Vivian Corporation, one of Malta’s leading healthcare companies, recently awarded its 2023 Employee of the Year Award to Indika Thilakarathne, who has been working as its Pharmaceutical Warehouse Supervisor for the past year.

Mr Thilakarathne moved to Malta four years ago when his wife, an artist, sought to further her career with a move to the island after making contact with a Maltese client.

Recounting his journey, Mr Thilakarathne explained that he used to teach English at two different universities back in Sri Lanka, but had dropped everyone to support his spouse’s artistic ambitions.

The pandemic put some spokes in their wheels, but the couple refused to let it get them down, with that first Maltese client eventually helping Mr Thilakarathne find a job with Vivian.

“I first joined as a warehouse operator,” he said, but after 10 months, he left the company to work as a contact centre representative with a bank where, after a year, he was promoted to recruitment officer.

“But one fine day, I got the opportunity to come back at Vivian because I got to know they were looking for an experienced warehouse supervisor. And I accepted.”

Mr Thilakarathne recalled the time he rejoined Vivian as a very challenging time. This was because he not only needed to refresh his memory and re-learn the job, but also do so at a critical time for the company, as it was moving to new and bigger premises.

“This move promised more responsibilities but made it also more exciting,” he said. “The main challenge we kept facing was ‘how do you move a whole company set-up in just five days?’. But we managed.”

Asked about how he feels about his job, Mr Thilakarathne said he feels very satisfied, especially given that today, he is responsible for a team of eight people.

“My team is a multicultural one. Besides two Maltese persons, there is a Bulgarian, two Indians, two from Nepal and another fellow Sri Lankan - which helps me feel even more at home!”

Mr Thilakarathne reports directly to the Operations Manager at Vivian and is responsible for the handling of all operations within the warehouse, from leading the team to incoming and outgoing stock and anything in between, such as ensuring the right temperature conditions according to the storage requirements of each pharmaceutical or medical device in storage.

He attempts to live by his motto, to “make the next step easy for the next person.” He explained that this includes everyone from his direct team to the cleaners and the manager: “There’s no harm in taking initiative if that makes it easier for others.”

He added that his roots as an English teacher remain evident, and given that his team is a multicultural one, he also dedicates time to helping his colleagues improve their English because he believes that better communication helps the workflow better.

Mr Thilakarathne recognises that non-EU workers like himself are not always entirely welcome by locals: “After four years living in Malta, I know very well how some Maltese feel about third-country national. It bothers me a bit because we all come with our life story and we are all trying to make a better life.”

He continued: “But I love Malta. I live with my wife in Cospicua where I have found a very beautiful community, and we are very nicely settled there. Every day, morning and evening, we pray and in our free time, we work on our art. We also like to visit different places around Malta because we love this country’s history which I find fascinatingly enchanting especially Mdina, Valletta and San Anton Gardens because as lovers of nature, we like to be surrounded by trees.”

Meanwhile, Vivian Managing Director Denise Borg Manche said that “People love him, and he is always full of initiative and so ready to help. In his job he is so meticulous that our teams found it very easy to vote for him as Vivian’s employee of the year.”