PhilHRG Kicks off 2018 with New Volunteers and More Exciting Activities

by Nuke Sia

After the first 2018 board meeting of the Philippines HR Group last 5 January 2018, the PhilHRG gathered yet a new group of volunteers to handle some of activities of the organization. With a number that has grown to almost 80,000 online members, the need for more helping hands has increased. Last 20 January 2018, the organization has called for another meeting which was attended by 20 volunteers, 9 of which were repeat volunteers and 11 new bloods. We would like to share with you some of the exciting things that happened during the event.

Founder and President Darwin Rivers started the session by walkingthe volunteers through the early beginnings of the PhilHRG Inc and the origins of its advocacy. In the meeting were three other members of the board, Mr. Michael Natividad, Ms. Jocelyn Alosbanos, and Mr. Philip Nucleus (Nuke) Sia. The group has welcomed the new volunteers by sharing with them the new activities that the Philippines HR Group would be spearheading for the country’s HR professionals this year. The new volunteers was a mix of HR managers, HR assistants, and HR supervisors. They were hyped and energized by the upcoming activities. A short introduction session got the volunteers familiar with each other. Mr. Rivers set everyone’s expectation that all volunteers of the PhilHRG are treated equally regardless of company ranks and ages. He encouraged the volunteers to live by the values of the Philippines HR Group as they represent its advocacies and take part in its activities. The volunteers were provided a time to meet amongst themselves and create committees for upcoming activities of the organization after they were told about the activities for this year.

So what is in store for 2018? A lot!

#InspireHR. There are many activities to look forward to this year. Aside from the usual advocacy to provide development and learning to all HR practitioners in the archipelago, the organization would like to bring in what we call #InspireHR. We have seen that some practitioners can perform well if they are motivated in their work. This will be the goal of #InspireHR. This will be several sessions within the year where we will invite practitioners from different industries to talk about the HR challenges, experiences, and trends that aim to excite and inspire. Contrary to the learning events where we discuss the technical and administrative aspects of HR, #InspireHR is non-technical, easy to the ears, non-brain intensive, and is aimed at building pride in our line of work. Schedules will be posted in a separate flyer at the Philippine HR Group FB page, so watch out!

PhilHRG Job Fair Event. Recruitment and pooling talents is one important aspect of the HR function. The organization has decided to provide a solid support for our community in this area. Aside from the learning sessions, we will help you gather talents from all over the country to hire for your company. The aim is to provide an avenue for our network of HR professionals to be connected to people with the appropriate skills. Not much has been shared yet about the specifics but the target date for the Job Fair is on the 19^th of May 2018. For more details on how you can participate, you may send an email to Philippineshrgroup@gmail.com or just wait for further announcement at our PhilHRG facebook page.

PhilHRG Headquarters. As the non-profit organization grew, having a place where its volunteers can regularly meet to plan out high-quality events for the community became a must. With the HR community’s support, the organization is aiming to establish a headquarters before the end of the year. This will make communications with the participants and the entire community more fluid and easier. No details yet in regard to this, but if anyone in the community have suggestions for a cost effective place for our headquarters, you may contact PhilHRG Board Members Rhonadale Florentino or Michael Natividad. You may also contact Mr. Darwin Rivers directly.

Continued High-Value but Low-Cost Learning Events. Similar to last year when the organization has established quarterly learning sessions, we will still have seminars that will be offere to the public at very very friendly prices. We have an ongoing talk to team up with one of the top universities in the Philippines to provide us with a venue for our community to hold our learning events. This is a great opportunity to continue on of the main facets or service that PhilHRG would like to give to the country’s HR.

Aside from all these exciting things to look forward to, the PhilHRG is also planning to create a website that will provide official, valuable, and timely content to keep us abreast with what is going on in the HR community. Of course there are lots more to happen and we will continue to keep you updated through our FB page.

5 Things To Have at Work to Engage Employees

One of the most important resources for a business is its people. However, just having people cannot solely drive your business to success. There are businesses who hire skilled individuals that eventually didn’t reap success. If you engage your employees however, you can make that BIG difference.

But what exactly is an engaged employee?

It is someone who is able to provide ideas and unwavering dedication to his work. Someone who knows his importance to the business and consistently strives to give the best he can for the business. An engaged employee treats the business like his own. Is there a way we can get such kinds of employees in our company? There are several things we can foster into our company culture to help achieve a happier and more engaged workforce.

