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The Great Place to Work® Category Awards acknowledge organisations that display excellence under four award clusters: Excellence in People Initiatives (three selected practices), the Cube Award for Special Recognition, Organisation Size and Classification, and achievement of the ‘5 Year Legend’ status (organisations listed for at least five years in a row).
Excellence in People Initiatives
Great Place to Work® appraised both people practices (two-thirds of the final score) and respective employee perception scores (a third of the final score) in determining winners whose practices contribute to nurturing and maintaining a Great Workplace culture. This dual alignment is used to ensure that the practice, while satisfying structure and principles, is one that has been successfully implemented too.
Excellence in Talent Attraction and Onboarding – Won by Diesel and Motor Engineering
DIMO adopts a planned approach which includes, ‘employer of choice’ Branding, Planning requirements, Attracting best talent, Selection based on a triple fit matrix, Welcoming and blending in employees.
DIMO brands itself in all talent pools, exhibitions, career guidance programs, vocational training programs, social media and traditional media. Talent is sourced through methods such as employee referrals, internal & external recruitment portals, campus hiring fairs, forums supported by DIMO ambassadors through the TripleE initiative and training school/internships/ field visits. Best talent is ascertained at interviews through identified behavioural competencies and cultural fit & training of hiring managers to ask right questions.
The welcoming process is designed to incite the “I want to belong to my organization” need in employees. An Employee is engaged early before their first day and then welcomed by recruitment team, immediate manager and unit. The induction programe is about interactions that ‘create the bond’. Recruits are taken through a comprehensive orientation program supported through ‘Magnet’ learning platform and starter kit too. A discussion about job role, responsibilities and career path mapping is also conducted. Recruits are met by the chairman for a friendly chat during the orientation. Very importantly feedback across the practice is captured to help continuously measure and enhance it.
Excellence in Two Way Communication - Won by 99x
'Culture of openness’ is maintained as a core company value. Virtual general staff meetings (GSM) allow sharing information and engaging employees. An ‘Ask Anything Hour’ is included to give opportunity to question. Channels such as CEO emailer, blogs, Tech Forums, Social Media, Weekly HR Tips, internal newsletter are a variety of ways information is shared. Change agents are tasked with engaging with employees for informal communication. Project Risk Management Dashboards and 1-on-1 team sessions are used for effective 2-way communication. A COVID-19 online information portal and Bi-weekly updates on COVID's impact to the business along with contingency measures were set up for all staff.
A variety of periodic leads, team and department meetings and annual strategy workshop allow collaboration on decisions. Performance discussions are used to talk about company performance & alignment. Knowledge hubs such as project SPEC, technical skills map, e-learning platform Maturify that host ‘knowledge models’ are used. A variety of surveys are used to decide measures to be taken as well as to monitor perception while working from home and take action on a continuous basis.
Excellence in Creating an Inclusive Environment – Won by Diesel and Motor Engineering
Driving equal opportunity and meritocracy has been the cornerstone of DIMO’s way of work.
Operating in a male dominant industry led to fostering initiatives for increasing gender diversity. Automobile Technology courses are conducted to encourage female enthusiasts. A quota for senior female managers maintained among Career Ambassadors to mentor females lead to increase in female leadership talent pool from 13% to 36% across 3 years. Due to DIMO following through on key commitments in the “She Works” Private Sector Partnership for gender-smart solutions, female leadership at DIMO increased by 5% within a year and the percentage of women in male dominated roles rose by 3% across 2 years.
A Diversity & Inclusion team focuses on creating a welcoming organization for people from all kinds of backgrounds by fostering initiatives that provide equal opportunity for employment, development, performance, promotions and compensation. Several vocational training centers were set up across the country, in less privileged areas to attract the youth who may be deemed less employable. It also opened vacancies up to international job portals to increase global diversity. An ‘Accessibility’ audit was conducted and being accessible to differently abled employees is supported. DIMO continuously modifies practices to accommodate more groups such as implementing better maternity/paternity leave policies for parents as well as adapting practices according to the age group categories.
