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

Not even a 5.6 magnitude earthquake in the afternoon of the 8th 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 1st 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.

Philippines HR Group April 8

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.

EarlyBirds

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.

AudiencePHRGApril8

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.

The Philippines HR Group Summit 2016

audience

The Philippines HR Group has successfully concluded its first publicly-held learning event last 18 November 2016 at the MK Tan Hall Bayanihan Center in Pasig City. The Philippines HR Group is an online-based group that was established in July 2015. Its mission is to create an avenue that promotes and fosters individual and organizational effectiveness by developing and offering an array of innovative, diverse, and cost-effective yet valuable events, programs and activities for Human Resource Professional and People Managers alike. The organization is composed of three groups led by Mr. Darwin Rivers – The Philippines HR Group Moderators and Administrators, The Philippines HR Group Mentor’s Circle, and the Philippines HR Group Core Volunteers Team. As it has been our advocacy in promoting learning and development among professionals in the country, The COMPETAD Team is proud to be part of the Core volunteers group that has helped make the event possible.

The highlights of the event were inspirational talks from nine of the country’s top HR Professionals. In the morning session, we listened to Mr. Sonny Santos (Chief Equipping Officer – WSPH Training & Consulting) who warmed up everyone as he spoke about the evolution of Human Resources. Then, Mr. James Estrada ,who has over 4 Decades of HRM Leadership Experience /Labor Relations Expert, heated it more with a discussion on Labor and Employee Relations. This was then it was succeeded by Mr. Danny Pancho (Former Director – People Management Association of the Philippines) who gave great ideas about rewards management. Before we went on Lunch, we also revisited our knowledge about HR Core Values from Ms. Elvie Garcia (Managing Partner – OpisHR Consultancy) where she has widened our horizon about how HR professionals must see themselves and their own values in their line of work as practitioners.

In the afternoon, we started by hearing about Corporate Social Responsibility from from Mr. Jay Jaboneta (Strategic Advisor at Institute for Solidarity in Asia/ Fire Starter and Chief Storyteller at Yellow Boat of Hope Foundation. Then, Ms. Susan Ople (Former Undersecretary DOLE/ Founder – Blas Ople Policy Center (BOPC)) gave a very informative talk about the current issues, trends, and challenges inthe Philippine’s labor condition. After that, Ms. Michelle Cordero-Garcia  provided an insightful talk about retaining employees and hiring new talents. Ms. Cordero-Garcia was recognized by CHRO Asia, a high-level global professional body for Human Resource Leaders, as one of the Top 100 Most Talented HR Leaders. After that, we learned more about Training Management when Mr. Edwin Ebreo (President of ExeQserve Corporation) shared his experiences to us. Lastly, we were energized by a very humorous and reflective talk about Promoting Work-Life Balance from Ms. Daphne Granfil (CEO of DBG Training Management and Public Relations Consultancy).

Aside from the knowledge-enriching experience, the event was also spiced up by games and prizes from the sponsors, including a raffle in which the major prizes were a hotel accommodation in Boracay and another one in Baguio. The summit was attended by 226 delegates from different companies all over the country, which includes delegates from the provincial regions. It was truly a memorable and worth-while learning experience. Congratulations and more power to the Philippines HR Group in advocating such a wonderful event. This truly shows your passion and commitment in upholding your mission to the HR Community!