Employee Capital

SLT’s employee capital is one of SLT’s most fundamental resources and is at the heart of its business model and value creation process. The people of SLT are tasked with executing the corporate strategy and representing the corporate brand with proficiency and integrity. SLT strives to create an environment in which the employees feel valued, recognised, and connected to SLT’s wider purpose. This, in turn, empowers them to do their best work, realise their full potential, and drive the success of the Company.

Key Initiatives during 2020

The challenges brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic made 2020 an unprecedented year. It was imperative to provide uninterrupted services to SLT customers, whilst safeguarding the employees’ health. At the onset of the first wave of COVID-19 a cross-functional Crisis Management Team was established to organise and oversee SLT’s response. The Business Continuity Plan was implemented covering all key areas of the organisation including safeguarding employees’ health and safety. The top management was present in office almost every day to make swift decisions as the situation evolved. The staff were assigned to work around the clock to maintain operations, with technical teams designated to attend to all service inquiries, and field teams deployed to attend onsite service concerns. Work was implemented on a roster system to minimise employee visits to work locations. When their presence was required, employees were given clear instructions on health and safety protocols and provided with PPE and sanitisers.

For the majority of the Company’s staff, Work From Home (WFH) arrangements were implemented and remote access to systems like ERP and CRM were facilitated. A flexible approach was the order of the day – staff took on multiple roles, and were allocated to areas of need. Staff were kept abreast of all developments and decisions immediately through email, SMS, WhatsApp and Viber, and work processes were made as simple as possible to allow staff to efficiently and accurately meet customer experiences during this difficult period. Transport was provided to all employees in curfew areas, whilst looking after all their other requirements. The Company was able to provide uninterrupted service to customers during the lockdown due to the commitment, adaptability, and resilience of its people.

To protect the Company’s most vulnerable staff members, many initiatives were implemented to better care for the employees. These included conducting periodic random PCR and Antigen tests and having designated isolation rooms in every office, along with a transit centre, to house employees who contract COVID-19 until they can be transported to quarantine. Preparations have been made in hotels to accommodate infected employees during their quarantine period, including the Company’s Retreat Center at Poththodai, Negombo. 8,000 priority vaccines have been requested from the Ministry of Health.

It is noteworthy that the Company managed to successfully recruit all staff of Human Capital Solutions (HCS) who have been deployed at SLT, numbering about 1,800, within short period of 3 weeks. Competency assessments and development plans were designed for Sales Staff (RTOM and SME) to further strengthen the sales function and in promoting a sales culture. Also, a new organisational structure was implemented in order to better align the growth and development of the Company with requirements of future.

Workforce profile

A diverse culture comprising people with different social and cultural backgrounds and a variety of life, educational, and work experiences is essential to providing a superior quality of service. A workforce that is truly representative of Sri Lanka has the potential to support market relevance and act as a catalyst for innovation. SLT is committed to promoting diversity through all levels of the organisation, up to and including leadership, and are particularly proud of the strides that have made in, including women in the workforce. Despite being a tech company, a field in which women are traditionally underrepresented, women comprise 25% of our workforce.

Total workforce by employment type

Type of employment	Fixed ICT			Mobile ICT			Overall ICT
	2020	2019	2018	2020	2019	2018	2020	2019	2018
Permanent	6,692	5,217	5,364	1,313	1,165	1,165	8,005	6,382	6,529
Contract	83	18	8	49	122	113	132	140	121
Outsourced	12	1,667	1,869	30	162	156	42	1,829	2,025
Total	6,787	6,902	7,241	1,392	1,449	1,434	8,179	8,351	8,675

Total workforce by gender

Grade	Male			Female			Total
	2020	2019	2018	2020	2019	2018	2020	2019	2018
Fixed ICT operations	5,050	3,820	3,940	1,725	1,415	1,432	6,775	5,235	5,372
Mobile ICT operations	976	908	892	386	379	386	1,362	1,287	1,278
Overall ICT operations	6,026	4,728	4,832	2,111	1,794	1,818	8,137	6,522	6,650

Excludes both outsourced and part-time staff

Employees by business segment, age and gender

Fixed ICT operations

Age group	Male			Female			Total
	2020	2019	2018	2020	2019	2018	2020	2019	2018
18-30 years	590	140	134	298	40	63	888	180	197
31-40 years	1,564	940	979	558	490	424	2,122	1,430	1,403
41-50 years	1,454	1,300	1,329	396	430	468	1,850	1,730	1,797
Over 51 years	1,442	1,440	1,498	473	455	477	1,915	1,895	1,975
Total	5,050	3,820	3,940	1,725	1,415	1,432	6,775	5,235	5,372