Cube Award for Special Recognition
Best Leadership in Crisis – won by Citizen's Development Business Finance
CDB was quick to set up an emergency task force with status surveillance. Appropriate strategic actions were taken to implement government directives and progress was tracked. It prioritised critical processes and resource requirements, obtained necessary IT infrastructure, set up strong communication channels and invested millions in implementing safety protocols (providing all standard materials, hotline, awareness sessions and health activities). A SOP was implemented for employees and training sessions on work-related areas were conducted through CDB Virtual University. Remote working was facilitated during lock down and then service was taken forward through a streamlined Contact Centre and extension of digital support.
The organization took the bold steps to extend financial assistance of Rs. 24 Mn for +1200 employees, provide concessions on staff loans and advances commitments. It extended support of Rs. 1 Mn. as allowances to support outsourced janitorial and security staff during lockdown.
A special allowance was also paid to agents at the Contact Centre for working round the clock. Vendors and partners were also supported during this time to provide accessibility, platforms and timely payments so that they could function.
CDB supported the community by voluntarily granting a capital moratorium to over 45,000 customers for two months amounting an interest income impact of over Rs. 800 Mn. A donation of Rs. 10 Mn. was made to the Government to support national effort. CDB extended relief measures, grace periods for payments and 24X7 service. Every branch selected deserving families from their respective areas and provided essential household items.
Organisation Size and Classification Awards
The challenges of sustaining a great workplace culture vary with the number of employees and the nature of the work environment. Therefore, Great Place to Work® in Sri Lanka further felicitated best workplaces in the following categories.
Small Enterprise Category (<200 employees)
Medium Enterprise Category (201-750 employees)
Large Enterprise Category (750 – 1500 employees)
Extra Large Enterprise Category (>1500 employees)
Best Multinational Corporation - DHL (Keells)
Best Public Limited Company - Talawakelle Tea Estates
Hall Of Fame: 5 Year LEGENDS
Organizations which have maintained a proven track record for commitment to people management by achieving a place in the Best Workplaces list for five years in a row were given the status of ‘5 YR LEGEND’ and inducted into the hall of fame. HNB Finance joined the hall of fame this year.
99X, AIA Insurance Lanka, Diesel & Motor Engineering, Oxford College of Business, Gamma Pizzakraft Lanka, DHL (Keells), McLarens Holdings, Mountain Hawk Express (Licensee of Federal Express), Singer (Sri Lanka) and Union Assurance are +5 year Legends who made it to the Best Workplaces list again.
Asia’s Best Workplaces
The Great Place to Work® annual study of Asia’s Best WorkplacesTM recognised the best workplaces in the Asia-Pacific and Middle East. The size of the regional list increased this year and distinguished 200 organisations under three categories – 30 Best Multinational Workplaces in Asia, 70 Best Large Workplaces in Asia, and 100 Best Small and Medium Workplaces in Asia. The list included results from studies in Sri Lanka conducted from April 2019 to March 2021. Thirty-seven organisations across two annual national lists in Sri Lanka were acknowledged on the list which was commemorated in a separate ceremony held in August 2021. 6 organizations contributed to their parent organizations being ranked on the MNC list. 17 organizations were recognized on the Large workplaces list and 14 organizations appeared on the SME workplaces list.
World’s Best Workplaces
25 MNCs that are building the best workplace cultures in the world that put people-first were honored with a rank on this prestigious list published with Fortune magazine. DHL (Keells) contributed to DHL ranking as the No: 1 while Hilton (Sri Lanka) contributed to Hilton ranking at No: 3 on this list. The achievement of these organizations were felicitated at the awards ceremony.
To be eligible for the list, a company must be named to 5 or more national Best Workplaces™ lists, have 5,000 employees or more worldwide, and at least 40% of the company's workforce (or 5,000 employees) must be based outside of the country in which the company is headquartered.
For more information regarding the study findings contact by writing to [email protected] or calling the Great Place to Work® in Sri Lanka office via 0766301200 / 0114545594
