In addition to the award recipients, the event was graced by Members of Parliament, Diplomats, and Professionals in Businesses and Government Services.
The annual awards were presented by Women in Management (WIM) this year in partnership with IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, and the Government of Australia.
The awards highlight and honour women in the national and regional economy and celebrate their achievements, experience, and creativity in leading institutions, professions, and businesses in an efficient and effective manner.
“At Standard Chartered, diversity is a platform to drive our collective purpose.
Achieving gender balance in our workforce has been a strategic priority for us for the last three years, and it is a matter of pride for Standard Chartered Sri Lanka that we maintain gender balance at 50:50 with no tolerance for discrimination at any level.
It is heartening to know that the efforts put in by corporates to make our workplaces more inclusive and friendly are being recognised and serve as inspiration for more women to break barriers and stride forward into corporate roles previously considered male-centric domains,” said Bingumal Thewarathanthri, Chief Executive Officer at Standard Chartered Sri Lanka, commenting on the recognition.
Standard Chartered was recognised for seizing opportunities and overcoming challenges to champion women in the workplace.
In the past two years, the Bank introduced a reverse mentoring programme, a fair pay charter, a talent accelerator programme and focused personal branding sessions for upcoming female leaders as part of its focus on balanced succession planning and promoting women in leadership.
Ransi Dharmasiriwardhana, Head of Human Resources at Standard Chartered Sri Lanka spoke more on the steps taken at a corporate level to ensure gender equality, and a women-friendly workplace.
“The initiatives launched over the last three years to support the women in leadership agenda has resulted in us achieving a 36 percent female ratio in the Country Management Team (CMT), and 100 percent internal succession for female appointments into the CMT.
In addition to the many industry first policies and processes, our Women’s Network: W3 - Women Win at Work, Diversity & Inclusion Council and HR team have played an instrumental role in promoting our gender equality agenda.
Our recruitment processes that build a gender-balanced pipeline, retention mechanisms that support all flexi-working arrangements, a childcare facility for the children of our staff, a buddy system for those returning from maternity leave, a fair pay charter that corrected gender pay gaps, a zero tolerance for sexual harassment or bullying in the workplace and our community contribution promoting gender equality through the ‘GOAL’ programme have all helped to create a culture that embraces all forms of diversity.
Together with the senior leadership consistently ‘walking the talk’ and the focused initiatives, we have made significant strides in our journey to driving a culture of inclusion for all our employees.”
The ‘Top50’ Professional and Career Women Awards is WIM’s foremost annual event that recognises and celebrates individual and corporate achievements of trailblazing women leaders in Sri Lanka.
2020 celebrates the 10th year of the awards since inception.
Launched in March 2011 by Women in Management, ‘The Professional & Career Women Awards’ celebrates the achievements of remarkable women who inspire those around them – either through the media, or through their astounding achievements in their careers, businesses and everyday lives.
The annual event is an uplifting and emotional award ceremony where women are celebrated equally in one room.