BPO firms with ‘high-trust’ workplace cultures named

By Andrea E. San Juan @andreasanjuan

THE IT and Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP) and Great Place To Work Philippines unveiled the list of top 30 companies in the country with “high-trust” workplace cultures.

According to IBPAP, the flagship organization of the IT and Business Process Management (IT-BPM) industry, the list features 30 Great Place To Work Certified organizations that “scored the highest after being evaluated using the For All Model and Methodology.”

The method looks into whether “every single employee, no matter who they are or what they do for their company, is having a consistently positive experience at work.”

For her part, Antoniette Mendoza-Talosig, Managing Partner at Great Place To Work Philippines, said these 30 companies pursue the industry’s 2028 roadmap by creating “high-trust” workplace cultures.

“They maximize their human potential through leadership effectiveness, values, and trust. With these, innovation and financial growth take place. These are the characteristics of a Great Place To Work For All or what we call a For All culture,” Mendoza-Talosig added.

With more than 500,000 IT-BPM employees represented in the Great Place To Work surveys from January 2022 to May 2023, data shows that 94 percent of employees in Best Workplaces experience a high-trust workplace culture.

IBPAP said, however, that this is only true for 84 percent of the employees in “typical” organizations.

For his part, IBPAP president Jack Madrid said 16 of the 30 organizations included in the list are members of the IBPAP.

The 16 member-companies of IBPAP which made it to the top 30 are Synchrony Global Services Philippines, Inc. ; Accenture,Inc. (Philippines); Via Appia Philippines, Inc.; Teleperformance Philippines; American Express International, Inc.; Genpact Philippines; Asurion; Navitaire Philippines Inc.; Goodyear Business Services Manila; KMC Solutions; Amadeus Marketing Philippines, Inc. ; Connext; ADP Philippines, Inc.; Limitless Connect; Lexmark Research and Development Corporation; and Infinit-O.

The 14 other companies included in the list, meanwhile, are: 3M Global Service Center-Philippines, Genesys Cloud Services, Cayman Ltd. Philippines, Booth and Partners, Eco Global Consulting, Inc., Kollab,Tech

One Global Phils.,Inc.,Tech Mahindra Limited, Rocket Station, J4RVIS, Five9 Philippines,Inc., Arcanys, HelpGrid, and Cobenn Business Consultancy Services.

The list was unveiled on July 10,2023 during the Third Quarter General Membership meeting of IBPAP.

Madrid said each of these IT-BPM companies “exemplies what the sector is all about—great workplaces make great people and great people make great workplaces.”

IBPAP has over 370 members and six partner associations—the Animation Council of the Philippines, Inc. (ACPI), Global In-House Center Council (GICC) Philippines, Contact Center Association of the Philippines (CCAP), Game Developers Association of the Philippines (GDAP), Healthcare Information Management Association of the Philippines (HIMAP), and the Philippine Software Industry Association (PSIA).

According to IBPAP, employees responded to over 60 survey questions describing the extent to which their organization creates a great place to work For All.

The IBPAP said, “85 percent of the evaluation is based on what employees say about their experiences of trust and reaching their full human potential as part of their organization, no matter who they are or what they do.”

Great Place To Work analyzes these experiences relative to each organization’s size, workforce make up, and what’s typical in their industry, IBPAP noted.

The remaining 15 percent of the ranking, meanwhile, is based on an assessment of all employees’ daily experiences of innovation, company values, and the effectiveness of their leaders to ensure these are consistently experienced.

“The Philippines has done relatively well in terms of sustaining its growth. I think that’s partly because the structure of the economy is quite different from other Asean countries,” Khor said in a briefing on Tuesday.

“The other economies are much more dependent on manufacturing goods export, whereas in the case of the Philippines, it’s a much more service-driven economy. And because of that, I think it has not been affected as much by the external headwinds and has benefited from the recovery of the services sector,” he explained.

Some of the medium-impact risks identified by Amro that could affect Asean economies, albeit in varying degrees until the next two years, are the spike in global commodity prices and the faltering recovery in China.

The high-impact risk that could affect the region for two years is the recession in the United States and Europe. In the next two to five years, the high-impact risk would be the economic decoupling between the US and China. Financial spillovers from tighter US monetary policy, meanwhile, is deemed a low-impact risk by Amro. This is expected to have an impact within two years.

