in present Sri Lankan context. From the top-level politician to the bottom level Government servant corruption has spread like cancer. This disease is there for so many years now, as Sri Lankans, we have come to a conclusion that even if they take money as bribes, if they deliver on their work, we consider them as good Government servants. Sri Lankans have accepted the fact that their side-income is justified! Because most of the Government servants are not even bothered to do their jobs!
We all have forgotten or even ignored the fact that we as taxpayers have already paid them their salaries!

With these challenges, discussing modern work environments and practices for the state sector is an unfruitful effort. Changing the State sector is a different topic to discuss.

IT sector is one of the most advanced and progressive sectors in the world. If these advanced practices can be adapted to the Sri Lankan IT sector as well, it will be a major development to the countries' working environments. But the feedback I'm getting from the IT employees who work for countries' major IT companies, is not encouraging. Perhaps this might be the reason for most of the IT professionals to seek overseas job opportunities.

Plantations sector which I represent is one of the most conservative industries in the country. It has some practices which backdate to the eighteen hundreds. Even though, some plantation companies are taking initiatives to ensure employee satisfaction and favourable working conditions to their employees. Since the Industry is in utter chaos without any assistance from the Government these initiatives must be appreciated.

Overall, discussing these theories in the Sri Lankan context is not an easy task since most of the employees and Organisations are yet to be evolved into these contexts.

Please Feel free to give your inputs on the topic. Constructive criticism is always welcomed!

Trade Unions in Plantations in SL

In the early years of plantations, the concept of a trade union was a dream which the labours didn't even have the imagination power of having. There were much more pressing concerns like surviving the day without getting killed by extreme weather or hunger or so many other challenging factors. In the Colonial age, the Estate Superintendent held ultimate decision-making power. His decision was the rule. Police were established to serve the needs of the plantations. This was the case in all the areas of the country regardless of the ethnicity everyone was under the boot of the Englishmen. Laws were made by them and enforced by them. This resulted in so many rebellions against the British Government. In the plantations labours had no rights they were brought here to work and that was the only purpose expected out of them. Hense they learn to accept this fact and adjust their living conditions accordingly. After the Independence in 1948 Government took over these plantations. Some Estate owners and Planters decided to stay in their respective properties and continued their work.

Though Sri Lanka had its Independence the situation in the plantations were the same since the labours didn't have the citizenship or the right to vote. This was changed after the struggle of Mr Thondaman. Acquiring their citizenship and right to vote changed so much in plantations. For better or for the worse is to be decided by you.

Since the plantation workforce mainly consists of people who have minimum educational qualifications or no education at all it is very difficult to communicate new ideas or make changes in the workplace. Due to many reasons, the labours are reluctant to comply with new managements. It takes a considerable amount of time to built up trust between labours and management once new managers come into the plantations. Individual Plantations have trade union representatives/leaders called "Thaleva"(leader in Tamil). These people also work in plantations but they have the trust of some of their fellow workers. At the early ages of Trade Unions in Plantations, there were no many trade unions. Only CWC the union under Mr Thondaman was in effect. But this was not similar to the UK's single Union system.

Constructive use of trade unions in Plantations

With time other political leaders emerged within the plantations and they all wanted their own opinions to be heard. The workers paid their membership fees to these trade unions to represent them and make decisions on their behalf. As I mentioned earlier with an uneducated workforce typical HR practices are ineffective for obvious reasons. They are driven by single ideologies so the trade unions play a vital role in communicating ideas to the labours. When the political parties came into the fold their party ideologies and rivalries also came into the plantations as well. These rivalries made the management of plantations very difficult especially when there is a large workforce and different trade union representatives(Thaleva) in a single plantation. Management had to satisfy everybody's demands. Gradually this became a serious problem especially when these leaders started to come and ask for personal favours. When these demands were not met they tend to create unnecessary problems and start 'wild cat' strikes. These leaders are also having the same type of education and mindset, are not so different from the other labours. In my view, this phenomena is the biggest downfall of the plantation trade unions. The female labours are the ones who are most affected by these actions. They work tirelessly to earn their day's wage and leaders bring them down to the roads to do strikes against management for most of the time silly reasons.

Even though when organised by the trade unions these workers have won so many of their rights through trade union actions. Trade Unions play a vital role in managing plantations. Many of their Leaders understand the importance of the industry's survival. At present, the plantation industry is facing the biggest challenges it has ever faced. To get through this difficult time the support of the trade unions is vital. Rather than going against management, working with the management to find solutions should be the role of the trade unions. The UK 's approach is very much applicable in times like these. But Plantation labour force is a unique entity which had to be dealt with precision decision making. Their lifestyles are uplifted since the beginning of the colonies. But to further sustain and develop this industry trade union should improve Employer relations drastically. And the management must change into modern management practices. Leaders are required in Plantations.

Now more than ever!

Trade Union Impact on Organisations.

Trade Unions in Sri Lanka is a controversial topic as it carries a significant amount of political ideologies in them. Almost all the trade unions in Sri Lanka are connected to a political party and driven by its political agendas rather than the needs of its members. Most of the professions have their own trade unions both state and private sectors, despite the importance and the crucial duties they perform, Sri Lankan trade unions tend to take trade union actions against the government ultimately resulting of inconveniencing of the general public.

Employee relation is a largely spoken topic in Human resources management. The trade unions are the most common and conservative approach to ER. Trade unions play a crucial role in Employee relations. But the commonly debatable factor in Sri Lanka is, are all the trade unions favour their members' interests? Or are they consider the longevity and the survival of the organisation? In the Government sector, we as Sri Lankans always experience the unfair demands made by the trade unions and how they inconvenience the general public by their trade union actions. The railway trade union action took place in very recent history is one of the classic examples of this dilemma.
There are a few types of trade union actions commonly takes place in Sri Lanka such as,

• Working to rule
• Go slow
• Overtime ban 
• Strike (withdrawal of workers )    
• Sit- in (occupation of the workplace)

One union action Sri Lankan never practice is "work in" (occupation of the workplace and attempt to operate it without management). Japanese bus drivers' trade union took such a trade union action against its management without causing any inconvenience to the general public in the recent past.

Trade Unions - Good or Bad?

The need for trade unions is a crucial factor to Employee Relations in Sri Lankan organisations as most of the Sri Lankan workers are not yet evolved to practice unitary views or collective bargaining. Even though some Sri Lankan private organisations are working towards such practices. Such practices should be highly encouraged and appreciated since they are taking us into an advanced working era.

One of the biggest downfalls of Sri Lankan trade unions is that there is no governing authority to oversee their interests. UK s' practice of registering trade unions is very advanced and appreciatable Government decision. In the UK there is a government body called CAC to evaluate and register trade unions. They have established a proper system to apply and evaluate trade unions through a state-appointed body and it very effectively maintains the modern trade union system known as the new style unions aka strike free agreements.

This type of government bodies should come into the Sri Lankan context preferably with suitable adaptations. That way General public won't put into trouble over political agendas.

Also, I believe with the correct use, trade unions can be a powerful tool to correct organisations which tries to operate out of the lines of employee agreements and be a powerful guiding force to provide better services to its customers, especially in the state sector.

In conclusion, the Sri Lankan Government must intervene and set proper standards to trade unions and they should not align with the interests of the current political party which runs the Government. These guidelines or rules should come through a body which includes trade specialists, union activists, scholars and people with transparency so the workers, as well as employers, can rely on their guideline which will become rules by the lawmakers.

Feel free to comment on your suggestions below