Excluding both outsourced and part-time staff

Mobile ICT operations

Age group	Male			Female			Total
	2020	2019	2018	2020	2019	2018	2020	2019	2018
18-30 years	204	224	234	109	118	131	313	342	365
31-40 years	492	447	451	216	212	213	708	659	664
41-50 years	219	182	154	54	45	37	273	227	191
Over 51 years	61	55	53	7	4	5	68	59	58
Total	976	908	892	386	379	386	1,362	1,287	1,278

Excluding both outsourced and part-time staff

Employees based on grade

Grade	Fixed ICT			Mobile ICT
	2020	2019	2018	2020	2019	2018
Senior Management	72	60	61	67	65	66
Middle Management	118	123	113	376	356	352
Executives	705	787	776	890	863	857
Non-Executive staff	5,880	4,265	4,422	29	3	3
Total	6,775	5,235	5,372	1,362	1,287	1,278

Excluding both outsourced and part-time staff

Employees based on grade and gender

Grade	Fixed ICT			Mobile ICT
	2020	2019	2018	2020	2019	2018
Senior Management – Female	11	10	10	7	7	8
Senior Management – Male	61	50	51	60	58	58
Middle Management – Female	22	21	20	81	77	74
Middle Management – Male	96	102	93	295	279	278
Executives – Female	267	269	262	297	295	304
Executives – Male	438	518	514	593	568	553
Non-Executive staff – Female	1,425	1,115	1,140	1	0	0
Non-Executive staff – Male	4,455	3,150	3,282	28	3	3
Total – Female	1,725	1,415	1,432	386	379	386
Total – Male	5,050	3,820	3,940	976	908	892

Excluding both outsourced and part-time staff

Number of years of service	Fixed ICT			Mobile ICT			Overall ICT
	2020	2019	2018	2020	2019	2018	2020	2019	2018
0-5 years	2,806	1,054	893	556	405	455	3,362	1,459	1,348
6-10 years	192	112	203	206	220	286	398	332	489
11-15 years	804	960	878	380	403	436	1,184	1,363	1,314
16-20 years	387	269	325	198	205	56	585	474	381
Over 20 years	2,586	2,840	3,073	53	54	45	2,639	2,894	3,118
Total	6,775	5,235	5,372	1,393	1,287	1,278	8,168	6,522	6,650

Excluding both outsourced and part-time staff

Employees worked from home by grade/gender – Fixed ICT Operations

Grade	Male	Female	Total
Executive	406	223	629
Non-executive	1,935	702	2,637
Total	2,341	925	3,266

Recruitement & Talent Development

SLT’s talent sourcing and management strategy which involves attracting, developing, and retaining the right people is a driving factor for its business success and long-term sustainability. This strategy is not simply about hiring staff with the requisite skills. It involves a more holistic approach to creating the right values and culture where staff are empowered to develop in a rapidly evolving operating environment. To that end, the following pillars are prioritised:

• Identifying the short-term and long-term competency requirements of the organisation in line with organisational strategic plans and objectives
• Designing, developing and sourcing learning solutions with learning objectives to bridge the identified competency gaps
• Timely delivery of learning solutions through effective methodologies utilising physical and technological resources
• Evaluating the learning outcomes and ensure continuous improvements

During 2020, the entire Human Resources process was digitalised, and an online application for external recruitment was introduced, along with online interviews and placements for interns. In addition, all promotion procedures were digitalised, and a plan is in place to introduce an online examination for recruitment.

Despite the challenges of the pandemic, there was no downsizing of staff. SLT recruite approximately 1,800 employees of its subsidiary; Human Capital Solutions (HCS) as permanent employees over a period of three weeks. This is a notable feat for a corporate to recruit such a significant number of employees during the pandemic. This aligns with the Company’s broader recruitment strategy. SLT has a robust recruitment procedure, involving sound interview and trade testing processes to absorb quality individuals directly to SLT on a permanent basis.

Recruitment by age and business segment

Age	Fixed ICT			Mobile ICT			Overall ICT
	2020	2019	2018	2020	2019	2018	2020	2019	2018
18-20 years	5	0	0	0	3	2	5	3	2
21-30 years	774	96	18	55	75	103	829	171	121
31-40 years	707	141	295	70	17	15	777	158	310
41-55 years	317	24	162	29	1	2	346	25	164
Over 56 years	60	0	0	2	0	0	62	–	–
Total	1,863	261	475	156	96	122	2,019	357	597

Excludes both outsourced and part-time staff

Recruitment by grade and business sgement

Grade	Fixed ICT			Mobile ICT			Overall ICT
	2020	2019	2018	2020	2019	2018	2020	2019	2018
Senior Management	1	1	1	–	–	–	1	1	1
Middle Management	–	–	–	5	10	8	5	10	8
Executives	3	41	5	122	86	114	125	127	119
Non-Executive staff	1,859	219	469	29	–	–	1,888	219	469
Total	1,863	261	475	156	96	122	2,019	357	597

Excludes both outsourced and part-time staff

Turnover

Turnover at SLT may occur through the following scenarios:

• Employees may conclude their employment at SLT subject to giving prior notice as per their letters of appointment.
• SLT may choose to terminate an employee’s employment subject to the provisions of the respective labour agreements.
• Retirement at 55 years of age, with extensions up to 60 years of age subject to performance, discipline, conduct and with discretion of the Management.

