SriLankan Airlines shares best HR practices

By Cheranka Mendis

SriLankan Airlines, one of the only two Government entities that managed to secure Silver at the HRM Awards organised by the Association of Human Resource Professionals last month, joined Daily FT to share the best practices that led the company to win the award after a lapse of five years.

Having taken over the post of Head of Human Resources at SriLankan Airlines a year ago, Pradeep Kekulawala noted that the challenge posed by the Chairman and CEO was to transform the human resource function and human resource development activities towards business facilitation and ensuring that the business is run by the right people having the right attitude and culture, etc. “We took over the task as a new team a year ago and have been able to make a difference during the period.”

Starting from transforming the HR function to a business partnering function, the HR team put down a list of concepts that has been well received by the employees, he said.

 

The mantra

The mantra under which the company now operates on is called ‘HIPER’ – Harmony, Innovation, Productivity, Engaging and Resourcing. “You facilitate harmony and you have good motivated and happy workforce. You facilitate innovation and you get new thinking. Facilitate productivity and get a good return on what you invest in people; facilitate engagement and people are gainfully employed and engaged.”

Under the said performing exercise, the company concentrated on developing the core business as well as engagement activities.

“We worked to ensure that every department is tightly monitored by Key Performing Indicators (KPIs),” Kekulawala said. “From the CEO to the Senior Management Team and downwards, we ensured that a list of KPIs were in place for departments to concentrate on and base their targets on.”

Listing out some of the KPIs for the HR Department, he cited timely recruitment, cost effective recruitment, ensuring the right budgets are achieved and industrial harmony. “This made our job measurable.”

 Succession planning

A key challenge the airline was faced with was to ensure that a set of future leaders are in place to take over the business. As at now with a workforce of 6,000 people, 22% have served the organisation for 20 years or more putting the concerns of an ageing population to the fore. A succession plan was therefore required.

“We focused on a succession planning program where we have identified some 40 people through their performance and assessing them on modern business needs through technical exercises such as assessment centres, psychological profiling, etc. They are now in a leadership pipeline and are being trained accordingly.”

The management trainee program which was highly sought after by the industry was rebranded and strengthened as ‘SriLankan Future Leaders Program’ last year as well.  Out of 1,100 applicants, 25 were chosen for a one-and-a-half year training program after which they are to be inducted into the mainstream to climb the management ladder.

Employee relationship

“Over the last five years, processes and practices were not reviewed and looked at in terms of current business needs. This led to a common conception to be formed as HR being more of a regulator, policeman and administrator. In other words unapproachable,” Kekulawala said. “We needed to change this.”

Starting with the HIPER slogan, which the team communicated to the staff, the next step was an open door initiative where employees were informed to walk into the HR Department anytime to share their concerns. An open-day concept was also brought in where every last Friday of the month, the senior management team is open for questions, sharing problems, etc.

“We also started a hotline called ‘Athwela’ (Helping Hands) and employee assistance hotline where day to day issues faced by employees can be lodged and taken note of.”

Additionally a Dedicate Business Partnering Manager from the HR Department was assigned to each division to address issues department-wise. “We also brought in what we called a listening and talking campaign where the CEO and the senior management team goes into departments and explain the business to people, clarify their doubts and issues and help them understand the real picture.” The team is also open to suggestions to strengthen the company.

Making the staff stakeholders of the business a Joint Development and Productivity Council (JDPC) was also introduced where employees were invited to come up with ideas to increase revenue, optimise cost and eliminate waste. “Any constructive idea will be implemented and the staff members will be recognised.”

The company is now looking at coming up with performance related incentives, pay and compensation schemes for the employees for the future.

 Team building and performance management

Realising that the competitive mindset of the employees has decreased over the years, ten sporting activities were revived within SriLankan. Popular sports which the company previously excelled in was brought back which includes cricket, rugby, badminton, swimming, volleyball, basketball, netball and athletics.

Starting from internal competitions and moving on to a Group Sports Day, SriLankan has now started competing in the mercantile sector. “There was a tremendous response and was highly successful in our endeavours to bring the killer instinct back.”

To recognise high performers, the company broad based ‘Achievers Award’ and rebranded as ‘SriLankan High Flyers’ which is scheduled to be held on 28 September this year. This will be held after a lapse of four years. Awards to recognise service excellence, productivity, friend of community, sports and aesthetics and personal and professional development will be given out and of the five, the best will be awards the Chairman’s Trophy.

 Capacity building

The International Aviation Academy (IAA), which looks after regulatory training as well as on-the-job training, is the SriLankan Airlines training facility accredited by International Air Transport Association (IATA). Conducting both IAA and IATA certified programs, IAA was identified to be among the top 10 training partners in South Asia for IATA.

The recognition has paved way for SriLankan to obtain exclusive status to train in Maldives as IATA Training Partners in Maldives from 15 August.

 Going green

The company has also given way to a green business initiative by forming what is called the ‘Go Green Team’. Having already established ‘Planet Friendly Flights,’ the company is looking at three areas in which to grow its green philosophy.

The areas are working on adverse impact on environment through carbon emission from flights, looking at the ground level operations of recycling and making carbon footprint lesser and tackling energy. “We started to strengthen this and have been notified that we have won a Silver at the National Energy Awards this year,” Kekulawala said.

 Talking profit

“All these practices have helped us deliver better customer service and we have been able to reduce delays and ground services have become much more effective. We get 20-30% more positive comments than what we used to get,” Kekulawala said. “All these things go into making the customer happy and that in turn would reflect in our turnovers and revenues.”

He noted that a significant improvement in service levels and revenue have been witnessed in the last 12 months. “By the reports we get we have made good headway. The next 12-13 months would show how all this has resulted in the bottom line. People are now more target and KPI oriented than before and talking the language of profit which is the cultural change we wanted.”