Putting gender equality to work in Sri Lanka
Krishan Balendra knows firsthand that gender equality is good business.
As Chairman of John Keells Holdings PLC (JKH), the largest listed conglomerate in Sri Lanka with extensive interests in hotels and hospitality, Balendra takes a keen interest in the nation’s key tourism industry that attracts millions of visitors to its shores each year.
“We are not going to make our tourism industry work unless we get women to work in the tourism industry,” said Balendra in a recent interview with the UN Global Compact.
“We are just going to run out of people to work in hotels,” he said. “We have to do it, and I think it can be tremendous for the economy.”
Building up the presence of women throughout the diverse conglomerate, one of Balendra’s top aims, requires overcoming cultural mindsets such as the traditional thinking that women should not be serving in hotels, he said.
JKH is addressing that preconception with promotional and education programs, and it has made strides as well training women to work in traditionally male jobs such as operating forklifts and cutting meat at supermarket counters, he said.
The conglomerate’s wide-ranging holdings include a chain of supermarkets, hotels and resorts, port, marine fuel and logistics services, food and beverage manufacturing, tea broking, life insurance, banking and real estate.
Balendra spoke to the UN Global Compact ahead of Target Gender Equality LIVE on 15 March, part of the initiative aimed at supporting companies to set ambitious targets for women’s representation and leadership and address barriers to achieving gender balance in business.
About 30 percent of the 14,000-strong workforce at JKH is female. Under a five-year Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiative called ONE JKH launched in 2021, the target is 40 percent.
“In two years’ time, if that 30 percent has gotten to 35 percent, I would be very, very happy,” he said.
Each of JKH’s businesses has its tailored targets, and “the onus is on the businesses to make sure they achieve those targets,” he said.
Such target setting is pioneering among businesses in Sri Lanka, the chairman said. The company, a signatory of the UN Global Compact, follows the initiative’s guidelines for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, he said.
Also underway at JKH are mentoring programs, training in unconscious bias and the introduction of accessible child care for company workers, he said.
Balendra added that as the former head of the supermarket business at JKH, he has a particular appreciation for the benefits of women’s input and participation.
“Quite often it's the women who are doing the shopping, so how can you have a group of men, a boardroom or executive committee of men, debating the decisions that affect the consumers who are women?” he asked.
Also of great importance to JKH is sustainability in terms of the environment. The company works on reforestation and wildlife conservation through its CSR entity John Keells Foundation, and all JKH companies have targets for the reduction of energy usage, waste management and water management.
Further, JKH works on reducing plastic pollution, much of which washes up with the tides onto Sri Lanka’s beaches, through a recycling project started in 2017 called Plasticcycle.
An initial effort with opaque bins failed to gain much traction with the public, but a switch to Plasticcycle’s see-through bins, where the bottles are visible, has been much more successful, he said.
Plasticcyle has placed transparent plastic waste collection bins in supermarket car parks, apartment complexes, parks and schools as well as along Sri Lanka’s main southern coastal highway.
“When the public notice lots of empty bottles inside, then they feel like doing something themselves,” he said. The returned bottles are supplied to a company that recycles them into brushes and other consumer items.
Balendra says he has become a vocal advocate of sustainability and gender equality for his business and for Sri Lanka.
“I see the value of it, and I talk about it at any given opportunity,” he said.