Perennial risks to the region, AMRO said, include the climate change transition; natural disasters; cyber attacks; and pandemics.

“Downside risks to the region’s outlook have receded since April, but we are not out of the woods yet,” Khor cautioned. “Heightened financial stress from tighter US monetary policy is a risk that the Asean+3 policymakers must continue to guard against.”

The Asean +3 region is expected to grow by 4.6 percent this year, up from 3.2 percent last year.

Although the ongoing weakness in global trade has prompted a slight reduction in the Asean growth forecast for 2023 to 4.5 percent from last April’s projection of 4.9 percent, this will be offset by improving prospects in the Plus-3 economies.

Amro revised its 2023 inflation forecast for the region— excluding Lao PDR and Myanmar—to 3.0 percent, slightly lower than its previous forecast of 3.4 percent.

Growth is expected to ease slightly to 4.5 percent in 2024, while inflation is projected to moderate further to 2.4 percent.

Manulife’s take

IN a separate briefing, Manulife Multi-Asset Solutions Team Global Macro Strategy Co-Head Sue Trinh said the aggressive monetary stance of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) is one of the biggest risks that could dampen growth in the Philippines.

Trinh also added that both headline and core inflation remain elevated. Based on the latest data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), headline inflation was at 5.4 percent and core inflation was at 7.4 percent.

“Growth is dampened by a combination of factors; the first is that BSP’s had the most aggressive tightening cycle in the region over 400 basis points but headline inflation core inflation volatility remains rather acute,” Trinh said.

“BSP has also discussed or stated quite clearly that inflation risks [remain] and its eyes are heavily tilted to the upside and that keeps the door open for further rate hikes,” she added.

However, despite this, Trinh still considers the Philippines the “most safe place” to park investments and one of the countries in Asia where it is good to “hide” from global uncertainties.

“The Philippines is the most safe place, [one of the most] dynamic in the region,” Trinh said.

Our argument, our thesis from a macro perspective, is that Asia is really a good place to hide in these times of heightened uncertainty. The consensus is that Asia’s growth differentials will remain wide,” she also said.

Rate cuts looming—Oxford

ANOTHER good news that could be on the horizon are rate cuts, which according to Oxford Economics are expected sooner rather than later.

Oxford Economics believes rate cuts are looming given the expected slowdown in Asian economies, particularly South Korea and Thailand, which were significantly affected by the slowdown in goods export.

The balance of risks points to lower rates sooner rather than later. Inflation needs to come down a bit more—which it should—and the Fed needs to stop hiking—which we think is imminent—and Asian central banks are likely to look for the right opportunity to cut rates.

Last week, the BSP said this may not be enough reason to consider another pause or a rate cut in the next policy rate setting.

BSP Governor Eli M. Remolona Jr. told reporters that apart from inflation, the Monetary Board will also consider the country’s GDP growth rate as well as the next move of the US Federal Reserve.

Remolona stressed that the decision of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) will be considered on the basis that it also provides data for the Monetary Board.

One important consideration in looking at the decisions of the FOMC, Remolona said, is the US Federal Reserve’s difference from the BSP.

Further, Ricafort said, “still relatively higher prices/inflation and interest rates/borrowing costs, locally and globally, also partly weighed on demand for some imports that helped narrow the trade deficit/net imports.”

As for the e xports growth, he said exports recovered to six-month highs after the pickup in electronic/semiconductor exports, which are the country’s largest exports. The growth in exports may be attributed, he said, to the easing of prices, “especially lower prices of global oil and other major commodities that reduced the input costs of exporters.” and is unnec essarily prohibitive in terms of promoting the Philippines as a viable destination for Chinese tourists.”

In Ma y, the country’s total external trade in goods amounted to US$17.28 billion, which indicates an annual decline of 5.1 percent from the US$18.20 billion recorded in the same period last year.

In April its annual decr ease was recorded at 16.8 percent, while in May 2022, it expanded at an annual rate of 20.8 percent.

Of the total external trade in May 2023, the PSA said 62.7 percent were imported goods, while the rest were exported goods.

China top export, import destination ACCORDING to the PSA, the People’s Republic of China was the country’s top export and import destination.