SLT’s employee turnover is extremely low – at 5.9% in 2020 (including retirements). This is a strong affirmation of the Company’s value proposition and brand as an employer offering life-long careers. SLT aims to create value for its employees by providing job security, industry-leading remuneration and benefits, a healthy work-life balance, fulfilling roles that allow staff to utilise their skills and talents, and opportunities for training, development, and advancement.

Employee turnover by grade and business segment (%)

Grade	Fixed ICT			Mobile ICT
	2020	2019	2018	2020	2019	2018
Senior Management	9.5	11.8	8.2	0.23	0.16	0.32
Middle Management	1.6	6.0	5.3	1.51	2.03	1.68
Executives	7.8	11.6	10.9	3.70	4.77	3.91
Non-Executive staff	5.6	6.9	10.7	0.08	0.00	0.00
Total	5.9	7.6	10.6	5.51	6.95	5.91

Excludes both outsourced and part-time staff

Employee turnover by age and business segment (%)

Age	Fixed ICT			Mobile ICT
	2020	2019	2018	2020	2019	2018
18-20 years	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.00	0.00	0.00
21-30 years	0.8	12.6	8.4	1.96	2.97	2.79
31-40 years	0.8	2.6	1.9	2.34	2.97	2.47
41-50 years	0.4	1.5	3.6	0.45	0.39	0.24
51-55 years	1.2	3.1	12	0.38	0.08	0.08
Over 56 years	33	27.9	28.3	0.38	0.55	0.32
Total	5.9	7.6	10.6	5.51	6.95	5.91

Excludes both outsourced and part-time staff

Employee turnover based on business segment (%)

segment	Male			Female
	2020	2019	2018	2020	2019	2018
Fixed ICT operations	6.00	8.40	11.35	5.50	5.50	8.70
Mobile ICT operations	4.00	4.22	4.15	1.51	2.73	1.76

Excludes both outsourced and part-time staff
Turnover includes retirements

Training and development

SLT’s fundamental training objective, in line with its transition to a digital services provider, is to create a highly digitally-capable workforce. One of the side-effects of the COVID-19 pandemic has been to spur digital transformation. With the introduction of WFH systems, the automation of HR functions, and shift of training programmes (on Python, Data Science, and AI) to online platforms, employees are being exposed to an increasingly digitalised workplace. The staff are also encouraged to embrace new ways of working and explore opportunities to develop new skills that will enable to thrive in the digital space.

Employee training and development is conducted at an individual and departmental level. Employees are provided with a combination of formal training, on-the-job experience, and regular feedback from their managers through an appraisal system helps both employees and management to identify areas that require more focus. During the year under review, employee skill assessment methodology was enhanced and the Company has a rigorous internal certification programme in which employees are assessed and certified every three years.

The SLT Training Centre has established a partnership with the University of Hartfordshire to offer UGC recognised Engineering degree programmes in
Sri Lanka, in three disciplines – computer science, telecommunication and electrical engineering. The Training Centre also offers several other programmes including City & Guilds; Pearson courses. The Centre comprises three fully equipped centres – two main centres at Welisara and Moratuwa and regional training centres at Peradeniya. This year, as a result of the pandemic, virtual and online training was encouraged, and limited the number of in-person sessions. The online training programmes served 1,609 total participants across 6,138 training hours. In all physical classrooms, Government guidelines were followed in implementing safety measures.

Beyond these formal classroom and online training spaces, SLT seeks to promote a culture of continuous development through access to learning experiences that are more informal and more loosely structured. A large component of this is tapping into SLT’s rich store of tacit knowledge – built over 163 years of operations – through formal and informal social interactions and discussions.

SLT conducted 360 training programmes during the year for 7,324 participants, covering a total of 11,108 training days converted to 66,649 hours of training.

Training programmes conducted in 2020

The range of training programmes covered induction of new recruits, introduction to Data Science, awareness series on SLT Technical Platforms and overall network (Data Centre, ISP etc.) and Python Programming for Data Science. The programmes also included Employee Engagement for better Customer Engagement, Contact Centre Team Leaders Workshop and Project Management Professional programme.

