THE SUNDAY TIMES SUPPLEMENT
Sunday October 10, 2004
Page 8

NATIONAL HRM Awards, Sri Lanka 2003
TRANS ASIA HOTEL 02 OCTOBER 2004

CTC rewarded for HR Excellence

Ceylon Tobacco Company Limited (CTC) was recognized for its outstanding achievements in Human Resource Management at the prestigious National HRM Awards 2003.

CTC was adjudged the Winner of the overall National HRM Award 2003 (Large Manufacturing Sector), for the second consecutive year, at the National HRM Awards Convention held on 2nd October 2004. In addition, this year CTC was presented with the "Most Innovative HR Practices Award", in recognition of their creativity and innovation in devising people management initiatives.

Paul Hiltermann, CTC Managing Director & CEO, commented: "The dedicated efforts made by the HR team, along with all our employees, to enable the company to achieve such prestigious awards, must be highly commended. We are especially proud of the "Most Innovative HR Practices" award, considering the importance now placed on innovation and continuous improvement in the world of British American Tobacco and beyond".

Ubaya Dissanayake, CTC HR Director, said: "This achievement is a result of commitment, enthusiasm and teamwork demonstrated by each and every employee of the company".

CTC was awarded the "Most Innovative HR Practices" award for extending their HR practices beyond the boundaries of the company to reach their valued business partners, in particular the tobacco farmers.

Leadership at all levels

CTC takes great pride in the caliber of their people. They fully accept the responsibility to follow good employment practices and aims to maintain their position as a good corporate citizen that employees see as a "great place to work for". From the era of violent industrial eruptions and disputes, CTC has come a long way to become one of the best examples for industrial harmony in Sri Lanka, with no industrial disputes reported for over 10 years. The unique organization culture prevalent at CTC promotes openness, confidence and awinning mentality, which helps to create leaders at all levels of the organization.

Contributing to Business Excellence

At CTC, HR has been at the forefront in contributing to strategy and achievement of organizational objectives for several decades, when Sri Lanka was still in the "Hire & Fire" era of HR management. The current HR mission of CTC is "To grow and nurture and open, challenging and winning culture, where outstanding people perform to their fullest potential, and deliver world class results". The HRM strategies and policies of CTC are developed in line with four "People Drivers" - Talent, Learning, Leadership and Culture. HR efforts are focused directly on their four vital areas in order to achieve the HR mission, and contribute directly to achieving the company vision.

Keeping employees fully informed

One of the key ingredients in CTC's formula of success over the pas decade has been their constant attention and strong commitment to communication. They firmly believe that if individuals are to perform at their optimum, access to information is critical. At CTC, communication lies at the heart of everything they do. A strong two-way communication process operates within the company to ensure that employees are aware of current business issues. Monthly meeting involve all levels of employees and the entire company comes together once a quarter to formally share information. The process is continually reviewed to check relevance, effectiveness and accuracy of information.

Equal importance is placed on reaching valued business partners and keeping in touch with the wider community, to ensure that they are also aware of issues impacting our business.

Developing people to win

Developing people to win is critical to create leadership at all levels. CTC believe that it is people who add uniqueness to the organization. World-class talent is a competitive advantage which is most critical to the long term success of an organization. CTC is committed towards strengthening this asset. Their training & development objective is to enhance knowledge, skills and attitudes of all their people to build leadership capabilities across the organization.

In doing so CTC uses a 'magic' training and development formula consisting of many ingredients. Whilst continuing to use traditional ingredients such as formal training, cross functional projects, and assignments, new and modern ingredients are continually added, such as virtual learning, coaching, 360 degree feedback and facilitation of self development.

The investments made over the years in training and development has made CTC a benchmark company in Sri Lanka. Despite the fact that the Company has undergone significant levels of reduction in manning, the resource allocations have been maintained at the same levels, with the addition of many facilities such as an Auditorium, Training Centre, Computer Lab and Learning Centre.

Learning is not only confined to CTC employees. The company's agricultural training programme and the sharing of expertise in the agricultural area benefit our registered farmer families and the non-tobacco farming community. Over the last five years, a total of 40 farmers have been trained in Andrapradesh, India, on agricultural best practices. Valued business partners are trained on statutory requirement and managing their businesses profitably. CTC provides training opportunities to many undergraduate students of local universities and has played a pivotal role in taking information technology to the village of Sri Lanka.

A company that cares

At CTC, people come first. They believe that when people come to work, they should not have to leave their hearts at home, as employee welfare is a critical factor in influencing productivity. Welfare at CTC deals with the provision of a whole range of services to ensure that relevant and appropriate comforts and facilities are provided to attract, retain and motivate staff.

The remuneration systems in CTC reflect its position as a leading company in Sri Lanka. Employees are recognized and rewarded based on their performance through clearly defined appraisal systems and indicators. Exceptional individual and team performance is felicitated immediately through a reward system known as the 'Battlefield Bonus Scheme'.

Valued business partners are cared for as an important part of the CTC family. Financial support is provided for barn owners children to support their education in the form of a Scholarship Scheme. A Retirement Scheme is in operation for tobacco farmers to guarantee a stable income on retirement. Helping the less able is something the whole company wholeheartedly believes in. Disabled and needy farmers are well looked after by CTC by way of donating houses, necessary material and cash and CTC employees rallied to help flood victims with a donation of Rs 2.5 Million.

Outstanding People…the strength of CTC

CTC's efforts in developing and caring for their people have been recognized in many local and international forums, providing their unsurpassed quality, productivity and business standards. Their people chain extends beyond the boundaries of CTC and reaches suppliers, distributors, retailers and farmers. HR best practices extended to employees are extended to the entire people chain with the same importance and care. At CTC, continually improving and innovating new and better ways to care for employees is simply a way of life.

Paul Hiltermann summed up CTC's philosophy on HR management with these words: "People are the single most important factor contributing to business excellence at CTC. They are, will be, and have always been, our top priority. It is no surprise, therefore, that our HR initiatives have been recognized as being amongst the best in the country".

"The mindset of our people have dramatically changed over the last ten years, with greater focus on communication, education, removal of barriers to integration, transparency, involvement of people in cross functional activities etc", commented Ubaya Dissanayake on CTC's greatest strength, "now it's amazing to see how committed and enthusiastic our...[end of article missing]"