Business
Unilever Recognised as The Organisation with the Most Female Friendly Company Policies in the Sri Lankan Workplace
Unilever Sri Lanka was recently crowned ‘The Organisation with the Most Female Friendly Company Policies in the Sri Lankan Workplace’ by AICPA, CIMA and SATYN Magazine at the 2022 Women Friendly Workplace Awards. The company was also recognised as ‘One of Sri Lanka’s Most Outstanding Women Friendly Workplaces’, underscoring its commitment to ensure more inclusion, development, and representation for women to thrive in their careers and life.
The Women Friendly Workplace Awards recognises companies that foster measures to empower and support women in the workplace and encourages organisations to address UN Sustainable Development Goal 5: Gender Equality, prevailing in the country, to ensure a safer and thriving workplace for women.
Commenting on the award, Ananya Sabharwal, HR Director of Unilever Sri Lanka said “We are honoured to receive this esteemed recognition and thank AICPA, CIMA and SATYN for providing a platform to be recognised for our efforts. We have been striving to foster equity, diversity and inclusion in the workplace for decades by launching meaningful policies which support women and diverse groups. Apart from our Anti-Harassment Policy which we already have in place, last year on International Women’s Day (IWD), we launched a Fertility Support Policy and Domestic Violence Support Policy. This International Women’s Day, we decided to #BreaktheBias and end the stigma around #MenstrualHealth by launching Menstrual Leave as part of our Medical Leave Policy and making sanitary napkins available across our office and factories, at the cost of the company.
We also have other inclusion enabling policies for both men and women such as our Career Break Policy to help people bring their full selves to their life and work. I myself have benefitted from this Career Break policy that gave me the space to volunteer, travel, pursue advanced Yoga courses and to really invest in myself as a human being.”
Unilever Sri Lanka focuses on developing women, enabling them to succeed in their careers. The company’s women employees are groomed and pipelined to take up senior leadership roles through a carefully curated unbiased career development process. 80% of its female managers have been sent on development visits overseas.
Adding her thoughts, Hajar Alafifi, Chairperson & Managing Director of Unilever Sri Lanka said, “We’re determined to nurture a culture where all individuals are treated fairly and respectfully, and where their uniqueness is celebrated. As such, we’ve set clear goals to accelerate diverse representation in our leadership and have even achieved some of them. 55% of our Country Management Committee are women and last year, we crossed the 40% mark in gender balance for the first time among our management employees and are in pursuit of reaching 50-50 gender balance by 2025. We continuously strive to create an environment where we can truly collaborate beyond all differences.”
In 2021, Unilever created history in diversity in the company by recruiting 27 female employees to its Horana factory shop floor. Over the last few years, the company has also witnessed the appointment of its first female Factory Manager and first female Area Sales Manager. These milestones have enabled the company to break traditional gender stereotypes while encouraging female participation in traditionally male-dominant industries.
The company also supports new parents by offering extended Maternity Leave for 6 months and Paternity Leave for 3 weeks. The company also has a ‘buddy system’ in place that makes sure that new mothers have the right support system at work when they return from maternity. Unilever Sri Lanka also recently reopened its créche facility inclusive of a structured pre-school education system for working parents who need childcare support whilst at work. The facility also caters to children with disabilities.
Going beyond its own employees, Unilever also has a flagship women’s empowerment programme, ‘Saubhagya’, which provides sustainable livelihoods to 5,000 females through the sale of Unilever products in their communities. The initiative won the Merit Award in the ‘Best Sustainability Projects’ category at the Best Corporate Citizen Sustainability Awards in 2020.
Sri Lanka’s construction sector one of the country’s largest economic drivers, continues to bleed billions due to weak cost-control mechanisms, ad-hoc estimating practices and the absence of internationally recognised methodologies, warns veteran Chartered Quantity Surveyor Mafahir Shuhood, a global authority in building economics whose work has shaped industry standards across continents.
A member of IQS (Sri Lanka), AIQS (Australia), ASAC (USA) and CIRB (UK), Shuhood is widely considered a pioneer of modern cost management. His first book, How to Estimate for Building Works, written in 1978, became one of the region’s earliest structured guides on controlling construction expenditure.
His subsequent publications—Cost Control Methodology and Costing Guide, authored in Qatar—today form part of the reference material used by universities, engineers and international contractors from Doha to London and Sydney.
“My methodologies are being used worldwide. Sri Lanka must now bring the same discipline and scientific approach if it wants financial stability in its construction sector, Shuhood told The Island Financial Review.
At the recent BMICS Exhibition in Colombo, all available copies of his books were sold within hours, signalling the growing demand among local professionals for structured, globally aligned cost-control knowledge.
According to Shuhood, Sri Lanka’s project inefficiencies stem from the lack of a unified national system to estimate, monitor and analyse costs. He argues that building economics is not merely a technical discipline,
it is a national economic safeguard.
“Before constructing anything—a house, a building or a public infrastructure project—you must assess materials, labour, wastage, inflation, time and value. Without a scientific system, cost overruns are inevitable, he said.