Hours of training by grade

Fixed ICT

Grade	Total hours	Total participants
Senior Management	1,705	195
Middle Management	7,626	1,240
Non-executives	57,318	5,889
Total	66,649	7,324

Mobile ICT

Grade	Total hours	Total participants
Senior Management	1,361	97
Middle Management	4,594	347
Executives	5,752	418
Non-executives	0	0
Total	11,707	862

Excludes both outsourced and part-time staff

Hours of training undergone during the year by gender and skills type

Fixed ICT

Type	Number of employees			Number of person hours of training
	Male	Female	Total	Male	Female	Total
Technical skills	2,864	803	3,667	27,976	1,303	29,279
Soft skills (Non-Technical)	2,548	1,109	3,657	24,586	12,784	37,370

Mobile ICT

Type	Number of employees			Number of person hours of training
	Male	Female	Total	Male	Female	Total
Technical skills	101	56	157	332	208	540
Soft skills (Non-Technical)	222	106	328	3,404	1,338	4,742
Other	284	118	402	4,221	2,310	6,531

Benefits and promotions

Despite the many economic challenges brought about by the pandemic this year, SLT guaranteed that employees would be granted their full salary and benefits, and provided a risk allowance and an additional four-month bonus to all employees. The Company strongly felt it was important to affirm and strengthen its commitment to the staff in a period of much anxiety and uncertainty about the future. This financial commitment was rare in the corporate sector this year, and demonstrates SLT’s position as a top employer brand. SLT maintains a remuneration policy in par with market rates.

Employees of SLT enjoy a broad range of benefits and welfare initiatives, including:

• Attractive EPF/ETF contributions
• Attractive bonuses paid each year
• A maximum leave bonus of one month for unutilised leave
• Medical centre, and Agrahara Health Insurance Scheme
• Financial support for higher education, including MSc, MBA, and other postgraduate studies
• Training programmes
• Workmens’ compensation for disabilities/accidents during work
• Allowances for risk, overnight, subsistence, transport, meals, foreign training, etc.
• Monthly and annual sales programmes
• Gratuity
• Death donations to family members
• Vehicle scheme
• Holiday bungalows
• Cafeteria facilities
• Loan facilities and reimbursement of housing loan interest
• Leave entitlements, overseas leave, and leave for Government elections
• Telephone subscriptions and mobile phone purchase reimbursement
• Fitness programmes including Zumba, yoga, karate, swimming, cycling, etc.
• Sports activities and associations for cricket, football, netball, athletics, volleyball, table tennis, badminton, etc.
• Religious activities such as Buddhist programmes, Christmas activities, etc

Opportunities for promotions are available to employees based on their professional qualifications, performance, and experience. Employees are eligible for promotions if they qualify for the criteria defined in the SLT Staff Recruitment and Promotion Scheme. Candidates are selected for promotions through written examinations and/or interviews.

SLT places heavy emphasis on grooming talent from within through succession planning and leadership development initiatives. This year, SLT completed a plan for the top Management to ensure a strong leadership pipeline. Based on this plan, individual development plans will be created for identified officers. During the year, 79 supernumerary promotions were granted and 768 non-executive staff and 97 executive staff were promoted.

Employee relations and engagement

The year under review presented unique challenges for employee engagement following the COVID-19 pandemic. The Company’s multi-generational staff representing a wide cross-section of Sri Lankan society, faced numerous challenges and SLT developed a range of WFH options to create stress-free conditions. Home-to-Field concept was created for field and operational staff, to address customer issues in a speedy and efficient manner. Work from pods enabled staff to work at locations close to their home. The Company SLT focused on team morale and connection by creating various virtual learning programmes and having frequent contact through online meetings.

Unions and grievance handling

SLT has maintained open, transparent dialogues with trade unions since its privatisation. The strength of these relationships is evident in the fact that despite having 25 trade unions and nearly all employees being union members, SLT have not had any work lost time due to industrial disputes. The Company maintains an open-door policy with trade unions and at least one formal discussion is conducted with all trade unions every three months. SLT considers unions as stakeholder and partners and seek to involve them in the decision-making processes.

Furthermore, a Grievance Handling Committee has been established along with a systematic and comprehensive mechanism to handle any staff grievances and issues. A detailed whistle-blowing policy is in place to allow any employee to safely and anonymously report any acts of misconduct that they have been subject to or witnessed.

Future outlook

In 2021, SLT will capitalise on the gains made in its digital transformation. At the heart of it is, recognising that the world of work is undergoing a rapid transformation. Even as digitalisation and artificial intelligence are increasingly shaping the job roles, SLT will continue to adapt and be an agile organisation, nurturing a team of passionate, productive, and self-driven workforce.

SLT’s strategy for the next year involves retaining the WFH, Work from Pod (WFP), and Home to Field concepts, and developing policies to make them permanent fixtures in the Company’s range of work options. The Company will offer flexible working hours, and transfer majority of its training to online platforms. These options will put SLT people in the best position to succeed and create value for the clients.