An exclusive interview given by Ms. Sarah Afker - Director / Head of Tax, BDO Sri Lanka on the topic “Talent Management in the Taxation industry”

An exclusive interview given by Ms. Sarah Afker - Director / Head of Tax, BDO Sri Lanka on the topic “Talent Management in the Taxation industry”

Miss. Sarah Afker – Director / Head of Tax, BDO Sri Lanka 

Sarah currently serves as Director - Tax Services  at BDO partners. She is an Associate Member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants(CIMA)-UK, Member of the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment (CISI)- UK and a Chartered Global Management Accountant. She is a visiting lecturer for the Islamic Finance Qualification and has authored many articles on Banking & Islamic Finance.

She was awarded the  Rising Islamic Finance Personality of the year award at the Islamic Finance Forum of South Asia (IFFSA) - 2016 and is the only female to have achieved this feat.

Interviewed by Anfas Anees

Q1: As a Tax Consultant who works in the senior level management gives you the ability to pick the right talent for the right place. Being in that position what do you think as issues and challenges you face while selecting and recruiting your employees?

Talent attraction and retention in the taxation industry is a challenging task due to the technicality of the subject matter. One of the main issues we face is that there are very limited candidates who are interested in entering into this particular segment. Even when a candidate is willing to enter the segment despite the complexity, as an employer we often require the candidate to have prior working experience maybe at least in an audit firm. This further narrows down our options for selecting and recruitment. As employers, we seek to select candidates who have the right education qualification for the particular job role in the taxation department. However, the issue we face with this is more often the candidates are qualified but not abreast with the new amendments and changes. This industry is very dynamic. If you’re not updated with the changes, it is highly likely that you will not be able to survive in the market. 

Q2: It is inevitable that the society is facing a requirement gap. What the Company is offering for their employees is not what this younger generation’s requirements are and vice versa.   How do you think an organization should bridge this requirement gap?

Trainee Program is one of the most effective ways to bridge this gap. Organizations recruit potential candidates for mostly for a year or two and train them to sharpen their talents and after the training period if the candidate has performed according to the expectations then the organization will be flexible in absorbing them as well. Most of the younger generation don’t want to start at scratch but the trainee program enables the candidate to get the exposure and the experience and guarantee them a job with the required benefits if they fit the bill.

Q3: ‘Job Shopping’ is the new trend now. Potential candidates go from one job to another until they meet their requirements. Given this context what would be the best strategy to implement in an organization to retain talents?

The new generation often wants to feel they are part of something bigger and better. So it is a must as an organization to create teams and hand over challenging projects and task and reward them accordingly. Instill the thought that they are part of the long term vision of the company. Giving them a purpose and engaging them actively would retain them in the organization.

Q4: It is often said that companies are not having an accurate strategy to measure the talents of the employees and place them in the right context. As a Tax Consultant what are the strategies you and your organization uses to measure the talents in the organization?

360 Degree Appraisal is one of the tools we use to appraise employees. At the beginning of the year the employee sets personal and professional targets and gets it vetted by his performance manager. Thereafter, at the time of appraisal, the individual has to review whether he has accomplished his set targets, the employee will be reviewed by a peer and subordinates, following which the individual will have a performance interview with the immediate supervisor. This will enable the organization to measure the talent of an individual employee and accordingly to that we can remunerate him and enhance his role effectively. 

Q5: As a head of a department what do you think the best suiting strategy to manage the millennials in your organization?

The millennials and the issue of job shopping is here to stay. I think it would be an understatement to say that they are easy to attract, in fact, they are far difficult to attract. However, once we have attracted the candidate, for retention it is key that we understand their needs and the kind of technology and social factors that they are accustomed to, we cannot simply dismiss the role of digitalization while the workforce is demanding and is accustomed to the contemporaries in the market. We must speak their language and it may involve a paradigm shift from the conventional working style.