Motivation. When employees are excited to go to work, they do their best. Supervision is minimal, and it saves the time of the managers. Managers are able to focus on the other important aspects of the business. Employees who are motivated are happy to serve customers and deliver great performance. One of the simple ways we can improve employee motivation is by consistently providing them feedback. Everyone likes to know how well they are doing at work. When employees see their strengths, they become excited. Most also would like to learn and improve what they do. Feedback sessions allow them to know both. Coaching employees consistently is a good key to success.

Aside from coaching, it is also important that we know what keeps people at work. What role does their job play in their personal life? A manager who knows what pushes their employees to do what they do will be able to influence them well. It is important to build good relationships with employees. Talking to them about non-business matters related to their personal lives may be important. This doesn’t mean that managers need to pry into the privacy of their employees. It only means that a leader needs to build a positive relationship with employees in order to get them to open up. Showing employees that you genuinely care will also make them happy to come to work every day.

Creativity. Productivity is something that is seen by companies as a good measure of success. In the pursuit of it, they overlook that employees are not machines whose productivity may be computed by the number of hours they are doing actual work. Employees also need time to look back at the things they do daily so that they can reinvent their tasks. Employees need to find a way to come up with better means of doing their job. They need to innovate. Managers need to provide an avenue for creative thinking so that people will not become stale. Allowing room for creativity also provides employees a consistent feeling of accomplishment especially when their ideas positively impact the business. The company for example who first produced what we now know “post it” allowed their employees creativity and consistently encourages them to come up with new products. Initially, employees laughed at the idea of these sheets of paper with weak adhesive but when the company launched the product and encouraged the idea, it put them in the map and became a top brand worldwide. Encouraging creativity is definitely something that companies should start looking into.

Positive, Supportive Environment. While employees toil in the office everyday, it is easy to overlook the overall environment they are in. A positive environment doesn’t only mean good office equipment, lighting, and new paint. Environment includes people and how they respond to each other. While it is true that managers can never control people’s action, they are the one who can set the intensity that people will follow. Whether they choose to positively interact with employees or not will determine employees will also treat each other. Needless to say, if he shows that he is not a boss but someone who is there to provide people support, then employees would follow and also show respect, support, and positiveness toward each other. A positive and supportive environment encourages work-life balance among employees which is a great source of consistent motivation and creativity. Happy employees produce positive thoughts and give positive care to their customers.

Trust. Managers are there to check on employees, right? Wrong. They are there to empower employees and make employees see how they can make a difference for the business. While some people may argue that there are dishonest and disloyal employees who do not care about the company, a big percentage of these are only because of self-fulfilling prophecies. Self-fulfilling prophecies happen when you have certain expectations of someone and, unknowingly, you take notice of his actions that fulfill those expectations more often than things that are otherwise. This makes you biased and only see the employee based on your expectations. I came across a concept in Psychology called the Pygmallion effect. This states that when you have a certain expectation of someone, you move around the person with that expectation and it reflects subtly in your actions whenever you are around him. In turn, this affects the psyche of the person making him respond based on your expectations. Imagine if you move around your employees with the expectations that you can trust them? Of course this doesn’t mean that there are no risks. We still have to manage risks, definitely. But we create documented processes to manage these. Focus on empowering people. Verbalize and let them know that you trust them genuinely. Remember that boss who always made you feel that he trusts in your ability? Doesn’t he make you deliver your best always?

Training. In Stephen Covey’s book, “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,“ he talks about sharpening the saw. Engaged employees are effective employees. Therefore, providing our employees with growth and development increases their engagement in our business. When people learn, they become excited about what they do. Providing an avenue for employees to learn will definitely boost their morale and desire to deliver more for your company. Get a motivational training or a training that will enhance their skill in their job. You can also create a training path to get them ready to take on bigger roles in the business. Make these training sessions something your employees can easily relate to. Training can be a class room training, a one-on-one session with their manager, or even a class with a seasoned resource speaker invited. The possibilities are limitless.

There are still many other ways to engage our employees. Companies spend lots in order to come up with many programs for employee engagement, but these simple steps can bring you a long way when you need to deliver consistently good performance for your company.

