Ransi Dharmasiriwardhana, Head of Human Resources at Standard Chartered Sri Lanka, reflects on the future of the banking sector in the country amidst an unprecedented economic crisis and its commitment to empowering employees and taking care of every aspect of their well-being.

Dharmasiriwardhana begins the inter ­ view by sharing insights into how the unfolding economic crisis could impact the banking sector, and how Standard Chartered is responding to the challenges and unlocking new opportunities:

The financial sector is likely to encounter significant challenges in the face of the current economic environment and the stability of the banking sector might also be threatened by rising challenges,” she contends.

“However, Standard Chartered has prioritised the utilization of forex liquidity to support essential transactions to the economy during these unprecedented times, enabling trade finance flows to secure essential imports during the crisis. We have ensured to put our focus on our clients supporting them navigate the headwinds with our strong footprint, despite the many challenges”.

Dharmasiriwardhana says all sectors, including the banking sector, are faced with the challenge of employees migrating due to the present economic crisis. This has raised concerns in terms of securing an eligible talent pool. “We at Standard Chartered have taken various measures to ensure employee well-being by offering both financial and non-financial support that would help them weather the rough seas. We have also taken measures to train and guide our workforce to be agile and adapt to various conditions while offering the best service standards to our clients.” Excerpts of the interview are as follows:

How is Standard Chartered taking care of its employees during these difficult times?

The last couple of years brought unprecedented challenges to coun ­ tries and companies the world over. The pandemic, high inflation and a steep devaluation of the Sri Lankan rupee have impacted every industry and living standard, worsening the macroeconomic environment. We have always focused on planning for the future, and ensuring sustainability in difficult times, not just in terms of our business, but for all internal and external stakeholders.

As an employer, we have taken numerous steps to ensure that our employees are taken care of during these challenging times by introducing different measures to enhance the work experience of our employees while enhancing benefits and new infrastructure to seamlessly transfer to Work From Home (WFH). Traditional compensation and benefits needed change to suit the evolving needs of employees, and, understanding this and making quick decisions to change enabled us to be market leaders in offering tailor-made and essential benefits to relieve the pressures our employees were facing due to the pandemic, and subsequent economic crisis.

Some of the key benefits we introduced included:

Special Covid-19-related benefits to our employees and their families – additional medical insurance coverage, reservation of intermediary care centre rooms, access to on-demand general practitioners virtually via ODOC, special Covid-19 sick leave, home isolation support (exclusive 14-day home isolation care package, provision of oxygen concentrators), special care pack including a meal voucher and a dry ration pack. Further, a special risk allowance was introduced to reward our staff who were part of the skeletal force in office to ensure banking operations continued during the lockdowns, for the benefit of the public.

The bank decided to grant an ex gratia payment quarterly during 2022 to support our employees and families to meet the rising cost of living due to inflation We have taken necessary steps to consider the inflationary increase in the next increment cycle in April 2023 and have also brought up the minimum base pay for employees on a fixed term contract, support staff and our pensioners to align with the revised consumer price basket.

We enhanced the medical insurance coverage (Surgical and Hospitalisation in-door cover, Critical illness cover and OPD) for our employees and families with many additional benefits with effect from January 2023 taking into consideration the 40% medical inflation. The enhanced coverage also supports mental well-being-related treatments and fertility treatments in line with the bank’s diversity and inclusion, and well-being agendas.

How do organizations reimagine the workplace to empower employees to grow and be the best they can be?

Disruption is continuous and you have to accept it as a catalyst that is required for organizations to move forward, and we must put focus on what is within our control. With the disruptions, organizations focussed on providing employees with the right tools to reskill and upskill their digital skills; however, the need of the hour is to go beyond reskilling and help enable employees to unleash their potential. It is far less complicated than it sounds; it starts with empowering employees with the choice of what they want to do. Organizations that can give their employees the choice to explore their passion and move away from a prescriptive job description can enable employees to take initiative, giving them the freedom to choose how they can solve business challenges.

This might mean that employees look at change within the organization more frequently into roles outside their comfort zone, outside the roles that they were recruited for. In instances where this might not be possible all the time, organizations need to create new approaches, through internal secondments or projects or assignments, that allow them to participate in activities they are passionate about.

