HNB appoints new Chief Employee Experience Officer and Customer Experience Officer

• To drive unmatched customer services through happy employees

In a leap forward to augment work life balance and enhance customer services through a happy workforce, HNB appointed senior banker Kalum Wijesooriya as its new Chief Employee Experience Officer and Vindhya Wijegunawardane as Customer Experience Officer. The new appointments will ensure differentiation through excellence which the Bank considers a crucial and most important element in its value proposition.  

Kalum Wijesooriya will spearhead the bank’s initiatives to create a responsive reach out channel to its over 4,000 employees from across the country and inspire them into unleashing their fullest potential at the workplace. 

Articulating his vision for the role, Kalum said: “What we achieve in life is a reflection of what we are and what shapes us at home.  HNB is home to over 4000 individuals from diverse backgrounds.  They are the bank’s finest asset and we are quite attuned to the fact that the best way to ensure a consistently superior external brand is to build and sustain it on the back of a resoundingly strong employee brand.  

“In that regard, my appointment is part of a clear strategy from the Bank to take HNB’s employee brand to even greater heights. My first priority is to listen to the voices of the Hatna family and my mandate is to pave the way for a constructive dialogue that in turn facilitates meaningful action that would usher in greater sense of fulfilment and team identity.”

Vindhya Wijegunawardane as the bank’s Customer Experience Officer will provide strategic direction and leadership to the bank’s customer service teams to leverage customer insights and adopt an integrated suite of transformational initiatives designed to enhance the customer experience. She will also ensure consistency in service across all of the bank’s touch points and ensure that back office processes are attuned to providing an unparalleled service experience to customers.

Voicing her thoughts on HNB’s unstinted commitment to service excellence, Vindhya said: “Introducing a service experience role to the local commercial banking industry for the first-time in Sri Lanka, HNB has taken a huge leap forward to enhance how customers experience banking in the country. I am excited to be part of HNB’s journey – where I am able to work with all verticals in the bank to deliver a service beyond customer expectation.”     

Commenting on the new Chief Employee Experience Officer, HNB’s MD/CEO Jonathan Alles said: “Kalum is the ideal person to be our Chief Employee Experience Officer. He has a deep understanding of HNB’s culture and practice and the right attributes to be a conduit for upward employee communication. His ability to smoothly interconnect across multiple stakeholders will serve well to enrich our employee’s workplace experience. HNB is on a forward journey to reach excellence in every sphere of its presence. In that vision, it is our deepest desire that our Hatna family is nourished and cherished and given the best experience so that they can in turn service our valued customers with world class service.”

Alles went on to comment on  the newly appointed Customer Experience Officer, saying: “Customer service and engagement is vital to stay competitive in our industry and I have great expectations of Vindhya in driving this very important strategic initiative of the bank in building innovative and seamless customer client interaction.”  

The brand new titles and appointments are a key part of HNB’s evolution to a future ready financial services powerhouse. Wijesooriya, LLB, counts 25 years of service at HNB and continues to function as AGM – Deposit Mobilisation and Remittances in addition to his new role. Complementing an illustrious tenure spanning marketing, remittances and deposit mobilization, Wijesooriya has also gained prominence as a famous TV personality and a programme anchor. In his new role, Wijesooriya will work closely with HNB’s iconic Hatna family to augment employee experience at the Bank. 

Wijegunawardane is a seasoned professional with over 20 years track record of excellence in the service industry and hails from the Telecom/ BPO industry. She holds a MBA from Cardiff Metropolitan University, UK and comes with diverse experience and rich insights. With her positive attitude, Wijegunawardane envisions to take HNB’s customer service experience, to new heights, whilst setting new benchmarks in service excellence.