For any of your training needs, please contact us. You may also send an email to training@competad.com.

5 Reasons We Fail to Make Our Employees Change

by Philip Nucleus Sia

Our ability to influence and change our employees behavior (or sometimes belief), is mostly dependent in our ability to provide coaching. Coaching is the processes of bringing a valued individual from point A to point B through conversation and collaboration. To some, this is usually an activity we link to sports such as in basketball or foot ball. In the Philippines, we can see on television that the basketball coach is mostly the only person talking and strategizing for the players. He tells everyone what they need to do and what position they need to take. While this approach can be effective in this area, it may be challenging to apply the same in the workplace where the coaching needs to take effect not only for an hour but longer spans of times. Aside from these, there are many other things that make coaching at work very challenging.

Coaching is meant to provide support, guidance, and empowerment. It must be a positive employee experience. It is not only done to correct errors and avoid its repetition, it is also a tool to encourage the replication of positive work behaviors. In order for us to ensure that coaching becomes the tool it is meant to be, it is important to understand what challenges us in coaching so that we can work on these and create a positive environment for our staff.

Time and Consistency. In a world where there are so many things we need to accomplish, work has taken so much of our time that we sometimes assume that everyone can certainly do what they are hired to do at the level we want. As a result, coaching becomes the last thing in our bucket list. We rarely spend time providing people development. Most of the time, coaching is done only when an employee makes a mistake. As a result, they tend to see coaching as a way for managers to reprimand them. Coaching becomes a negative experience. To avoid this from happening, managers need to see coaching as an important tool; a key task that will make their life easier. It is important to spend a consistent amount of time providing people with feedback and coaching. So do your coaching weekly or monthly. If you have the time, daily is also good. This makes people aware that you are there to support them.

Don’t Know What To Coach. Some managers do not spend time on coaching as they do not see what else needs to be talked about when employees didn’t do anything wrong. Talking to employees is also sometimes seen as a futile activity with not much business value. This is actually the contrary because, as long as it isn’t gossip, talking to employees regardless the topic does help build rapport and makes a leader more influential to them. While coaching is usually a discussion of possible improvement points for the employee, it can also be a conversation to celebrate an employee’s success. Yes, coach them and talk about the good things they accomplished. Use this conversation to empower them. Be specific about what behavior you think they did well so that they can replicate these.

Saying the Bad News. As coaching is mostly done to correct undesirable behaviors, it sometimes requires us to communicate uncomfortable and less-than-desirable issues. As Filipinos, there are two pitfalls for such. One is that we are culturally not very confrontational. Arguing, regardless the topic, is seen in our culture as disrespectful. However, we fail to see that arguments when in terms of ideas can be a healthy avenue for growth and development. For a coach or manager, it is important to be ready for responses when we have to provide negative feedback and focus the direction of the conversation on what can be productively done despite the bad news. Two, Filipinos take everything, including our jobs, personally. We tend to think that any comment and feedback about our work is personal and we get hurt hearing them. The internet is a living proof of this. When any other nations try to attack Filipinos through comments in social media, we tend to defend ourselves a lot. This is not different from when we receive coaching. Therefore, a manager’s challenge is to ensure that while the coaching targets opportunities for growth, the delivery of the feedback is positive and constructive. It has to provide encouragement and should be blame-free.

It’s about Listening Not Talking. In Stephen Covey’s book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, he describes that we should seek to understand before we seek to be understood. Because they have seen it done by sports coaches, some managers think that they are the only one privileged to talk. They provide solutions without asking questions and without identifying the root cause of the issues. This is a true challenge because we sometimes think that our experiences are the same as others. Even the smartest managers sometimes overlook that the challenge for the rank-and-file isn’t doing the task but at times understanding the big picture. As a coach, it is important to ask people about their challenges, their understanding, and what they think can be a good solution to issues. By asking questions, not only do we encourage positive communication and an open conversation, we are also teaching our employees how to think on their own which gives a lot of benefits in the long run.

