Employability of Human Resource Management (HRM) Graduates in Sri Lanka

Abstract

This study examined the impact of three factors namely skills, personality, and influences on the employability of HRM graduates passed out from the Sri Lankan state universities. Data was collected from the HRM graduates passed out from the University of Kelaniya and the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, which are the premier universities in producing HRM graduates in Sri Lanka. And the data collection was based on a structured questionnaire supplemented by interviews and the study was conducted among 116 graduates. The selected sample was categorized into two groups: employed and unemployed HRM graduates. A conceptual model was formulated for the study. Employability (Dependent variable0 was measured on nominal scale and skills, Personality, and Influences (Independent Variables) were measured on ordinal scales. The ordinal data was converted into nominal data for finding out the relationship between dependent and independent variables. On-parametric statistics such as Chisquare test and Mann-Whitney test were used to analyze the data in order to identify the difference in skills, personality, and influence levels of both employed and unemployed graduates. Findings suggest that there is no significant difference in terms of Skills and Personality among the employed and unemployed graduates of HRM in Sri Lanka.The influence level found to be significantly different among the unemployed and unemployed graduates. Employed graduates used high level of influence and unemployed graduates used moderate level of influence. The results of the study indicate that HRM graduates have obtained employments largely on the base of influences made through various sources like family, school, university, political activities, and memberships of associations.