China ac counted for the highest export value amounting to US$1.07 billion or a share of 16.6 percent to the country’s total exports during the month.

O ther top export markets are the United States with US$1.01 billion or 15.7 percent of the total; Japan with US$930.56 million or 14.4 percent; Hong Kong with US$665 million or 10.3 percent, and Netherlands with US$346.65 million or 5.4 percent.

Mean while, China was also the country’s biggest supplier of imported goods valued at US$2.60 billion or 24 percent of the country’s total imports in May 2023.

O ther top sources of imports were Indonesia which accounted for US$917.05 million or 8.5 percent of the country’s import receipts; Japan, US$794.92 million or 7.3 percent; US, US$724.44 million,6.7 percent; and Republic of Korea, US$712.79 million or 6.6 percent.

She noted that as of June 5, 2023, only 90,000 Chinese tourists arrived in the Philippines, which has resulted in the Philippines “lag[ging] severely” behind its Asean neighbors in terms of visitor arrivals. As per data cited by DOT in its letter. Thailand topped the region in the number of tourists it received at 845,684 (January to April); followed by Vietnam at 398,891 (January to May); Singapore 215,290 (January to April); Malaysia 178,150 (January to March); Cambodia 132,665 (January to March); and Indonesia 113,404 (January to March).

Family leave

AS this developed, the DOT confirmed that Frasco will go on family leave for “7 working days, on July 13-21, 2023.” Her chief of staff and Undersecretary for Legal and Special Concerns Mae Elaine T. Bathan has been designated officer-incharge. The DOT chief has come under fire over a tourism video that appeared to promote foreign destinations. (See,“Despitefiasco,adagencyofDOTcould still get paid,”in the BusinessMirror, July 4, 2023.)

On Tuesday, “Leave the Philippines” was trending on Twitter, as netizens noted the irony of Frasco vacationing overseas, even as her agency had been pushing its new “Love the Philippines” slogan.

Data from the DOT showed 2.85 million international travelers arrived in the Philippines from January to July 10, 2023. Of this number, foreign tourists accounted for 91.4 percent of total international arrivals, or 2.6 million. The rest, at 245,127, were overseas Filipinos visiting family and friends. Overseas Filipinos are described as Philippine Passport holders who are permanently residing abroad.

The international arrivals for the period was 69 percent of the 4.13-million in ternational arrivals in the first half of 2019, prior to the pandemic.

Pin e-visa rollout date

THE same data showed that South Korea continued to lead as the top source market for international tourists at 703,933. It was followed by the United States at 523,772; Australia at 140,213; Japan at 135,314; and Canada 126,266.

Tourists from China accounted for 118,673; followed by Taiwan at 97,869; the United Kingdom at 81,380; Singapore 78,224; and Malaysia at 51,923. China used to be the second top source market for tourists in the Philippines, prior to the pandemic. China reopened its borders in January this year.

In her letter to Manalo, Frasco wanted to find out when the DFA will finally implement the electronic visa system meant to attract more Chinese and Indian tourists. She also reiterated that the personal appearance of individual visa applicants should be waived if their papers are coursed through accredited travel agents, as well as online payment system for visa applications.

Since 1983, he said Pagcor had contributed over P607 billion to nationbuilding. It has also remitted P64 billion in dividends to the national government since 2011.

From July 1, 2022 to June 30, 2023, he said Pagcor already generated P45 billion, which is expected to reach P70 billion by the end of the year.

To mark their 40th anniversary, Pagcor also launched its new logo last Tuesday.

“All these taken together, our new logo reflects Pagcor’s long-standing commitment of being a guiding force that illuminates the way forward, drives transformation and development, and brings inspiration and motivation to the lives it touches,” Tengco said.

Under the current administration, Tengco said Pagcor will channel its resources to the promotion of education and health in the country.

The agency will re-launch its School Building Project to help address classroom shortage in public schools nationwide. It will also build e-Libraries to provide learners from remote or depressed communities with an environment that is conducive for e-learning and online research.

“Also in the pipeline are Socio-civic Centers and Community Wellness Centers to be built in different parts of the country,” Tengco said.

The agency will likewise be launching the “Bawat Buhay Mahalaga Serbisyo Caravan” which will focus on the distribution of educational, medical and financial assistance, among others, to various local government units and their citizens.