It would mean organizations look at remote working as an opportunity to enable them to work on such projects from anywhere in the world. People have already proven their resilience and potential for adapting to change, and it’s no longer about coming back to ‘returning to normal’; it’s about continuously reimagining and redesigning work on an ongoing basis. It’s about how human capabilities can be integrated with technology, not replaced, and giving human connection priority.

Historically organizations, including banks, attracted talent simply by paying them a good salary. However, with the increased competition for specific skills combined with all generations rethinking their priorities, compensation costs are increasing and becoming a by-stand, with potential employees considering well-being, culture and growth as a must. Older banking industry employees exiting or considering early retirement sooner than expected is now the reality, resulting in a potential loss of deep industry knowledge and customer relationships. If banks do not plan for this and do not reimagine and redesign the work with employee well-being, reskilling beyond technical skills and the overall culture, attracting talent will become a huge challenge.

How important is employee well-being?

It is a significant part of our People strategy! We want to create a great work environment that promotes positive well-being and healthy lifestyle choices to bring out the best in all our colleagues, enhancing our employee experience. There are four key aspects we look into: physical, mental, social, and financial well-being. ‘My Voice’ – our annual employee engagement survey – includes questions to evaluate the overall well-being of our employees and we gather insights on what more we could do to enhance the same. During the pandemic, we worked with clinical and organizational psychologists to deliver awareness sessions on mental, emotional, spiritual, financial, and social well-being to help employees better cope with the challenges. We also introduced Mental Health First Aiders who are trained to be a point of contact for anyone experiencing a mental health issue, emotional distress or a mental crisis. This interaction could range from having an initial conversation to supporting the colleague to acquire the appropriate help.

Great workplace culture and employee experience are correlated and are essential ingredients of corporate success. At Standard Chartered, employee experience is not limited to merely celebrating events or organizing activities but is a well-thought-through process covering the employee lifecycle from the onboarding to the off-boarding of an employee. We work on our Employee Value Proposition, creating a sense of pride in our people, and focus on continuous employee listening at all moments that matter to them to gauge their engagement and cater to their needs so that we could positively influence the level of engagement.

We want to create a great work environment that promotes positive well-being and healthy lifestyle choices to bring out the best in all our colleagues, enhancing our employee experience

The unique culture we have at Standard Chartered is built on the inclusivity and engagement of our people. The people who had taken pride in being a part of this organisation constructed our culture and the brand. In my view, our employee experience is the key enabler of our unique culture, and we have done right by focusing our efforts to improve employee engagement on a year-on-year basis. We were recently recognized within our Global network as having the highest Employee Net Promoter Score. Standard Chartered Sri Lanka was certified as a Great Place to Work® for the 4th consecutive year in 2022. This was an outcome of our efforts in creating a positive work culture for our employees.

A few of our initiatives are as follows:

Physical Well-being

• Medical insurance covering employees, their immediate family, parents and in-laws
• Comprehensive complimentary medical check-up for all employees which was conducted in-house, partnering with our medical insurance provider at no additional cost
• Return to work programmes
• Sports days and other mercantile tournaments

 

Mental Well-being

• Mental health awareness programmes, toolkits, mindfulness programmes, resilience training.
• In October 2020, we launched ‘Here for You’, a comprehensive Employee Assistance Programme, to provide confidential counselling and guidance service to support colleagues to manage their setbacks, and emotional conflicts or even meet the demands of daily life which may impact them, their health or their family. The service includes 24×7 behavioural health counselling, legal guidance & financial advisory and access to unlimited online wellness material. The bank offered this service through ComPsych, the global Employee Assistance Programme vendor for the bank.
• We also have relaxation and social areas in the office for our colleagues

 

Social Well-being

• Flexible working arrangements
• Our annual leave/block leave policy encourages employees to take a break from work and to maintain a good work -life balance
• We have a mother’s room in the office and a creche facility extended to employees’ kids
• Volunteering leave is provided for employees to engage in community engagement activities
• We have identified that our D&I programmes, personal development programmes, Code of Conduct, and environment and sustainability initi ­ atives would support employee social wellbeing

 

Financial Well-being

• We are proud to say that during the pandemic period and this new normal era, we have not had to resort to salary cuts or reduction of incentives. But instead, we have ensured that we steadily increased our commitment to our people, their well-being and growth, through various safety measures, benefit enhancements and engagement initiatives.
• We continued our focus on fixed pay, variable pay and optimizing performance incentives
• Awareness sessions are conducted for our employees to be more proactive and aware of individual financial well-being.

