Sampath Bank wins two national HR Excellence Awards for 2013

Friday, 19 July 2013 05:12 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Sampath Bank, a premier private sector commercial bank in Sri Lanka, was recently recognised for its outstanding HR practices at the National HR Conference 2013 held on 18 and 19 June 2013 at Waters Edge, Battaramulla when the bank was awarded two National Excellence Awards, out of the three, for People Development and Talent Management. The event was organised by the Institute of Personnel Management of Sri Lanka (IPM). The National HR Excellence Award for People Development was awarded in recognition of the exceptional contribution towards nurturing and developing human capital. The second award won at the HR Conference by Sampath Bank for Talent Management was in

recognition of the proactive contribution towards unleashing the true potential of human resources through management of key result areas of HRM. The bank considers recruitment as very critical area in their talent management process and deploys different techniques to select the best talent in the market. Over 90% of the talent requirement is developed within the bank through systematic people development and talent management strategies. The bank’s training and development initiatives cover junior levels to the most senior levels of management. Sampath Bank’s technical training concentrates on a multitude of training mechanisms and delivery channels bringing a paradigm shift to HR practices. The bank’s training and development consists of internal training, regional training and external training inclusive of overseas training. E-Learning supplements the internal and regional training. Further, online learning solutions facilitate team members to improve English language skills and Tamil language skills. The bank strongly believes in developing leaders at all levels. The Sampath Leadership Academy was launched in 2012 to develop a leadership pipeline for the bank. The bank possesses a highly skilled faculty of internal trainers where the Managing Director of the bank is also a member of the internal faculty of trainers of the bank. The internal culture of Sampath Bank is such that each supervisor is responsible for developing team members within the bank to the next level. Sampath Bank also became the champions of the Great HR Debate 2013 contest organised by IPM in concurrence with the National HR Conference 2013. The objective of the HR Debate was to take the key HR topics to the national level. This year’s key HR topics chosen for debate were ‘Performance based rewards is the key to achieve excellent performance’, ‘Brain Drain can be restricted through good HR Management’, ‘Firing should be the right of the Hirer’, and the final debate was on ‘Necessity for a Union can be restricted by good HR management’. The Sampath Bank Debating Team was adjudged the winner of the Great HR Debate 2013. The bank believes that its human resources practices engender a culture that encourages talent retention as well as employee growth and development. A recent employee survey conducted by the bank has also revealed that the employees are satisfied with their work environment, have a sense of pride in their work and consider the bank as a great place to work. Further, the culture of the bank permeates a sense of lifetime employment. The bank position themselves as an organisation that respects both tradition and technology and invite those young individuals who respect these values to join Sampath Bank.