Just In Time Group CSR practices recognised at Asia Pacific HRM Congress Awards 2017

Just In Time Group (JIT), a leading ICT systems and solutions company, received the award for ‘Best CSR Practices’ in the ICT sector at the Asia Pacific HRM Congress Awards 2017 held in Bangalore, India recently.

For Just In Time Group, this CSR award and recognition is an unexpected honour and acknowledgement of their CSR efforts and practices implemented. The award winning CSR project for JIT came into play with JIT’s 20-year anniversary milestone and to commemorate this achievement, the company launched its ‘Today a Reader – Tomorrow a Leader’ –20Reading Corners Project’ as part of its CSR initiative in 2016. 

The objective of this CSR project is to launch 20 mini libraries/reading corners for children’s homes and orphanages that are conducive to encourage children into the wonderful habit of reading. Working to create a better future every day for our country’s children is a cause JIT is passionate about. 

“We want to inculcate and encourage the habit of reading for children across the island, thereby playing our part in shaping well rounded individuals for the future. We are thrilled that our commitment to being a responsible corporate citizen has been recognised by this award,” said JIT Group Manager of PR and Corporate Communications Dhanya Gunawardana.

“This award validates our efforts in making a difference in the lives of these children and we are extremely humbled by this recognition. Whether it is our commitment to diversity, our support for future generations who need to be empowered, our steadfast approach to ethics and governance, our care for the environment in which we live, the entire JIT team has embraced CSR as the transformation that is needed to be accountable as a business leader for the future.”

JIT’s 20 Reading Corners project is currently ongoing with much success. “Thank you so much for your contribution by arranging this special and lovely Reading Corner for the Girls at St John’s Girls Home. It was so good to see the children enjoying reading and making use of the place so much,” said Sister Chandrani Peiris from St. John’s Girls’ Home, Moratuwa, which was a recipient of one of the Reading Corners. 

According to the Asia Pacific HRM Congress– the organisers of the event – the objective of the awards is to promote sustainable corporate responsibility and investment in the social development within the company and for their stakeholders at large. The award was conferred for JIT based on its commitment to the society and also on the originality of the work.

‘Today a Reader – Tomorrow a Leader’ 20 Reading Corner Project initiative commenced in 2016.JIT’s CSR Reading Corner program – project idea emerged from the JIT workforce, to create a development initiative for children in need to commemorate the company’s 20th anniversary. This idea then transpired into the Reading Corner initiative–to improve the current reading resources and spaces at orphanages and schools in need across Sri Lanka. 

At JIT, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is more than an obligated social responsibility. JIT’s CSR plan was created by under standing the nature of corporate social responsibility needs of its stakeholders at large and aligning to the company’s strategy and vision in order to reach its overall goal and objective collectively. 

Furthermore JIT validated its efforts towards transformative CSR and to enter into the age of responsibility, by becoming the first corporate in Sri Lanka to get assessed with the ‘Transformative CSR 2.0 Assessment Tool’ which is an internationally-recognised diagnostic tool for CSR.

A team of members from CSR Sri Lanka conducted a workshop for Just In Time Group, to assess their current operations against systematic sustainability benchmarks. Just In time Group was the first corporate in Sri Lanka to use the internationally recognised diagnostic tool CSR 2.0; demonstrating their investment towards transformative CSR and to enter into the age of responsibility.

The aim of this assessment was to evaluate JIT’s current awareness to align business strategies towards achieving a long term value creation through systematic sustainability. JIT’s team for this assessment covered a cross-sectional team, representing PR and Communications, Legal, HR, Engineering, Secretarial, Marketing and Managerial, which led to a shared transparent view of the organisation and therefore an effective assessment of the CSR stage that JIT required to strategise to enhance their way forward. 

CSR isn’t just marketing ploy – JIT’s CSR initiatives has enhanced the company’s business endeavours and staff mind-set by the tangible benefits that has come about as a result.