JKH garners most of the medals at HRM awards

Picture shows the HRM team of John Keells Holdings with three of the awards won.

The John Keells Group won a sizable quarter of the awards at the HRM Awards 2007 – Super 10, held recently, collecting one gold and 4 silver of the available 19 awards on offer.

Keells Hotel Management Services Ltd secured the gold while Trans Asia Hotel, John Keells Computer Services, Union Assurance and Nations Trust Bank bagged a silver each.

Under the theme ‘Celebrating the people factor in business growth’, the candidates were evaluated on a number of criteria, including organisational leadership and best HR management practices. The panel of judges comprised Professor Gunapala Nanayakkara, Managing Director – Postgraduate Institute of Management International Centre, Emirates; Dr. Santrupt B. Misra, Director – Aditya Birla Group; Dr. Norman Maharaj, Commissioner – Public Service Commission, South Africa; John Lavelle, Senior Advisor – HR Strategy, World Bank; Aruna Fernando, President – CIMA Sri Lanka; Ravi Peiris, Director-General/CEO – The Employers’ Federation of Ceylon; and M. Ramkumar, Global Head of HR – ICICI Bank.

The awards were open to all organisations (of both the public and private sector) with a minimum of 50 employees and at least one HRM specialist that have been operational in the past five years and are located in Sri Lanka. Many companies, ranging from financial services, hotel and hospitality, IT, garment manufacture, pharmaceutical, trade and industry, vied for selection to be amongst the Super 10.

JKH Chairman Susantha Ratnayake, commenting on the awards, said, “To us, they are recognition, not of the John Keells Group alone – the awards are also recognition of the people who make up the Group, who make it come alive in so many ways.”

The HRM Awards was organised by the Association of HR Professionals (AHRP) for the 3rd time, with the intention of highlighting the value and potential of human resources and the importance of equipping them with skills and competencies through which they may be strategically managed to ensure efficiency and productivity.