Keeping an Atmosphere of Trust and Positiveness. When issues arise, some managers can lose their patience quickly. That is all right. After all, we are only human. What separates a good manager from an average one is how he responds and handles the situation. When coaching people, what is most essential is that we create a change; not letting loose of our anger. Some managers overlook this. They vent and then tell people what to do. This makes people work because of fear. While some managers can get away with that, fear instills short-term commitment. When you make people fear you, they will do the right behavior while you are around – what they do when you are away is another story. When coaching, it is important to make people reflect on their errors. Ask them what they think went wrong and how they can make a difference. Once the conversation is done and you have both agreed on a solution, verbalize that you trust in their abilities to make a change and offer your support when needed. This will ensure that your coaching becomes a relationship builder that fosters trust and positiveness in your workplace.

There are many other potential challenges in the workplace when it comes to coaching, but if you are able to address these five basics, then you are on your way to becoming truly successful in managing your employees’ behaviors and performance. Remember that the skill of a true leader is to effectively influence others to follow goals without forcing them and by making them feel that they, as members, can truly make a difference.

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If you would like to learn more about coaching and how you can be influential to your employees, please take a look at our calendar for any upcoming schedules on our Influential Coaching Techniques Workshop. For inquiries, call (02) 433 3342 or thru mobile at (0998) 562 4984 to 85.

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Understanding ROI

We may have heard about ROI one time or another. Most of us probably know what it means but, for those who are unfamiliar to it, we’d like to take time to introduce you to what it is and how it is measured. Businessmen have limited capital and would like to ensure that they get the most out of it. This gives rise to the importance of understanding ROI.

ROI refers to returns on investment. It is a performance measure for the efficiency of a potential investment. It allows businessmen to compare varying options for their business. Generally, the higher the ROI, the better the investment is. While there are other factors that businessmen also look at, ROI helps them make intelligent decisions to ensure the sustainability of their companies.

To measure ROI, we take the ratio of the benefits of an investment to its costs. Below is a formula in measuring ROI:

ROI is well known because it is very easy to understand. It measures profitability and it is very to explain it to any potential investor or stakeholder. It makes the investor see which among a list of alternative will be the best possible option.

For example, if you invested your Php 10,000 to a friend’s street food business and got Php 10,800 at the end of the year, then it means that you got 8% ROI. Let us breakdown how we ended up with that:

ROI = (Gain from Investment – Cost of Investment) ÷ Cost of investment

= (Php 10,800 – Php 10,000) ÷ Php 10,000

= (Php 800) ÷ Php 10,000

= 0.08 or 8%

On the other hand, if you have another Php 15,000 and you put it in the bank. After two years the total funds is now Php 16,100. Let us make out how much your ROI is:

ROI = (Gain from Investment – Cost of Investment) ÷ Cost of investment

= (Php 16,100 – Php 15,000) ÷ Php 15,000

= (Php 1,100) ÷ Php 15,000

= 0.07333 or 7.33%

In this sense, although we gained Php 300 pesos more from our savings, we can see that our returns were greater from the business. While this may ultimately not mean that we will cease one and replace it with the other, it helps us see which investment was more efficient. In businesses where capital is a valuable but limited resource, this measure allows a more efficient allocation of resources.

While ROI provides a great way of measuring the efficiency of an investment, it also has its disadvantage. It does not consider the amount of time that was spent in gaining returns. In our example, we can clearly see that the business delivered 8% for a year while putting the money in the bank gave 7.33% in two years. We can see that the efficiency of the business is more than double the bank’s if we consider the amount of time spent for delivering the ROI reported. By merely looking at the numbers and not considering the amount of time spent for these returns, a businessman can easily make a wrong decision when choosing his investment.

ROI is only one of many ways of measuring the efficiency of an investment. It provides a quick and easily understandable way of assessing where you would put your resources. There are many other ways of measuring the efficiency of investment and we will discuss some of these in our future posts. For the meantime, if you would like to learn more about ROI and how to use it for your business, stay tuned for COMPETAD’s upcoming course about Training ROI and how to measure it which we will be launching in the coming months.

PHRG Pursues Its Aim at A.I.M. Makati

The Philippines HR Group has just held its second learning session for 2017 last 24^th of June at the Asian Institute of Management in Makati. We can recall that aside from building the largest HR network in the country, the organization aims to provide its online members an access to value but cost effective education to enhance the HR leadership and practice in the country. This event is another milestone in the public learning sessions of the PHRG. This session’s topic was Talent Management and Organizational Development. Recalling the previous sessions in April, Mr. Darwin Rivers has highlighted that the core members and volunteers work on the advocacy out of the love of the Human Resource profession. Despite not receiving any monetary compensation for their work, they have truly delivered in this session just like every other. The speakers were Ms. Michelle Garcia-Cordero, Ms. Penny Bongato, Mr. Edwin Ebreo, Ms. Daphne Granfil and our very own Managing Director, Mr. Philip Nucleus Sia I.

