With three decades of experience spanning multinational corporations and the not-for-profit sector, Padmi Dissanayake brings a wealth of knowledge to organizational transformation and people management. As a Chief People Officer who has led teams across 38 countries, including the US, Europe, Australia, and APAC markets, Padmi’s approach to scaling organizations combines empathetic leadership with digital innovation.
Having held leadership positions at global giants like GE, Pfizer, and ResMed before transitioning to the private and not-for-profit sectors, Padmi now focuses her expertise on the disability sector. Her extensive background in change management and digital transformation has shaped her unique perspective on aligning people experience with organizational strategy.
Building People-Centered Solutions
At the heart of Padmi’s approach lies a commitment to understanding individual needs. Drawing from Harvard executive research, she emphasizes the importance of empathetic prioritization at the individual level.
“Understanding what the team member at the front line is required to do to meet the demands of your client and ensuring your internal systems and processes are seamless in a way that enables them to be spending more time allocated to their external client as opposed to internally focused,” she explains. This approach directly impacts the bottom line, as Padmi notes, “If you translate that to billable hours, then that is going to increase your revenue lines.”
Leveraging Technology for Global Connectivity
In today’s digitally connected world, having the right technological infrastructure is crucial for successful scaling. Padmi emphasizes the importance of making information readily available through technology, particularly for businesses expanding internationally. “For example, you’re an Australian business and thinking about scaling internationally, you may not have the funding or resources to add headcount and resources on the ground, but you might have one team member,” she shares.
The challenge then becomes ensuring these remote team members remain connected and productive. “What does that look like for that one individual? How do you make sure they feel connected to your infrastructure back in Australia and make sure they have access to all the relevant policies, systems, and processes to be productive?” Padmi recommends solutions like Neocase or ServiceNow platforms for maintaining this crucial connection.
Practicing Empathetic Change Management
Successful organizational transformation requires more than just implementing new systems. Padmi advocates for a methodical approach to change management that prioritizes empathy and user involvement. “This is where you’re going to spend time understanding the current state and mapping the future state and co-designing it with a person-centered approach and prototyping and testing it with the end users,” she explains.
Her methodology follows the ADKAR process, which she breaks down into essential steps: “Starting with raising awareness of the change, bringing in initiatives to raise desire for the change, increase their knowledge and training to increase their ability to implement the change, and then reinforcing the change through recognizing their efforts when they have done something right in the new way of working.”
Creating Consistent Global Experiences
The ultimate goal of Padmi’s approach is to create a unified yet locally relevant employee experience across global operations. “By taking these three methodical steps, this will enable you to ensure that whether you’re a person sitting in your Sydney office or Malaysia has a similar experience overall,” she states. However, she emphasizes the importance of maintaining flexibility for local requirements: “The only caveat being allowing for differentiation due to the local legislation and regulatory requirements as well as cultural nuances.”
This balanced approach yields significant benefits: “From a business perspective this brings in a concept of economies of scale, and operational efficiencies, greater productivity and engagement and really strengthens your employee value proposition,” Padmi concludes. Her comprehensive strategy demonstrates how organizations can successfully scale while maintaining strong employee engagement and operational efficiency across global markets.
To learn more about Padmi Dissanayake and her approach, check out her LinkedIn profile.