He believes that the country’s persistent budget blowouts in major infrastructure projects could be avoided with proper cost-control frameworks and independent monitoring.
“Sri Lanka cannot afford imprecision. Every unnecessary cost ultimately affects the national economy.”
Shuhood revealed that he recently met the Prime Minister and shared his recommendations, including copies of his internationally used publications.
“I told the Prime Minister that my advice is not for money. I am prepared to support Sri Lanka purely as a service. This is my profession since childhood, and I want to contribute meaningfully, he said.
He maintains that the introduction of a national cost-control discipline—developed using proven international best practices—could save the country billions in project overruns and miscalculations.
By Ifham Nizam
InsureMe Insurance Brokers Ltd successfully completed its Equity Introduction and subsequent listing on the Empower Board of the CSE recently marking a significant milestone for a local digital-first enterprise.
InsureMe Insurance Brokers Ltd (InsureMe) rang the market opening bell at a market opening ceremony, held at the CSE’s iconic Trading Floor, to commemorate its landmark listing on the Empower Board. highlighting InsureMe’s commitment to digital transformation and its success as a rapidly growing Insure-Tech firm leveraging the capital market for growth.
Founded in 2016 as startup, InsureMe is a digital insurance aggregator and a fully licensed broker regulated by the Insurance Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (IRCSL) with a digital-first operating model supported by online assistance and end-to-end digital claims support, operating with advanced platforms such as DigiEye (Motor Claims Automation), DigiMed (Medical Claims Automation), and DigiEx (Corporate Expense & Reimbursement Automation).
Delivering the welcome address at the event, Rajeeva Bandaranaike, CEO of the Colombo Stock Exchange, congratulated InsureMe on their successful listing. Remarking upon the occasion and InsureMe’s role as successful startup leveraging the capital market, he stated: “InsureMe is one of the very few startups in Sri Lanka making a debut on the Stock Exchange and as the sixth company on the Empower Board and is an innovator in the technology start up space. We are happy to see companies such as InsureMe involved in the IT sector making use of the capital market. When we set up the Empower Board, this is precisely what we had in mind.”
Prajeeth Balasubramaniam Chairman of InsureMe Insurance Brokers Ltd also remarked the companies list, remarking: “This listing represents far more than a financial achievement; it signals strong confidence in Sri Lanka’s burgeoning startup ecosystem and urges us all to aim higher. It demonstrates how visionary teams, armed with essential resources and guidance, can reshape industries and alter the national narrative. “
Also speaking the event Vipula Dharmapala, CEO and Director of InsureMe Insurance Brokers Ltd discussed the companies’ journey, stating: “InsureMe began almost a decade ago when my co-founders and I set out to give Sri Lankan customers the same transparent and convenient digital insurance experience enjoyed in other markets. Guided by our vision of ‘Insurance Made Easy’, we have grown through continuous innovation, digitising policy access, enabling online insurance claims, and developing advanced claims-automation solutions now being deployed in Sri Lanka and overseas.”
The capital raised through the listing is expected to strengthen InsureMe’s capital base and support its strategic expansion into cutting-edge technology adoption, product diversification, and enhancing its digital platform for seamless customer service. These initiatives are aligned with its goal of becoming the most preferred digital insurance intermediary in the country, fostering greater insurance penetration through easy-to-use digital channels.
JXG (Janashakthi Group) was recently recognised with the Parent-Inclusive Workplace of the Year 2024/25 Award at the Parent-Inclusive Workplaces Summit 2025. Held at the Courtyard by Marriott, Colombo, the recognition reflects JXG’s commitment to fostering a supportive, empowering, and inclusive environment for working parents.
Positioning JXG as a benchmark for parent-friendly workplace practices in Sri Lanka, the award aligned with global diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) and family-friendly workplace standards, recognising JXG’s achievements with the highest score in all five sub-categories of the Parent-Inclusive Workplaces Summit 2025. The categories included Best CEO/Leadership Initiatives for Working Parents, Best HR Policies Empowering Working Parents, Best Workplace Culture for Parents, Best Well-being Initiative for Working Parents, and Most Innovative Initiative Supporting Working Parents.
Discussing the award, Wasanthi Stephen, Group Chief Human Resources Officer at JXG said, “Family is at the heart of our policies, culture, and infrastructure. We recognise the importance of dedicating time to family and how it strengthens talent retention while encouraging workplace loyalty. This award not only reaffirms our efforts to meet the emotional and practical needs of our JXG families but renews our commitment to helping our employees thrive professionally while cultivating their personal lives.”
JXG’s progressive HR policies, culture-building efforts, and well-being initiatives demonstrate a comprehensive and sustained approach to parent inclusivity. The initiatives include up to twelve weeks of fully paid maternity leave with the option of a two-month extension on half pay. Similarly, fathers can apply for two weeks of fully paid paternity leave with additional paid leave upon request. JXG also offers parents versatile arrangements including remote work, flexible scheduling, and permission for parents to attend school and family events without having to take leave.
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