Ms. Michelle Garcia-Cordero started the session with a talk about Disruptive Innovation. She highlighted that the current generation should not be thinking out of the box, instead totally remove the box. She described disruptive innovation as that which creates market and value network and eventually disrupts existing markets and value networks, displacing market-leading firms, products, and alliances. She spoke about work that were not existing 10 years ago that are highly demanded in today’s business world. She also said that there are more new opportunities as we change the meaning of work from a place we go to into something that more integrated to our daily lives.

Ms. Penny Bongato discussed the different facets of employee engagement. She said that we can engage our employees by making them enjoy what they do. People need to believe in what they can do and feel valued for it. Ms. Bongato said that engaging people means making them feel satisfied. As people are the biggest drivers for success in a company, she discussed that there are six critical levels to address in order to engage them. These are: Engagement Surveys and Analysis, Coaching and Performance, Employee Communication, Learning and Careers, Rewards and Recognition, and Health and Well-Being.

The next speaker Mr. Edwin Ebreo focused on the right mindset toward Training and Development. He stated that while most companies have training programs and may even outsource training services, they see it as a commodity that they can readily buy. However, he encourages that companies and HR take a look at the bigger picture. For instance, he stated there were companies who request for customer service training for the frontline staff but does not involve their managers in the undertaking. Mr. Ebreo encouraged the HR professionals to include the leaders in such because transformation can only be achieved when the leaders support it and know it as much as the rank and file.

Our Managing Director, Mr. Philip Nucleus “Nuke” Sia I, was the next speaker and he talked about how to measure training programs. He discussed the “Four Levels of Training Evaluation” that was developed by Donald Kirkpatrick. Afterward, he also gave the crowd an overview on measuring training and making proposals using ROI. He provided a sample scenario on how to compute ROI. While he said that there are times that we may not need to measure ROI, he ended his session by highlighting that if we truly want to consider training as an “investment” when presenting it to managers, businessmen, and investors, it has to be measured in the same way that we do any other investment – by the returns it gives to the company.

Ms. Daphne Granfil ended the session with a bang. She did a full training hour complete with some musical intermissions and activities to liven up the crowd. She discussed how to present a training proposal to decision makers. She said that one important way of doing it is by presenting it as a story. According to her, communicating your proposal isn’t just about your idea. It is also about how you make other people see its worth. Ms. Granfil said that preparation is the key in communicating your idea.

The Philippines HR Group is in the process of collating feedback gathered from the participants during the event but, even before they could, email has already poured in from the HR community thanking the group for the valuable session they have conducted this 24^th of June. To further forward its aims and advocacies, the Philippines HR group will hold another learning session this coming 22^nd of September and will have its 2^nd Annual HR Summit on November. The specific date for the summit has not been announced yet, but its founder, Mr. Darwin Rivers has said that they will release the information as soon as it is available.

Aside from the learning, there were raffle items from the sponsors and souvenir shirts available near the registration booth. It was a great opportunity to learn, meet new friends, and connect with others in the HR community. If you have not been part of this learning session and would like to be part of the next, you may contact the Philippines HR Group through facebook or email (philippineshrgroup@gmail.com).

COMPETAD’s 1st Cable Splicing and Termination Workshop – A Success

25 May 2016 – COMPETAD Training and Professional Development Services has concluded the very first Medium Voltage Cable Splicing and Termination in the Philippines. This training is only a few of its kind in the country.

Attended by nine participants from different parts of the archipelago, the learning event was a truly successful one. The first day was an introduction to the theories and principles behind the process of Cable Splicing and Termination while the second day was spent on hands-on training and practical application. It was a truly memorable, enjoyable, and worthwhile. All the participants added that they truly learned a lot from the session and they have also enjoyed the fun-facilitation of our trusted speaker.

Engr. Glenmar Cambri, the resource speaker for the said event, is a Senior Application Engineer of the 3M Philippines Technical Division. 3M is a world leader in engineering and technology and is a prominent brand for cable splicing and termination equipment and supplies.