At standard chartered, the leadership team invests continuous and focused efforts to bring purpose close to our employees’ hearts by having regular conversations about what the bank’s purpose means to every business unit and linking the performance and development goals of employees to the purpose

How does Standard Chartered foster diversity and inclusion in the workplace?

We are committed to equal employment opportunities, diversity, inclusion and maintaining a respectful workplace. We have a Group Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) Standard that has been developed to ensure a diverse and inclusive workplace, free from discrimination, harassment, bullying and victimisation. Employees are regularly educated on the said policies and the importance of compliance. In addition, taking into account pandemic restrictions and WFH circumstances, we have also introduced a toolkit on tackling domestic violence and abuse. Closing the gender gap in the workplace has been a key priority for us at Standard Chartered and we have implemented various policies and programmes to create equal opportunities for women for career growth, professional development and recognition for all our employees based on performance. Being established as one of the best workplaces, especially for women in Sri Lanka, showcases our differentiation as an inclusive work environment for all.

We have a D&I council representing six strategically significant pillars and there is a fully-fledged calendar covering exciting and insightful sessions around the year looking at Generations, Gender, Nationalities & Ethnicities, Pride, Disability and our very own Women’s Network that looks at various aspects including inclusive parenting, professional development and giving back to the community.

We have achieved a milestone 50:50 gender equality, because of focused efforts as part of our People and Diversity & Inclusion Strategy driven by merit, and we take great pride in stating that 37% of our Country Management Team is females. For the 3rd consecutive year, we were rec ­ ognized as one of the 15 Best Workplaces for Women in Sri Lanka as well.

Standard Chartered conducted a group wide programme themed ‘Respect at Work’, focused on strengthening people leader capability in promoting a healthy work environment and an inclusive cul ­ ture. People leaders were equipped with the knowledge to create and foster a safe environment for their troops keeping with the bank’s valued behaviour of ‘Do the Right Thing’.

Our parental leave policy exceeds the local labour requirements. We allow 20 calendar weeks of maternity leave, and 2 calendar weeks of paternity leave for male employees for supporting a newborn child’s mother. We also provide 2 calendar weeks of adoption leave for the adoption of children below 16 years of age.

Our parental leave policy exceeds the local labour requirements. We allow 20 calendar weeks of maternity leave, and 2 calendar weeks of paternity leave for male employees for supporting a newborn child’s mother. We also provide 2 calendar weeks of adoption leave for the adoption of children below 16 years of age.

Employees care about aspiring for a higher purpose. How does Standard Chartered fulfil this requirement?

As a corporate entity, our overall purpose is to drive commerce and prosperity through our unique diversity. This gives us the direction for everything the bank does, connecting our strategy to our growth and the ambitions we have in the societies in which we operate. This aspiration is unique to us because of our history, our global footprint and our drivers– where we are from, where we are now, and where we want to be. Our strategic priorities of Network, Affluent, Mass Retail and Sustainability put our purpose into action by connecting us with the big economic and social shifts in the places we call home. They define how we engage with our customers and society by aligning our processes & activities with these shifts and enabling us to shape the forces driving growth.

The severe impacts of climate change, stark inequality and disparities of globalisation impact everyone on the planet. We are taking a stand, setting long -term ambitions for our role on these issues where they mat­ter most.

This works in unison with our strategy, stretching our thinking, our action and our leadership to accelerate our growth. To this end, we have defined three ‘stands’ – Accelerating Zero, Lifting Participation and Resetting Globalisation – which reflects our plan for our long-term ambitions on societal challenges and opportunities.

Having an organizational purpose is meaningless unless you effectively link the same to the daily jobs of employees at all levels, as everyone should know how their work impacts and contributes to the purpose and take pride in being an integral part of delivering a meaningful outcome to the society at large, over and above the return on equity delivered to your shareholders. At Standard Chartered, the leadership team invests continuous and focused efforts to bring purpose close to our employees’ hearts by having regular conversations about what the bank’s purpose means to every business unit and linking the performance and development goals of employees to the purpose.

We have a group diversity and inclusion (d&i) standard that has been developed to ensure a diverse and inclusive workplace, free from discrimination, harassment, bullying and victimisation