Pan Asia Bank’s HR Team spearheads employee volunteerism with key CSR projects

After consolidating its leadership as the premier green bank in the country, the nation’s ‘Truly Sri Lankan Bank’, Pan Asia Bank, has inspired its employees to make their personal contributions to spreading joy and hope by launching a variety of initiatives to have a positive impact on the society and environment. As one of the most motivated and professional teams in the banking industry, Team Pan Asia Bank succeeded in implementing some impactful initiatives to commemorate the bank’s 25th anniversary despite the pandemic. 

As part of the bank’s anniversary celebrations, a special tree planting was organised under the theme, ‘Plant a tree’ by Team HR in the Hanthane Forest Range, Southern Expressway, and in schools and public places across the island. After invoking the blessings of Maha Sangha, over 300 plants were planted in the Hanthane Forest Range with the participation of Pan Asia Bank Director/CEO Nimal Tillekeratne. Over 500 plants were planted under this CSR campaign which was aimed at promoting a ‘green future’ in Sri Lanka while taking appropriate measures to ensure the long-term sustainability of the future generation.

Team HR also initiated another event to mark the bank’s anniversary in a unique and more meaningful manner by organising a blood donation camp, contributing selflessly towards saving lives of fellow human beings especially during this national hour of need. Held at the bank’s premises, the camp was well-organised in collaboration with the National Blood Bank – with enthusiastic staff members actively volunteering to donate blood, giving the gift of life. 

Continuing in its commitment to put smiles on faces, Team HR initiated a Day of Charity at ‘Diri Daru Piyasa’ Bandaragama – an institute for children with Down syndrome. The bank funded the cost of partitions which helped to make the classrooms more conducive to learning.

In keeping with its stature as a ‘Truly Sri Lankan Bank’, the Team HR of Pan Asia Bank mooted another meaningful initiative as an employee engagement activity which was all about encouraging staff members to give back to society by donating their used and new text books, novels and other useful reading material to underprivileged children. Under this initiative, Pan Asia Bank made arrangements to donate over 1,000 books comprising pre-grade books, study/text books, exercise books, English and Sinhala novels, children’s story books, religious books, dictionaries and more, thereby supporting the learning, education and personal development of students at St. Anne’s Maha Vidyala. ‘Day of Charity’ was established in keeping with Pan Asia Bank’s CSR agenda of creating a literate and enlightened society by providing tools of empowerment for underprivileged communities. 

Team HR has been at the forefront of organising many such employee engaging activities, the most special one in October 2020 when the bank and its employees came together to celebrate 25 years of service to the nation. The CEO and the members of the Corporate Management team celebrated the anniversary by cutting a traditional kiribath, while all branches had their own celebrations. All staff members were attired in the new corporate T-shirt introduced for the 25th anniversary. On this auspicious occasion, the CEO together with Chairman and the Board of Directors felicitated longstanding staff who joined the bank in the year 1995 when it commenced operations. All employees wore the corporate t-shirt irrespective of their grades as one team, which was a unique event.

Pan Asia Bank has become a talent magnet in the nation’s banking industry, attracting both experienced professionals and young executives and graduates on account of its brand identity as an agile, nimble, fast-growing and forward-thinking organisation. Team HR regularly arranges a string of engagement activities with the objective of building a high employee caring culture to create a ‘Great Place To Work’ environment and thereby increase employee retention, such that employees can take pride in the work they do and enjoy the company of the people they work with. 

As an avid promoter of gender equality, Pan Asia Bank’s gender balance ratio of males to female employees is 57:43. Pan Asia Bank proactively invests in training and development as a business strategy to improve knowledge levels of employees and bridge skills gaps for better productivity and enhanced employee satisfaction, which is evident in the enthusiasm with which Team Pan Asia Bank serves its customers and the wider society.