Sri Lanka’s Best Workplaces 2021

Assessing the positive response to 59 core global statements, collectively averaged as the Trust Index (or Grand Mean), employees of the 40 Best Workplaces were 85% positive about their workplaces, a result unchanged from last year. This, in itself, shows that the Best Workplaces have done well to maintain a standard despite the challenges of the year.

However, the overall pulse statement – ‘taking everything into account, do you believe your organisation to be a Great Workplace?’ – dropped 1% from last year to 88% positivity which may reflect on the overall difficulties experienced during the pandemic.

A Trust Index (TI) of 85% positive perception, places Sri Lanka squarely on par with the average TI of other countries. The map (Figure 1) represents the countries which have a Great Place to Work presence and their corresponding employee perception averages. Perceptions are subjective and will vary according to employee expectations in the country.

The average TI employee perception score for the ‘Rest’ of the organisations participating in the study amounts to 72% positivity, falling one point from last year.

Key themes

The TI is broken down further into five key focus areas (Figure 2). Pride is highest at 88%, a clear 3 points higher than the next, and Fairness is the lowest at 82%. These results match the historical trend as well as general results that most organisations will garner. Comparing the results of the rest shows the same trend. However, the gap between Best vs. Rest is greatest for Credibility and Camaraderie, which point to the areas that the Best Workplaces are addressing more successfully than others.

When exploring the individual statements, it becomes apparent that the statements pertaining to ‘avoidance of favouritism,’ ‘fair profit sharing’ and ‘fair pay and promotions’ under fairness have the least positive results. Meanwhile, the most positive statements relate to camaraderie, pride and non-discrimination by race or caste.

Health indicators

The overall health of an organisation can be measured through five key statements (Table 2) related to daily motivation, discretionary effort, long-term association, pride and advocacy. With an average 10-point lead in most areas, the Best outperform the Rest.

Gender highlights Promisingly, the gap between the genders is only one point for the Best Workplaces with women being more positive. When studying individual statements, the difference is not notable in most areas. Women are marginally less positive about Pride in Personal Job, Avoidance of Favouritism, Work-Life Balance and Fair Promotions, while men are less positive about Safe Infrastructure, Freedom to be Self, Job Security and Resources/Equipment.

However, when examining the results of the Rest, although women are only one point less positive than men, in individual areas, there are 6-to-9-point differences where women are less positive, these being Fair Pay, Pride in Personal Job, Motivation, Long-term Association and Unique Benefits.

Age-group highlights

Once again, the 26- to 34-year-olds remain the least positive age demographic at 81% compared to the highest group of over 55 years at 91%. The areas of least positivity are Fairness in re l ation to Compensat i o n , Promotions and Work Environment, as well as Management Reliability and Work-Life Balance.

The Best Workplaces significantly outperform the Rest, with margins of up to 20 points in key areas shown in Table 3. Hence these should be key areas of focus for the Rest to endeavour to improve. This gap having increased significantly, by 4 points, from last year, it highlights how the Best Workplaces show better performance and the ability to withstand dif ficult periods more ef fectively. Great Place to Work’s mission is to support in building a better society by helping all organisations transform their workplaces and create a high trust, high performance culture. No matter where you are in your journey, you are invited to join in and contribute to achieving the vision of making Sri Lanka a great place to work.

(For more information on how to begin your journey in creating a great workplace, contact Best Workplaces List Manager ruwani. [email protected] or call 0766 301200 or 4545594, or visit www. greatplacetoworksl.lk.)