Q: How did SLT-Mobitel rise to be recognised as a Top Ten Corporate Citizen at the Best Corporate Citizen Sustainability (BCCS) Awa-rd 2020?
A: SLT-Mobitel has been the national telecommunications provider for 163 years, always operating with a ‘country first’ philosophy. As a responsible corporate citizen, our growth has followed a sustainability driven strategy.

We were conferred awards at the BCCS Award ceremony in several categories for the innovative initiatives taken by the organisation, and with our clients and the community. These include being recognised among the ‘Top Ten Corporate Citizens,’ as well as being a Category Award Winner and Sector Award Winner in the ‘Economic Contribution’ and ‘Other’ categories.

SLT-Mobitel focusses on customers, people and society at large. Given the events of the past 12 months or so, we largely concentrated on supporting the country in terms of enduring the pandemic, recognising our responsibility as a national service provider and one of the most prominent brands in the corporate sector.

Q: Could you elaborate on the organisation’s contribution to the nation during the pandemic?
A: Our first step was to support the government’s efforts in combatting the pandemic. We donated Rs. 50 million to the COVID-19 Healthcare and Social Security Fund to aid ground level pandemic control initiatives.

Meanwhile, we also invested 350 million rupees in projects to promote physical distancing, facilitate essential services and help restart economic activities in key sectors.

For example, our teams donated personal protective equipment (PPE) to multiple hospitals including the Infectious Disease Hospital (IDH), the National Hospital of Sri Lanka and Lady Ridgeway Hospital for Children.

In addition to this, our employees distributed essential food items to families in need, personally ensuring that people had what they needed during the lockdowns last year.

SLT-Mobitel also collaborated with other organisations where necessary. Together with Manusath Derana, we carried out SMILE WITHIN – the one million masks donation and awareness campaign.

We also partnered with the Department of Prisons to help prisoners get in touch with loved ones as well as appear in court virtually through Skype without facing the risk of infection.

Similarly, we created a ‘virtual courthouse’ for the High Court of Sri Lanka with an automated judicial system, enabling cases to be heard remotely with the use of technology. Through all these initiatives, we ensured that we fulfilled our responsibility to the nation in these trying times.

Q: In addition to its efforts to mitigate COVID-19, what other projects is the telco conducting in terms of sustainability and CSR at the national level?
A: SLT-Mobitel takes pride in being the first Sri Lankan telecommunications operator to gain ISO 14064-1:2018 certification. We conducted a greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions assessment and were declared to be a carbon conscious organisation.

Additionally, we joined forces with the 2020 Lanka Premier League (LPL) to launch the SLT-Mobitel Green Premier League (GPL), which is positioned as an unparalleled sustainable environmental conservation project.

Through this, we planted a number of trees equivalent to the winning scores of each team in every match of the LPL as a forest restoration initiative in the Rajawaka forest reserve in Kalthota, Balangoda.

The SLT group identifies education as one of the most important investments for the future of the nation. As a part of this commitment, we partnered with Manusath Derana to transform 25 decommissioned Sri Lanka Transport Board (SLTB) buses into modern and fully equipped libraries.

Complete with WiFi connectivity, these will act as learning centres, providing equal opportunities to students and inculcating the crucial habit of reading.

Furthermore, SLT-Mobitel launched SLT eSiphala (an online teaching platform) last year and A/L Kuppiya learning packages to facilitate it.

The company also conducted free online computer coding programmes on Sundays in partnership with the STEMUp Educational Foundation.

All these programmes help us stay in line with our mission in a bid to prioritise our ‘nation first’ philosophy.

Q: Could you shed light on the importance of customers and employees to SLT-Mobitel’s strategy?
A: Our employees are our most fundamental resource. They are tasked with executing the corporate strategy and representing the brand. As such, the organisation looks to nurture an environment in which employees feel valued, recognised and connected to SLT-Mobitel’s wider purpose. In turn, this empowers them to do their best work, realise their full potential and drive the success of the company.

We also aim to offer customers the best experience possible, and continuously introduce new initiatives and review processes to enhance the customer experience.

For instance, our Product Cha-mpion programme was initi-ated to enhance regional staff’s awareness of SLT-Mobitel’s products while a single point of contact in IT was established for system related issues.

In addition to these efforts, our employees’ constant motivation and monthly operational review meetings are among the initiatives that we implemented to ensure sustained customer experience superiority.

Kiththi Perera
CEO