What makes DHL a Great Workplace?

By Dimithri Perera

The challenges we faced during the pandemic didn’t hold us back from delivering great customer service. In fact, our people drove, flew, walked and did whatever it took to safely deliver our customer promise of ‘Excellence. Simply Delivered’ in every corner of the world. We are a logistics company driven by the purpose of ‘Connecting People and Improving Lives’. That’s what kept them motivated to do their best throughout the pandemic.

At DHL, we train our employees to lead with ‘Head, Heart and Guts’; which allows them to be more entrepreneurial and empowered. These leadership attributes fuel them to become purpose-driven leaders who are able to serve their customers under any circumstances. Our organisation is fuelled by a high-trust ‘for all’ culture which we garner through levers such as humble leadership, transparency, honesty and two-way communication. This is further emphasised through our guiding principles of achieving results without compromising on respect for people. Armed with a mindset of an insanely customer centric culture, DHL staff are encouraged to proactively act on customer feedback regardless of their role. We have witnessed that by granting employees the autonomy and initiative to represent the company with pride, employees are encouraged and motivated to deliver a better quality of service to customers, making it a win-win all around.

Moreover, we rely on open communication mechanisms such as our annual employee survey to assess employee trust across the company and to review things like employee engagement and diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The responses are examined at the local level and then within the regions and finally at a global level. For us equity isn’t just about hiring employees, it is also about understanding the employee lifecycle and creating points of engagement with the organisation.

DHL’s performance reviews, promotion paths and compensation plans are designed to mitigate bias from the outset. And, as an Employer of Choice and ‘A great company to work for all’ we provide our employees a safe environment in which they are allowed to make mistakes which leads to experimentation and innovation. Hence the team isn’t afraid to admit when they’ve got it wrong. We believe that as a leader, admitting a mistake or admitting that you don’t know something helps to foster a culture of trust across the company.

We also ensure that employees aren’t just recognised for the work they do on the job, but also at a personal level; volunteering outside their working hours. This is because we want our employees to have a work life balance and to deliver excellence in a sustainable way. Every year, we select winners at a country and regional level based on the volunteer work they do at a personal level and make financial contributions to their charities of choice. This encourages them to serve the environment they live with the support of the company. Simply put, DHL’s got heart and we strive to improve every community in which we operate to make the world a better place.

This year, our organisation was ranked as one of the Best Work Places to work for in Sri Lanka for the seventh consecutive year highlighting the people-centred culture and collaborative work environment that has been a cornerstone for more than four decades. Also, special recognitions such as winning the Gold Award in the for a Multinational Category, Silver Award for Medium Sized Organisations Category and the special Award for DHL Express Sri Lanka’s contribution in DHL Express securing the number 1 position as the World’s Best Work Place, further demonstrates the importance we place upon creating an enriching culture for our employees.

Finally, we put employee satisfaction and empowerment at the centre of our priorities in order to create and build a better workplace culture based on the foundation of respect and results. This is important to us because we know that when our employees are fully engaged and have a high-trust experience they drive better business results, making a difference to our clients as we try to create a profitable network.

(The writer is Country Manager at DHL Keells Ltd.)