CDB team

GRI 102-8, 102-40, 102-42, 102-43, 102-44

CDB – “A Great Place to Work”

CDB was certified as a Great Place to Work having met the required global assessment standards to be a Great Place to Work - certified in Sri Lanka, for the period March 2021 to February 2022. This credential was earned based on extensive ratings provided by our team members in an anonymous survey conducted by Great Place to Work®. The certification showcases our commitment to building a high level of employee trust, engagement, pride and camaraderie to shape great workplace culture. The survey results reflect our success in creating positive employee experiences of trust in the leaders, team spirit, and having pride in what they do. Furthermore, this also reflects that CDB is a workplace that fosters respect, trust and fairness.

CDB team

GRI 102-8, 103-1, 103-2, 103-3

Our team members are central to delivering our vision, strategy and transformation. Our workforce comprised 1,966 team members as of 31 March 2022; 45% permanent and 55% contract and on probation. Of the workforce, 26% were female team members. We recruited 590 team members during the year under review and our employee retention rate stood at 80%, reflecting the effectiveness of our HR policies and our employee value proposition. Over 10% of the workforce have served the Organisation for over 11 years, which is a testament to the trust and loyalty of our team members.

Service analysis of team members

No. of years	2021/22			2020/21			2019/20			2018/19
	Male	Female	Total	Male	Female	Total	Male	Female	Total	Male	Female	Total
Below 5 years	1064	389	1453	923	356	1279	1006	350	1356	861	364	1225
6-10 years	207	94	301	215	90	305	195	83	278	175	77	252
11-15 years	137	24	161	119	20	139	112	19	131	105	15	120
16-20years	34	6	40	23	4	27	16	4	20	13	4	17
over 20 years	5	6	11	4	4	8	3	3	6	2	2	4
% Staff over 11 years’ service	11%			10%			9%			9%

 

Diversity and inclusivity

GRI 401-3, 405-1, 406-1

Inclusion is a key aspect of our Human Resource strategy. Therefore, we strive to create a workplace where everyone feels they belong. At CDB we are proud of our commitment and we continue to focus on creating a place where people can be themselves. We believe that a diverse workforce broadens perspectives and enhances resilience and performance. To ensure all team members are treated fairly without any bias towards race, religion, gender, age, and disability, among others, we have an anti-discrimination policy in place.

During the year, we recruited two differently-abled team members increasing our differently able staff pool to four. We aim to increase this pool to 30 team members in coming years. Furthermore, we continued to focus on increasing the women cadre of our Organisation. To ensure non-discrimination in employment, we have implemented gender-sensitive recruitment policies, including recruiting women, promoting women to managerial and executive positions, and welcoming women to the corporate Board of Directors. The success of our efforts in empowering women at our workplace was showcased when, Ms Nadee De Silva, our Deputy General Manager - Sales and Business Development was recognised at the Sirasa-NDB Wanitha Abimana Awards 2021 as the Sri Lankan female achiever in the Sales and Marketing category.

During the year, out of the 519 female team members, 20 team members took maternity leave, with 18 team members returning to work in the reporting period after their maternity leave ended. The retention rate for team members who took maternity leave was 90%. Furthermore, we extend leave in the event of an illness or risk of complications and provide facilities and flexible working hours for team members to take care of their children and have developed family-friendly facilities for our team members that go beyond compliance.

All team members received regular performance and career development reviews during the reporting period. No incidents of discrimination were reported during the period under review.

Women representation

Permanent and contract team members

	Number of team members 2021/22	Number of team members 2020/21	Number of team members 2019/20	Number of team members 2018/19
Permeant	892	803	736	768
Contract and probation	1074	955	1055	850
Total	1966	1758	1791	1618

Age analysis of team members

	2021/22		2020/21		2019/20		2018/19
	Male (Nos.)	Female (Nos.)	Male (Nos.)	Female (Nos.)	Male (Nos.)	Female (Nos.)	Male (Nos.)	Female (Nos.)
18-24	558	223	430	209	518	196	467	207
25 -29	384	168	391	154	388	168	322	172
30 - 34	233	91	215	79	209	71	187	64
35 - 39	133	21	124	20	105	14	87	10
40 - 44	68	9	57	7	44	5	41	4
45 - 49	28	3	28	5	22	3	20	4
50 - 54	22	4	18	0	19	2	14	1
>55	21	0	21	0	27	0	18	0
Total	1447	519	1284	474	1332	459	1156	462

