From Startup Vision to Global Impact: The hSenid Story

With over two decades of experience in the IT BPM industry, Sampath Jayasundara has built his career alongside the remarkable growth of hSenid Business Solutions PLC and PeoplesHR, a leading HRIS SaaS provider with a strong presence across Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. Today, as CEO and Director, he oversees a company that helps organizations manage their most valuable assets and people through innovative HR technology. 

He is also the Vice Chairman of SLASSCOM, Sri Lanka’s IT BPM industry association, where he contributes to shaping the country’s technology ecosystem. Passionate about digital transformation, the future of work, and education, he believes that technology has the power to transform organizations when built on a foundation of curiosity, empathy, and accountability. 

When Sampath joined hSenid more than 25 years ago, it was a small team with a big dream to take Sri Lankan technology to the global stage. Over time, he wore many hats, moving from managing customer projects to leading sales teams, driving overseas business development, and eventually stepping into the role of CEO. 

Each stage of his career mirrored the company’s own expansion. As hSenid grew from a local startup into a global SaaS provider, his journey evolved alongside it. “It has been less of a career path and more of a shared journey of growth with the organization,” he reflects. Today, hSenid’s solutions touch hundreds of thousands of employees across industries and countries, making it one of Sri Lanka’s most visible technology success stories. 

Making HR Technology Human 

As he mentioned, the most rewarding part of building HR technology solutions is seeing the tangible impact on workplaces. HR, he emphasizes, is about people not processes. Technology becomes powerful when it helps organizations create better employee experiences, foster engagement, and unlock productivity. 

He explains that HR systems have moved beyond being simple repositories of employee records. Modern platforms use artificial intelligence and analytics to enable decision making, predict outcomes, and support employee wellbeing. By shifting HR from an administrative function to a strategic partner, technology helps organizations understand and respond to their people more effectively. This transformation is at the heart of PeoplesHR’s vision. 

Designing Solutions Across Cultures 

One of the biggest challenges for any global SaaS provider is balancing universal HR principles with local requirements. Jayasundara believes the answer lies in localization. Every market has its own cultural expectations and regulatory frameworks, and successful solutions must reflect these realities. 

“We invest heavily in understanding local contexts, from compliance to user behavior, and combine that with global best practices,” he says. This requires teams to listen deeply to customers, iterate quickly, and ensure that the technology adapts to users rather than forcing users to adapt to the system. By blending global scalability with local relevance, hSenid ensures its solutions remain both powerful and practical across regions. 

“Technology may be built on code, but the mindset behind it is what determines its impact.” 

Values Behind the Technology 

For Sampath, the qualities he values most in his teams are curiosity, empathy, and accountability. Curiosity drives innovation, empathy ensures user centric design, and accountability builds trust with both colleagues and clients. 

He believes that while HR systems are made of algorithms and workflows, their true value comes from the intentions of the people who design them. A team motivated by these values will always produce technology that creates meaningful change. 

Leadership in the technology sector can be demanding, but Sampath stays grounded by maintaining clarity of priorities. Family and personal growth remain central, giving him the energy and perspective to lead effectively. 

For him, balance is not about escaping work but about remembering the purpose behind it. “At the end of the day, we are building technology to serve people,” he notes. This human element keeps him centered, even during the most challenging projects. 

Sri Lanka’s Place in the Global Future of Work 

Looking ahead, Sampath is optimistic about Sri Lanka’s potential to shape the global HR technology landscape. He points to the country’s talent pool, creativity, and resilience as competitive advantages. 

Sri Lankan companies, he argues, are uniquely positioned to bridge global innovation with local relevance. Having always worked across diverse regions such as Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, they understand cultural nuances and regulatory requirements that many competitors overlook. This combination allows Sri Lankan firms like hSenid to create solutions that redefine the future of work at a global level. 

As Vice Chairman of SLASSCOM, Sampath is also committed to building the broader ecosystem. By supporting startups, fostering education, and advocating for policy reform, he is helping to position Sri Lanka as a hub for digital innovation and HR technology leadership. 

Leading with Purpose 

Sampath Jayasundara’s career is a story of growing with an organization, shaping technology that serves people, and keeping purpose at the core of leadership. His journey with hSenid reflects how vision, persistence, and adaptability can transform a small Sri Lankan company into a global player. 

For him, leadership is not only about scaling products or entering new markets, but also about staying true to values. Curiosity, empathy, and accountability guide both his teams and his personal philosophy. As he looks to the future, he believes Sri Lanka has the capability to play a pivotal role in shaping the global future of work, where technology and people are partners in progress.