At the end of the session, the participants were given an attendance certificate by COMPETAD Training and Professional Development Services as well as an internationally recognized certificate of attendance from 3M.

COMPETAD Training and Professional Development Services would be holding succeeding sessions for the Medium Voltage Cable Splicing and Termination. For inquiries, you may call us at (02) 433 3342 and at (0998)5624984 to 85. To be updated about our training and seminars, you may also like or leave a message at our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/competad.

PHRG’s Largest Public Event Shook the Ground at 5.6 Magnitude

Not even a 5.6 magnitude earthquake in the afternoon of the 8^th of April was strong enough to shatter the participants’ enthusiasm and eagerness to learn as the Philippines HR Group (PHRG) held its most recent and largest public event at the Philippine Bible Society in UN Avenue, Ermita, Manila. This is the second run of 1^st Quarter’s topic, “Strategies on Prominent Labor and Employee Relations Issues for 2017”. The learning session was attended by 314 participants from all over the Philippines, with some as far as Negros. COMPETAD again participated in the volunteering advocacy as a minor sponsor, with its Managing Director, Mr. Philip Nucleus Sia I, being the master of ceremonies. Our Lead Sales and Marketing Officer was also a member of the event coordination team and ushering committee.

Mr. Darwin Rivers giving an opening remark to the participants of the learning session.

The event started with some fun and games to warm up the early participants then was opened by the Philippines HR Group founder, Mr. Darwin Rivers. After sharing a little history of the organization, his message was about the passion and volunteerism of the team that has put together the event. He emphasized that the volunteers have organized it to truly give back to the community. He also invited the participants to attend the upcoming learning events in June and the PHRG Summit in November 2017.

Mr. Neil Ryan Lumacad, PHRG Core Group Member, giving a prize to a winner of the Early Bird Activities. Our Managing Director at COMPETAD, Mr. Philip Nucleus Sia I, behind them as master of ceremonies.

The first speaker of the day was the Regional Director for the Department of Labor and Employment for NCR, Atty. Johnson Canete. He spoke about the 10 new provisions of the DO174 and how it impacts the HR community. He also talked about a few cases to help everyone understand the prohibition on “Labor-Only Contracting.” This way, HR professionals will know how they can help their companies become compliant. He emphasized that non-compliance to many issues such as not paying the minimum wage requirements, not paying overtime, and other such simple regulations have always plagued the DOLE with complaints from the labor sector and he urged everyone to make a difference. Atty. Johnson has set the bar high for the event has he spoke with passion, humor, and enthusiasm that emanated and connected to the crowd.

Atty. Pol Sanggalang was second to take the stage and shared that the right mindset an HR personnel should have when disciplining employees is their good faith. He elaborated that disciplining shouldn’t be punitive, rather a means of achieving good employee relations, adequate compensation and benefits, good leadership, and supportive training programs. He said that disciplining must be embedded in the company’s policies and must be coherent with an employee’s constitutional rights. For habitual offenders he suggests that documentations of progressive discipline and evidence are a must to ensure that no rights will be violated. His session was a truly valuable and informative segment in the event.

In the afternoon, Mr. Allan Cañete, also a member of the Philippines HR Group, gave a heart-felt but entertainingly witty presentation about how companies can proactively create harmony by adopting an employee-centric culture. He highlighted that the existence of unions indicate a potential dysfunction in the corporation as its need usually arises when employees’ woes are not heard by the management. While he does not discourage the creation of unions, he offered an alternative mindset which he calls POGI (Power of Gratitude Intelligence). He said that by having a positive mindset and actively encouraging a “thanking” attitude in everyone, we can have physiological and sociological benefits both for the individual and the company that will increase the likelihood of a cooperative relationship between employee and management.

Mr. Jaime “Ka James” Estrada ended the day by sharing his experience from his four-decade long journey as an HR professional. He has shared some of his challenges and the ways that he overcame such labor relations issues in the practice of his Human Resource career. He ended his presentation with a touching video clip showing photos of his experience, which gave a melancholic throw-back feel to everyone. It was awe-inspiring.

