Sri Lankan Airlines joins hands with CIRP to launch the first ever Employee Assistance Centre in Sri Lanka.
Sri Lankan AirLines and Colombo Institute of Research and Psychology made history last week when they launched the Employee Assistance Center (EAC) for Sri Lankan Airlines employees, first of its kind to be established in Sri Lanka. Mr. Kekulawala, the Senior Manager of HR of Sri Lankan and Dr.DarshanPerera, the Director of CIRP signed the MOU and officially launched the center in a charm ceremony held at Sri Lankan Airlines premises.
The main goal of this initiative is to provide counseling services to the staff members of Sri Lankan, to facilitate them overcome stressful personal, work related, family or life style issues that would affect their quality of work as well as personal well- being. Staff members are now able to make a call to the dedicated EAC line and get an appointment to meet the counselors at a time convenient to them. CIRP has employed two qualified and experienced counselors with master’s degrees in psychology and who have undergone supervised training in counseling to assure that the Sri Lankan staff receives the best guidance in order to resolve their psycho- social problems. The Center will be open all seven days for the benefit of the employees. Initially the EAC is housed at the medical center of Sri Lankan Airlines and soon the Center will have its own facility to further expand their support to the employees.
CIRP will also organize a series of workshops and awareness campaigns to encourage staff members to seek assistance from the center and also to reduce the stigma that prevents help seeking in psychological distress and illness.
EAC’s are very popular in western countries and is considered an essential part of the employee welfare system, that corporate organizations offer their staff members. These centers function independently to offer counseling services to the staff members in a more professional, confidential, ethical and convenient manner. The concept of EAC is that are out-sourced to specialist organizations emerging in response to the issues faced by organizations,which had their own counseling staff. Most of the employees were not comfortable opening up and discussing their work related issues as well as personal issues, to someone they considered another staff member. Issues with confidentiality and fear of the information they provide affecting their employment in a negative way,were main concerns. As a result, having counselors who are not employed by the organization and therefore independent in the form of EAC’s became popular.
“This is a significant mile-stone in the history of psychology as well as the field of HR in Sri Lanka. We are very proud of ourselves as an academic institute with the goal of establishing organized psychological services in the country about this achievement and CIRP is grateful to Sri Lankan Airlines for approaching us with this idea and then working with us in making this initiative a success.” said Dr. Darshan Perera, highlighting the significance of this project. He further added “This is not an event important or significant only to Sri Lankan or CIRP, this marks a new era in the employee welfare and support mechanisms in Sri Lanka. Sri Lankan Airlines have given an excellent example for the other corporate organizations with this pioneering endeavor. I would like to personally thank the Head of HR and the entire HR team and the Chief Medical Officer of Sri Lankan for giving us an opportunity to work with them and the senior management of Sri Lankan for approving this project.”
Apart from the senior staff who is involved in counseling, CIRP will also place interning students for the administration and coordinating tasks at the EAC. Though they will not be involved in any form of counseling, they will gain experience by working in a therapeutic setting, its procedures and processes and professional and ethical standards.
Addressing the gathering Mr. Kekulawala said Sharing his thoughts on the initiative, Mr. PradeepaKekulawala, Head of Human Resources of Sri Lankan Airlines noted, “This initiative is based on the principle of Industrial and Business psychology, where employee well-being and productivity are often correlated. The wellbeing of the employees is one of paramount importance to us, as it ensures that employees stay in a positive frame of mind in order to give their best when performing their assigned tasks. As an organization, we are currently going through a phase where we need our employees to raise their performance levels. We believe that an initiative of this scale would enable them to focus better and improve themselves as professionals as well as individuals.”
This is not an event important or significant only to Sri Lankan or CIRP, this marks a new era in the employee welfare and support mechanisms in Sri Lanka. Sri Lankan Airlines have given an excellent example for the other corporate organizations with this pioneering endeavor. I would like to personally thank the Head of HR and the entire HR team and the Chief Medical Officer of Sri Lankan for giving us an opportunity to work with them and the senior management of Sri Lankan for approving this project