Track: Operations Management

Abstract

The Sri Lankan apparel industry is having a high demand for exports all over the world and is a leading apparel producer in the South Asian region. It has started to fight for its survival due to the pandemic, Covid-19. It guesses a  bracing for a 50% drop in demand by the following one to one and a half years from Covid-19. Thus, the industry is in a position to reinvent itself by forcing itself to live. Thus, business continuity is necessary to proceed with the business without any interruption at this time. Moreover, human resource professionals act a major role to continue the business after the new normal, as handling the main resource of the organisation which is humans. Hence, this study aims to develop a guideline to maintain the continuous business operation of the Sri Lankan apparel industry during the Covid-19 through the commitment of HR professionals. Initially, the literature review delivered a theoretical understanding of the research area and semi-structured interview was selected as the primary data collection method. Collected data were analysed using manual content analysis. The findings revealed that the challenges or factors that affect each HRM function during Covid-19 were identified and the action or solution used to handle those challenges/ factors were collected. Finally, the guideline was developed.