Employee Engagement in Sri Lankan Banks - Part 1
Banking industry in Sri Lanka is one of the few industries in which the importance of employee engagement is identified and practiced well. In this article, there are two examples brought out from two leading banks in Sri Lanka to explain how they practice employee engagement.
Sampath Bank as one of the leading private sector commercial banks has conducted a number of employee engagement activities which are innovative as they are designed accordingly to the ongoing pandemic. It includes presentation of long service awards for the team members with more than 25 years of service, launching ‘We beyond I’ for team working and comradeship at workplace, launching ‘Save for Tomorrow’ to inspire the employees to use digital channels among customers and personalised appreciation cards for children of employees to appreciate their parent’s service at bank during pandemic (Sampath Bank, 2020).
Employee engagement practices are one of the main HRM strategies not only in the private sector banks in Sri Lanka. But also, in state sector banks. For example, Bank of Ceylon conducts innovative engagement methods with employees such as email communication, online platforms such as Zoom, social media platforms following the outbreak of the pandemic as they shift from traditional methods such as round table discussions and meetings and physical activities such as sports, cultural and religious activities. BOC continues to open its holiday bungalows and encourages the employees to create creative and innovative ideas for the developments in digitalization (Bank of Ceylon, 2020).
In addition to that, almost all the commercial banks operating in Sri Lanka have a diversified and inclusive workforce which is considered a new trend in employee engagement. Therefore, the extent to which employee engagement is recognized and used in Sri Lankan banks is very positive and satisfying.
References
Bank of Ceylon, (2020). Annual Report. [online] Bank of Ceylon, p.62. Available at: https://cdn.cse.lk/cmt/upload_report_file/861_1617938202837.pdf [Accessed 20 August 2021].
Sampath Bank, (2020). Annual Report. [online] Sampath Bank, p.72. Available at: https://www.sampath.lk/images/annual_reports/ar2020.pdf [Accessed 20 August 2021].
Agree with what you have stated, according to Truss et al (2006: ix) stated that: ‘Put simply, engagement means feeling positive about your job.’ They went on to explain that: ‘The engaged employee is the passionate employee, the employee who is totally immersed in his or her work, energetic, committed and completely dedicated
ReplyDeleteThank you for commenting. Agreed with your definition regarding employee engagement according to the Truss et al (2006: ix)
DeleteAgreed with your points. Today's banking sector need employees who are passionate about their works and strive to take their organization to greater heights (Sarangi & Srivastava 2012).
ReplyDeleteYes and Mohsan, (2004) said well motivated and committed workforce feels that organization really value them and they are an essential and crucial part of organization which automatically increase both sides performance.
DeleteAgreed with your argument. Further, they can be passionate more and more in this pandemic as you mentioned. During the past two decades, employee engagement became a very popular managerial construct. Organizations use different engagement building tools in order to stay competitive and improve performance.(Situation.D Dajani, MA Zaki - 2015)
ReplyDeleteYes and according to Siddiqi M. (2015) Providing positive response to employees is another factor that is important to motivate employee engagement and commitment in organization.
DeleteAgreed with you,
ReplyDeletewhen positive emotions like involvement, teamwork and care happens within an organisation, employee engagement prevails which increases performance (Robinson, 2006).
Yes and according to Dernovsek (2008) likens employee engagement to a positive employees’ emotional attachment and employees’ commitment.
Delete