Gender analysis of team members

Year	2021/22				2020/21				2019/20
Category	Field staff		Non-Field staff		Field staff		Non-Field staff		Field staff		Non-Field staff
	Female	Male	Female	Male	Female	Male	Female	Male	Female	Male	Female	Male
No. of staff members	11	923	508	524	12	702	462	582	6	858	454	473
Total	934		1032		714		1044		864		927
Grand total	1966				1758				1791

Team members by region

Province/region	No of staff 2021/22	No of staff 2020/21	No of staff 2019/20	No of staff 2018/19
Central	189	173	170	145
Eastern	60	42	46	37
North	39	36	43	35
North Central	63	62	61	48
North Western	213	198	194	186
Sabaragamuwa	202	173	175	152
Southern	142	126	128	123
Uva	79	69	74	60
Western	979	879	900	832
Total	1966	1758	1791	1618

Distribution by employment category

Team member category	2021/22		2020/21		2019/20		2018/19
	Male	Female	Male	Female	Male	Female	Male	Female
Front line	732	320	801	305	867	294	881	358
Junior management	512	156	227	107	205	105	73	47
Middle management	132	32	196	51	201	49	151	41
Managers	31	5	24	7	27	8	27	7
Senior management	22	3	23	3	19	2	16	2
Top management	18	3	13	1	13	1	14	1
Total	1447	519	1284	474	1332	459	1162	456

The ratio of basic salary and remuneration by team member category

Staff Category	2021/22		2020/21		2019/20		2018/19
	Male	Female	Male	Female	Male	Female	Male	Female
Front line	0.71	1	0.8	1	0.75	1	1.08	1
Junior management	0.79	1	0.9	1	0.94	1	1.03	1
Middle management	1.11	1	1.1	1	1.00	1	0.98	1
Managers	0.95	1	0.9	1	1.16	1	1.15	1
Senior management	1.46	1	1.2	1	0.98	1	0.97	1

Return to work and retention rate after maternity leave

Description	2021/22	2020/21	2019/20	2018/19	2017/18	2016/17
Number of employees entitled to maternity leave	519	474	459	462	414	364
Number of employees who took maternity leave	20	20	22	20	18	16
Returned to work after maternity leave	18	20	17	20	16	16
Returned to work rate (%)	90	100	77	100	89	100

 

Talent attraction

GRI 202-2, 401-1

Despite the pandemic, we continued to attract fresh talent with our management trainee programme playing a big part. This year, 26% of the recruits were women. All new recruits are provided comprehensive learning and development opportunities throughout their career at CDB. All our recruitments are based on merit through fair and transparent competition without favouritism or discrimination. We take in raw talent at grass-root level, groom them and make them employable. Out of the 590 recruited team members during the year, 313 (53%) were from outside the Western Province.

Talent acquisition strategy

Talent acquisition is an important aspect of our corporate strategy where we seek to recruit talent that matches our needs, values and ethics, and groom them to take on leadership positions within the Company. Our recruitment policy is aimed to make hiring more productive and facilitate organisational growth. We empower youth by providing employment opportunities to school leavers and graduates. By recruiting young talent, we have groomed a workforce that has integrated seamlessly into our corporate culture and embraced the numerous opportunities offered in our workplace.

Our talent sourcing process

We give priority to internal placements and promotions in the case of a vacancy, before looking to source external candidates. 100% of our senior management has been hired from Sri Lanka. We leverage digital media to communicate our job vacancies to ensure effective reach to potential candidates. By maintaining a candidate pool, we fill vacancies with minimal delay and have established e-resource centres in leading universities to source graduates. Due to the ongoing pandemic, all interviews during 2021 were conducted virtually.