The audience during the Philippines HR Group Learning Session on Strategies on Prominent Labor and Employee Related Issues in 2017 (April 8, 2017)

Aside from the new knowledge and ideas, the participants of the event also went away with some prizes and freebies from the event’s sponsors that included mugs, umbrellas, a book on Performance Appraisals, and Free Passes to future learning events. The event also encouraged participants to take snapshots with these three official hashtags:

#PhilippinesHRGroup, #PHRGLearningSessions, #PhilippinesHRGroupEvents

Winners will be drawn after the event and shall be posted at the Philippines HR Group Facebook Page. This has truly been a great success for the Phillippines HR Group and a milestone of great magnitude and proportions.

Download A Copy of Your Slide

If you have been redirected to this page, you may have been part of the recently concluded Learning Event on Strategies on Prominent Labor and Employee Related Issue in 2017 last March 25, 2017 of the Philippines HR Group. As part of their core volunteer group, we would like to thank you. Please click the Philippine HR Group logo below for a copy of the slides on the said event:

We look forward to seeing you on the next upcoming events!

PHRG Launches Quarterly Learning Sessions by Ely Joy Abenio

Philippines Human Resource Group held its first-ever learning session entitled “Strategies on Prominent Labor and Employee Related Issues for 2017” last March 25, 2017 at Ortigas library, Pasig city. The event gathered different HR gurus and experts that included Atty. Marisa Garcia, Atty. Jericho del Puerto, Mr. Allan Canete and Mr. Jaime Estrada to share their insights and knowledge about the current HR issues.

At the beginning, Mr. Darwin Rivers, founder of PHRG, welcomed the delegates with a quote, “Being successful is having the right mindset”. He then shared milestones in the history of PHRG; where it started off as a Yahoo group but now has 43,076 strong members in Facebook.

“Harmonious labor relationship and motivated workforce is equal to productivity, profitability and better terms and conditions,” Atty. Marisa Garcia said. Our first speaker, Atty. Marisa Garcia discussed the importance of HR personnel as a bridge between employees and management, furthermore, she added that, “a real HR knows the laws and has a heart”. Later on, “Penalty must commensurate to the offense”, Atty. Jericho del Puerto said during his talk. Atty. Puerto’s lecture supported Atty. Marisa Garcia where he talked about the avoidance of illegal dismissal and that penalty of dismissal has to be justified before doing so.

Before second part of the event, excitement heated up as the speakers entertained questions from the delegates, Ms. Penny Bongato, Success mentor and trainer also sharedsome HR insights based on her experiences.“What if there is ‘no return to work’ filed and employee doesn’t return?” one of the delegates asked. Atty. Garcia and Atty. del Puerto answered that you cannot file any dismissal against the employee because there is no documentation.

As the seminar continued, Mr. Allan Canete, the third speaker, said that, “union is a symptom of a deep organizational dysfunction”. He gave pieces of advice not on how to avoid union but to promote an employee-centric environment. He added that “before you can be customer-centric, you have to be employee-centric”.
“There’s no forever but for me, HR is forever”, Mr. Jaime Estrada said. He imparted his experiences as seasoned HR mentor and how he was able to maintain the harmony in their organization by giving an importance to culture, and that culture is the one that binds us.

Mr Danny Pancho entertained questions after the last two speakers. One of the delegates asked about engagement activities. “The team building should be relevant to the problem. It’s not just for fun. It should be aligned to business directions, focused on the mechanics” Mr. Allan Canete replied. Another question was raised from the delegates was, “what advice can you give for a young HR professional?” where Mr. Jaime Estrada replied, “Don’t stop learning, it’s not a matter of fad or fashion – show to people that HR is a noble profession”

The 1st leg of the Philippines HR Group Quarter Learning Sessions 2017 ended successfully – from the choice of venue to invited speakers, everything was arranged accordingly. Speakers were more than ready to attend to the queries of the delegates and their field of expertise perfectly matched to the current HR issues. The PHRG learning session was an interactive session where delegates can openly ask questions and speakers will gave answers based on the updated labor laws. “Cliché as it may seem but this is the turning point of your career” Ms. Rhonadale Florentino, secretary of the PHRG said as she closes the event. This is only the beginning of PHRG’s mission to share HR knowledge and build networks through its learning sessions. If you have not taken part on this event last March, never miss the opportunity to grab your seats on PHRG’s 2nd learning session this coming April 8 2017. One HR, one voice!

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If you would like to see snapshots of what happened in this event, please watch the video below.