Joining the list of Great Place to Work-Certified™ companies this year is the Philippines arm of PSG, the world’s largest provider of outsourced recruiting support, as they navigated the uncertain waters of 2020 with utmost care and concern for their employees’ well-being.
As the largest offshore recruiting team amongst PSG’s global divisions, the company had the unenviable task of transitioning more than 1600 employees to a work-from home arrangement. Luckily, the team was well-prepared, and even before the Emergency Community Quarantine was announced, had already piloted the WFH program with 30 employees.
Within just 9 days from the commencement of the ECQ, 99% of all employees were enabled for remote working, with leaders such as Team Managers and Directors also volunteering to deliver equipment. Employees were further provided with internet connection through partner ISPs or portable dongles.
Statements from their employee survey results showed:
Get to know more about PSG Philippines’ workplace culture here.
For those who could not work at home or were needed onsite, PSG took the extraordinary measure of converting three floors of their Makati offices into living quarters and made arrangements for these employees’ laundry, food and other essentials.
At the same time, the organization brought together its people with a rallying call from their Vice- and Co- Presidents in April, assuring them that leadership was standing with them in such difficult times and that the company would continue to strive for excellence and step up to the challenge.
To upkeep employee health, motivation and personal growth, the company leveraged on their existing #BePSG culture program to undertake a variety of engagement, wellness and development programs for their workforce during the year.
PSG utilized all possible channels to deliver clear, transparent and two-way communication with employees while keeping their spirits up with a range of fun activities. Their ‘WeTalk’ series of seminars that was launched in 2019 customized new topics that were relevant to their employees’ needs at the time, such as ‘Yoga for Beginners’, ‘Eating Right’ and ‘Mental Health’.
Concurrently, their Quarterly Company Reviews that were designed to inspire excellence and promote fun within the organization turned virtual with video competitions and use of social media tools such as Facebook live to capture the essence of the live performances that were held pre-pandemic.
While Zoom was utilized for weekly team huddles and departmental meetings called ‘Half Hour’, PSG further felt the need to incorporate more relaxed and informal interaction as well. A new custom called ‘Happy Hour’ was therefore established. This special web broadcast featured the lives of managers or other significant people in the company, thus humanizing leaders in the eyes of employees and fostering closer relationships.
Despite the ongoing pandemic, staff development continued to remain one of PSG’s guiding principles, as they focused on the two key areas of developing leaders from within and elevating employee skills through programs, webinars and training sessions held regularly throughout the year.
Despite initially suffering from a financial downturn as hiring freezes were implemented across the globe at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, PSG Philippines’ nimble and comprehensive response towards enabling, empowering and encouraging their workforce bore fruit as the year progressed.
They were awarded one of 2020’s Best of RPO Companies by Indeed with an average rating of 4.9 out of 5 stars from clients and by the end of the year, had already surpassed their target revenue by 2.8%. It is certainly a great testament to the success of their approach that this Great Place to Work Certified™ company has managed to rebound so quickly during a year filled with such adversity.