New hires based on age and gender

2021/22	Male		Female		Total
Under 30	421		149		570
	Marketing	355	Marketing	61
	Operational	66	Operational	88
30-50	16		2		18
	Marketing	10	Marketing	1
	Operational	6	Operational	1
Over 50	2		0		2

2020/21	Male		Female		Total
Under 30	261		96		357
	Marketing	145	Marketing	20
	Operational	116	Operational	76
30-50	11		0		11
	Marketing	1	Marketing	0
	Operational	10	Operational	0
Over 50	0		0		0

2019/2020	Male	Female	Total
Under 30	354	111	465
30-50	23	1	24
Over 50	11	-	11

New hires based on employment category

Staff category	2021/22		2020/21		2019/20		2018/19
	Male	Female	Male	Female	Male	Female	Male	Female
Front line	404	136	266	95	371	107	619	209
Junior management	29	13	5	1	7	3	9	5
Middle management	3	1	0	0	8	2	13	1
Managers	2	0	0	0	1	0	1	0
Senior management	0	1	1	0	0	0	1	0
Top management	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
Total	439	151	272	96	388	112	643	215

New hires based on region

	No. of staff members
Province	2021/22	2020/21	2019/20
Central	58	36	50
Eastern	31	9	18
North	11	9	11
North Central	22	12	23
Northwestern	65	44	52
Sabaragamuwa	57	37	51
Southern	40	30	38
Uva	29	16	25
Western	277	175	232
Grand Total	590	368	500

Internships granted

New hires intern and Management trainee	2021/22	2020/21
Total internships	25	25
Management trainee hires-outside western province	4	15

Team member engagement

GRI 402-1

Team member engagement is a strategic priority for our Organisation, which stems from the belief that a great customer experience is driven by a great employee experience. An agile and engaged workforce enables us to be nimble and respond to changes in the environment quickly. By offering a range of benefits and wellness support, we enable our team members to manage their professional and personal commitments and achieve a healthy work-life balance. We strive to create an environment that is open and stress-free with an enhanced perception of employee wellness and satisfaction. This helps team members to give their best and be motivated to achieve organisational goals. An efficient communication process facilitates the smooth exchange of information between the Company and team members. There are many channels of communication with our team members, including the intranet, emails, meetings, announcements, events, SMS, WhatsApp groups, and Microsoft Teams. With the ongoing pandemic, digital engagement platforms became increasingly important.

We have implemented a robust set of systems and processes to foster an environment which champions diversity and innovation and creates a productive atmosphere through new technologies, workspace management, and systems. The annual theme launch was conducted, engaging every team member of the Organisation at the beginning of the financial year. Several team member engagement activities were organised virtually, including a virtual Christmas Carols programme and the CDB awards ceremony. Our staff engaged in several charity programmes as well during the year.

Performance management and succession planning

GRI 404-3

As part of the performance management process, all our team members undergo regular performance appraisals, which is a key component of employee engagement that helps to align team members with the corporate strategy. The performance management system helps to enhance productivity, improve profitability, and reduce employee turnover. We recognise the performance level of each employee and provide feedback for improvement with training requirement being informed to HR division. As a result of the performance appraisal process we give promotions and identify top performers to be a part of the succession planning process.

During the year, a total of 608 team members were promoted to numerous positions. Of the total promotions, 30% were female. Further, 38% of our female staff members and 24% of our male team members were recognised with promotions based on beginning of the period staff carder.

Through the succession planning programme that was launched in the financial year 2020/21, we have identified multiple talent pools targeted for development. These talent pools form a part of our robust succession planning process to ensure a bunch of internal candidates to fill leadership positions. The talent pool includes a selection of potential successors who are earmarked for key positions in the Organisation. They are groomed with the necessary skills and knowledge to take on higher levels of responsibility in the future. CDB Challengers is the development programme of the first talent pool that was initiated in January 2022.

Learning and development

GRI 404-1, 404-2

We continue to invest in the skills and capabilities of our people through the provision of training and development programmes, to make people employable and generate extraordinary results through ordinary people. From the time a team member is recruited, a range of learning opportunities is provided to enhance the knowledge and skills necessary for sustainable development and lifestyles.

In particular, our transformation to a TechFin company requires us to ensure we have the required critical skills in our Organisation now and in the future. The rapid development of technologies requires a focus on continuous learning for team members through high-quality and curated learning journeys. Following COVID-19, we adapted to new normal practices to safeguard the health and safety of our team members. As a result, online and e-learning methods were launched to conduct our training programmes. New team member onboarding and orientation programmes were conducted virtually on Microsoft Teams.

