RIFKA ZIYARD
COLOMBO : Colombo Times spoke to Devni Wickramasinghe, a young and ambitious career woman to obtain insights on corporate work life.
Devni Wickramasinghe, is an Associate Member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (ACMA) and is currently employed at John Keells Holdings PLC as an Assistant Manager. She also holds a Master of Business Administration in Management from University of West London and a 1st Class Bachelor’s Degree in Management and Technical Sciences from General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University. She’s a past pupil of Musaeus College, Colombo 07.
Colombo Times invited Devni to share her views on some of the issues faced by women her age and the reasons for such issues, she says “I feel that one of the main issues is the gender stereotyping which takes place, be it due to unconscious bias or cultural perceptions – both in our work and personal lives. There are preconceived views on what women should or shouldn’t, and it’s challenging for women my age to break these gender stereotypes if we are not provided opportunities to go out there and create opportunities for ourselves”.
Devni expressed her views on qualities women leaders possess, “there are many admirable leadership qualities. Ability to listen and understand the situation, being empathetic towards the colleagues, understand and value the concept of work-life balance are few such qualities”.
She further added “women are motivated by the challenges faced to achieve the assigned targets on time, with the right quality of work”.
Devni agreed that there are barriers for women to enter into different fields. “There are many interventions recognizing and addressing these barriers, both globally and locally to increase women especially in non-traditional and non-conventional roles. There are industries that are traditionally male dominated – such as transportation and logistics, construction, STEM etc. but there are women leading by example, inspiring others to break these glass ceilings” she explained.
She expressed her opinion on the importance provided to diversity in the Corporate world, “progressive corporates understand the value of diversity in their workforce, the richness it brings to innovation and decision-making and this is supported by many studies by the IMF, the IFC and McKinsey etc. The impact of the diversity in the workforce, in the value chain and the work corporate do in our communities have tremendous importance on the triple bottom line”.
She further added, “In my view, people do their best work when they are treated with fairness, respect and dignity and companies that are more inclusive have a productive workforce. While meritocracy is essential, companies must also work towards levelling the playing field by eliminating biases, so that we have a larger talent pool to consider at recruitment, and career progression. Specifically, with regards to gender diversity and increasing women in the workforce, support must be given to women who are mothers and caregivers – with flexible working hours, remote working and career breaks as need to support retaining the best female talent where needed”.
Women are faced with many types of challenges due to the COVID 19 Pandemic. Devni further explains “The COVID-19 pandemic has had a massive impact on the lives of many individuals over the past couple of months. Working from home and through online modes was one of the significant adaptions that we all adjusted ourselves for, in order to ensure that there won’t be any interruption to the corporate tasks assigned to us. Companies that continue to adopt an agile working arrangement are likely to attract and retain women who are also primary childcare providers or caregivers”.
Devni expressing her views on the importance of a support system said “One of the major challenges faced during the pandemic was the creation of work-life boundaries, while maintaining a stable physical health and well-being. The support received by the family, peers and the employer, was tremendously helpful to overcome the various ad-hoc challenges faced during the pandemic”.
Devni shared key enablers for young aspiring ladies to reach their full potential “Be unique, passionate, and optimistic to overcome the challenges and tantrums in life!
Always be the captain of your own ship and don’t let anyone else take control of the wheel”.
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Interviewed and compiled by Rifka Ziyard MBA, FCMA, CGMA, FTII, B Com
Rifka is the Director – Tax and Regulatory at KPMG.
