John Keells Holdings PLC (JKH), the largest company listed on the Colombo Stock Exchange has long contributed to trends and pioneered policies that would become commonplace across various sectors. In a conversation with Echelon, Isuru Gunasekera, Chief People Officer, Head, Sustainability, Enterprise Risk Management, & Group Initiatives and Executive Vice President John Keells Group, shares a deeper look at the insights and processes that feed into the organisation’s HR blueprint.
How is John Keells fostering a people-first culture across its diverse portfolio, and what role does HR play in embedding this ethos throughout the organisation?
At John Keells, a people-first culture is not just a vision; it’s a strategic imperative. With operations across diverse sectors, our focus has been on building a unified culture anchored in meritocracy, equity, and empowerment. HR plays a critical role in bringing this to life, not only by standardising best-in-class people practices across the Group, but by enabling businesses to localise these within their specific contexts.
Initiatives such as ONE JKH reflect our integrated approach to building inclusion and belonging. Through this Group-wide movement, we champion diversity, equity, and inclusion across gender identity, sex ual orientation, disability, ethnicity, age, political affiliation, and more. This is true whether referring to our game-changing 100-day paid parental leave policy, recognition of domestic partnerships, inclusive hiring of persons with disabilities, or our commitment to economic empowerment of LGBTIQ+ persons.
What innovative strategies have your HR team implemented to attract, engage, and retain high-performing talent in such a competitive and varied business landscape?
Our talent strategy is grounded in delivering a compelling people experience, one that prioritises purpose, progression, and pride in the Group. We’ve embraced digital-first platforms that support accessible, unbiased hiring at scale. Internally, talent mobility is actively promoted, with structured career paths and learning opportunities across sectors. This enables our people to grow both vertically and laterally. Recognition is also core to retention.
The Chairperson’s Awards, our highest internal accolade, celebrate exceptional achievement across categories like innovation, sustainability, CSR, and DE&I. These awards don’t just recognise outcomes, but the values and bold thinking that drive them. In our community culture, people are encouraged to volunteer for projects of the John Keells Foundation, and a formal volunteer recognition event is held annually, reinforcing our belief that engagement extends beyond work into purpose-led contribution.
How is your HR leadership helping shape the future of work at John Keells, particularly in areas like digital adoption, flexible work, and purpose-driven leadership?
We see the future of work as adaptive, inclusive, and deeply human. HR at John Keells is leading this transition by aligning digital innovation with culture and leadership. Our rollout of agile work models across eligible roles is grounded in trust, security, and flexibility, with robust tech infrastructure enabling productivity from anywhere.
We prioritise initiatives that train our people in digital tools and emerging technologies like AI, automation, and data analytics. This complements our use of AI in talent acquisition and enhanced digital learning platforms. Agile work policies are designed to balance flexibility with accountability, ensuring performance is measured by outcomes, not inputs. John Keells places strong emphasis on developing and recognising leaders who lead with empathy, clarity, and purpose. Our established competency framework positions inclusive leadership as a critical success driver. This is reinforced by consistent messaging impact, and environmental responsibility, while embedding our DE&I ethos into all people practices, and this extends to merit-based hiring and promotion.
John Keells is widely recognised for its commitment to strong governance. How do these values shape the Group’s people strategy and influence the overall employee experience?
Governance and sustainability are embedded into every aspect of our people strategy, not as separate goals, but as defining principles. From our compensation frameworks to trans parent career pathways, our governance standards shape how we hire, develop, and recognise talent.
ONE JKH, as mentioned earlier, is directly aligned with our governance ethos, whether ensuring non-discrim ination in policies, making workplaces physically and digitally accessible, or embedding inclusion goals into leadership KPIs. These efforts result in a structured, sustained approach to creating a workplace where everyone feels respected and represented.