Our e-learning system provides a continuous learning journey with predefined timelines and assessments. We aim to have a training delivery mix on 80/20 of which 80% is online. Over 17,500 hours of learning were delivered through our online e-learning platforms in 2021/22.

We provide a range of learning opportunities tailored so our people can learn how, when and where they choose. Our learning offering focuses not only on technical skills but also on broader key behavioural competencies and areas such as sustainability. Multiple talent development programmes were executed during the period under review:

• Sustainable sales performance improvement programme - Following a comprehensive sales performance analysis, our sales staff were segregated into three groups based on their level of performance. The senior category comprising high-performing sales staff was directed to the Branch Head Development programme to be groomed to the position of Branch Head in the future. The high-performing sales staff in the junior category were directed to follow the certificate course in Financial Product Marketing in collaboration with the Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing (SLIM), which commenced in January 2022. To develop the performance of low-performing marketing staff, a Field Based Coaching and Mentoring programme was launched. Under Phase 1 of this programme, all Branch Heads have been trained on conducting a coaching session, systematically. Each Branch Head has been assigned a maximum of two marketing staff to mentor and coach.
• Game Changer programme – Groomed high-performing experienced Tellers and front officers to move to the next level in the corporate hierarchy.
• Executed cross-functional training programmes to train gold loan officers for the Teller function.
• Developed the professional knowledge of the senior-level branch operations staff by developing the Certificate in Branch Operations Management programme in collaboration with the Institute of Bankers of Sri Lanka (IBSL).

During the period under review, we spent Rs. 2.1 Mn. on education reimbursements. Team members received an average of 52.9 hours of training with a total investment in employee training and development reaching Rs. 5.5 Mn.

Training programs conducted during 2021/22

Training Programmes 2021/22	No of Participants	Male	Female	Training Hours	Number of programmes/ Sessions
Branch Head Development Program 2022	22	21	1	803	14
CDB Challengers - Talent Pool Development Program	27	20	7	1061	16
Certificate Program in Branch Operational Management	32	16	16	921	10
Cross Functional Training Program	32	10	22	1280	1
Customer Service Officer Program	44	1	43	3520	12
Field Based Coaching & Mentoring Program	366	365	1	1919	10
Game Changer Program 2022	34	6	28	696	7
Gold Loan Officer Development Program	78	20	58	273	12
Induction Program	491	363	128	2115	11
Japanese 5S & Kaizen as a Foundation for Lean Journey	252	80	172	1008	4
Management Trainee Program	15	9	6	7200	1
Product Basket and Channel Strategy Program	57	56	1	90	2
Regional Head Development Program	4	3	1	28	7
Sales Trainee Program	357	357		57120	12
Seminar, Conference & Workshops	261	173	88	760	27
Technical Knowledge Development Program	977	624	353	8485	19
Teller Training Program	70	23	47	11200	12

Average training hours by category

Average training hours by category	Front line	Junior management	Middle management	Managers	Senior management	Top management
2018/19	8.8	22.02	25.6	8.02	1.2	6.3
2019/20	31.60	9.92	14.50	13.74	9.19	15.43
2020/21	22.16	8.82	3.18	8.83	9.38	9.95
2021/22	69.18	13.63	26.5	16.66	12.21	3.33

Average training hours per team member

Year	2015/16	2016/17	201718	2018/19	2019/20	2020/21	2021/22
Average training hours per team member	54	46	41.24	44	39	20.6	52.9

 

 

Compensation, rewards and recognition

GRI 401-2

We regularly review our remuneration and benefits to make sure they are competitive, sustainable and fair. Our team members are offered an extensive range of medical, financial, and educational benefits apart from the remuneration. As a part of our high performance culture, we recognise our team members on their achievements in both academic and organisational performance at the Annual Awards ceremony. During the year, we recognised 288 high performing staff members for their achievements at the CDB Infinity Awards 2020/21. To incentivize our team members, we introduced Spot Rewards, which is an instant recognition scheme that includes performance-based rewards and other monetary and non-monetary benefits. The new Hi5 awards were launched to reward the exceptional performance of team members.

