Challenges in Attracting Competent Employees: Sri Lanka's Apparel Sector

Abstract

The study intends to identify the factors that contribute to Sri Lanka's apparel industry's lack of technically sound experts, even though the global apparel industry has been expanding impeccably for decades, fulfilling not just the needs of human beings but nourishing other sectors such as software, automotive, medical, furniture, sports, etc. Further, the study explored the elements influencing Sri Lanka's apparel industry's ability to attract technically skilled employees. The time horizon is chosen as the cross-sectional approach, and a deductive procedure is used to align with the quantitative approach to analyze the hypothesis testing. An inductive procedure was determined to enrich the qualitative aspect of the study. A semi-structured questionnaire was created to gather both quantitative and qualitative data. More than 13,000 workers who were employed by three clothing manufacturing companies SSS Garments, PY Textiles, and ABC Apparel were selected as the population. A sample size of 375 employees was chosen based on the Morgan Table. The secondary data analysis of the literature review identified the distinct factors that affect employee attractiveness: work environment, leadership, and financial rewards. According to the findings, only 16.5% of respondents said they were content with their occupations, while as many as 58.9% said they were dissatisfied. According to their opinions regarding retention in the organization, 24% of employees had plans to leave, while 49% said they were unaware of the situation. Through hypothesis testing, it was found that the work atmosphere, leadership, and economic advantages significantly improve employee attraction. It is suggested that the financial incentives, leadership, and working conditions be enhanced to draw technically skilled employees to Sri Lanka's Apparel industry. The participants in the qualitative study agreed that companies should implement flexible work arrangements, inclusive workplace cultures, robust employer brands, positive employer reputations, etc. Hence, based on such findings, it is advised that competitive pay, enhanced leadership skills, etc., are necessary to increase the retention of current technically knowledgeable personnel and draw in new ones.