| Stakeholder group |
Key interests |
Approach and frequency of stakeholder engagement
|
Our response |
| Shareholders providers of capital |
and Profitability and returns, sustained growth prospects, risk profile of businesses, ability to service borrowings |
Annual General Meeting, timely communications and press releases of material transactions, road shows, Investor Relations effort, regular updates of capital risk rating |
• Releasing quarterly reports including a statement from the Chairman within 3 weeks of the end of the first three quarters of every year; releasing the audited annual results within 2 months of the end of the financial year
• Making the corporate website a good source of information, tracking patterns and of usage and providing key contact points
• Ensuring that shareholders and their agents have year-round access to the highest governing body of the company via the Investor Relations division. The division also proactively caters to needs of institutional investors via regular annual roadshows |
| Customers |
Quality of product/ services, accessibility, value for money, value addition, delivery of product/ service promise |
Regular customer feedback depending on the nature of the industry group through surveys, one-on-ones, market visits, mystery customer surveys, market research |
• Making customer feedback a focal point for innovation and product/service development across the group
• Adopting responsible marketing policies - eg: all group advertisements to be aired on multimedia are vetted by a committee nominated by the Group Executive Committee for suitability of content
• Adopting international quality certification systems and quality management systems (details given later)
• Enterprise resource planning for process efficiency and continuously reviewing and enhancing the systems |
| Employees |
Individual and career development prospects, compensation and benefits, recognition, equal opportunity, work-life balance |
Direct interactions - both formal and informal, systematic performance management scheme incorporating top-down, bottom-up, and lateral feedback, open-door policy, Intranet for news and communication, meetings with trade unions among others |
• Nurturing a culture of open communication,
open-door policies and the creation of multiple channels for upward feedback (eg: skip level meetings, Chairman Direct)
• Keeping abreast of new trends in employee engagement, whereby employees are encouraged to contribute at their best via suitable reward and recognition systems
• Investing in training and development, a robust performance management scheme and making succession planning for senior executive and other critical roles a board-level priority
• Allowing immediate access of relevant general and personal employment information through an Employee Self Service (ESS) portal
• Creating working environments that are pleasant, safe and conducive for a healthy culture and work ethic, in line with the group's HR vision of being More than just a workplace.
• We encourage dialogue at all levels and actively engage in dialogue with employee representatives, including trade unions. We foster a workplace where there is freedom of association to engage in lawful trade union activity.
• Organising sports events (inter and intra organisational), year-end annual get-together, BU-based oubound training activities etc
• Organising CSR roadshows and encouraging employee participation in their choice of community welfare projects |
| Suppliers |
Adequate returns, steady commitments, ethical dealings and timely settlements, prospects for growth of business |
Regular vendor participation and dialogue via a central group sourcing function, periodic vendor reviews, on-going interactions in developing small scale suppliers, vendor education in invoicing etc towards integrating with the JKH ERP. |
• Documenting and sharing planning cycle in order
balance vendor capacity utilisation interests and with group's realistic delivery requirements via the Group Initiatives (central sourcing) function
• Sharing best practice learnings and knowledge transfer
• Supporting small and medium industries by providing them with know-how, fair prices and ready markets through extensive engagement - eg: the Ceylon Cold Stores vanilla and ginger farmer projects and Jaykay Marketing Services’ Tambuttegama collection centre project |
| Governments, policy-makers, regulators and industry associations |
Sustainable revenue streams for the broader economy, creation of employment, compliances, country- competitiveness, industry competitiveness and equality |
Focused interventions, public-private sector engagements, written communications, committee participation |
• Participation in government, statutory and
business forums on issues relating to regulatory and public policy framework that have a material impact on our businesses
• Linking matters of national interest with business goals - eg: participation in the development of the port of Colombo
• Proactive and leading participation in industry associations such as the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce sub-committees as well as industry specific associations relating to our businesses |
| Communities |
Environmental, societal and cultural impact of operations and expansion projects, livelihood generation, provision of services, aid |
Regular interaction through core focus projects of the John Keells Social Responsibility Foundation |
• Taking on community development projects and
improving livelihoods via village adoption and developing IT competencies and employment opportunities for village youth through extensive engagement exercises covering pre and post-implementation
• Maximising benefits to communities from engagement - HIV/AIDS awareness campaigns, English language scholarship programmes, undergraduate soft-skills programmes, cataract surgeries through the Vision Project
• Social Responsibility Foundation - working with the industry groups in order to incorporate community related aspects into their sustainability projects |