Medical and wellness

• Reimbursement of hospitalisation expenses of employees or a nominated family member through the Suwa Sampatha medical scheme
• Life insurance cover
• Outpatient medical reimbursements, including OPD medical expenses, spectacles cover, and special tests and scans for employees and their families
• Group life insurance cover with a death cover and critical illness cover for all CDB staff
• Medical tests for managerial level employees at regular intervals
• CDB sports teams – Encouraging and rewarding team members for demonstrating and enhancing their talents in sports
• CDB gym – A modern, fully equipped gymnasium provided free of charge for employees
• CDB Welfare Club – Addresses the welfare needs of employees

Financial assistance

• Staff loan schemes including vehicle loans, and personal loans at special concessionary interest rates and reimbursement of interest on housing loans,
• Fuel reimbursement, traveling, and accommodation reimbursement
• Death donation scheme in the event of the death of an immediate family member
• Productivity and profit-related bonuses
• Life insurance

Educational benefits

• Reimbursement of professional memberships and examination fees
• Honorarium for completion of professional exams and qualifications
• Staff library facility at the head office
• E-learning platform with integrated online services for staff members
• Speechcraft program to build the public speaking skills of employees
• An exclusive CDB Toastmasters club affiliated with Toastmasters International

 

Safe working environment

GRI 102-41, 403-2, 403-9, 403-10, 407-1, 408-1, 409-1

We focus on updating and improving the range of physical, mental and emotional support we provide to our colleagues to facilitate the highest levels of team member well-being. During the year, we ensured our team members remain engaged wherever they may be working. A centralised operation system was established to monitor the health of all our team members. Through ongoing communications, we created a positive mindset in our team members which helped to record a commendable performance during the year despite the challenges. We also launched a mandatory health screening process for team members on completion of the probation period before they are absorbed into the permanent cadre.

The head office and branch premises are equipped with fire protection safeguards and all team members undergo emergency preparedness training. No accidents were reported within our business premises during the reporting period.

The comprehensive range of health and safety protocols helped to ensure the safety of our team members and customers at our premises. Measures included maintaining physical distancing, temperature checks, shoe disinfectant rubber mats at entrances, transparent counter separators for customer interactions, providing personal protective equipment (PPE) for security officers, wash basins for regular hand washing, disinfecting branch premises, and providing private transportation facilities to team members. An investment of Rs. 31.4 Mn. was made to implement the necessary safety protocols, and ensure the well-being of our team members during FY 2021/22.

A grievance handling policy is in place to address grievances raised by team members. Our HR team is committed to solving any reported grievance as quickly as possible. We do not have collective bargaining agreements in our Company. As a responsible corporate citizen, we do not condone forced or child labour and do not engage with business partners who engage in such practices.

Our team members are provided with healthcare options, and decent working conditions and we encourage them to adopt healthy lifestyles.

Supporting our team members through the pandemic

Our response to the COVID-19 pandemic has prioritised the safety and well-being of our people first from the outset, through a variety of initiatives deployed across our network and tightly coordinated by the Business Continuity Plan. As the pandemic continued, we took steps to ensure our team members are equipped with practical resilience strategies to help them prioritise health and well-being. We continued to maintain clear, consistent communication with all team members during the year. Frequent communications were maintained especially with those team members who became COVID-19 positive, to assure them that CDB family is with them through the challenging time.

All meetings were shifted to virtual channels and regular updates of management decisions were provided through internal communications and WhatsApp. All staff queries were attended 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to ensure that our team members remained psychologically fit to face the strain of the lockdown. Work-from-home and flexi-working arrangements were made available to our team members in the new normal. We also commenced communicating through e-letters carrying e-signatures, processing staff loans and vehicle loans through the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system and issuing e-pay slips to our team members. Even staff attendance was marked via the ERP system.

Priorities for 2022/23

Our focus for the next decade continues to be embracing the sustainability agenda coupled with the tech transformation. This focus enfolds the entire workplace ecosystem, driven by the personal needs and aspirations of existing and prospective team members, technological advancements and broader societal and economic trends. We will continue to shape capabilities of our workforce to be future-ready and deliver an exceptional employee value proposition.