Caring for employees always a top priority for Globe
Globeensured all-around employee assistance last year through a holistic COVID-19 support package. It boosted digitalization efforts to limit in-person contact and exposure, and allow employees to remain agile and efficient despite the logistical constraints. Globe particularly kept an eye on frontline workers providing essential service on-site. They were provided with safe lodging, meals, personal protective equipment (PPEs), vitamins, transportation, hazard pay, and insurance to help alleviate anxiety.
Focusing on employees’ health and wellbeing, the company enhanced its existing medical insurance coverage. Konsulta MD, AC Health, and Maxicare provided a hotline that employees and their dependents can consult with for urgent health concerns anytime, anywhere. MindNation and HopeChat provide care for employees’ mental health through virtual psychologists.
To maintain active employee engagement, Globe adopted a multi-faceted strategy focusing on the happiness, well-being, and continued growth of each employee despite challenges and limitations of an evolving work environment.Globe held 16 wellness webinars, and released 53 posts during Wellness Wednesdays, an initiative where Ka-Globe can talk about wellness in an online community.
Various chatbots were developed to help employees ease into the new working style, like Digital Usher for Disasters and Emergencies (DUDE)for a daily health check-in and access to mental health partners; and Wanda, developedfor employees to be able to send e-cards to one another.
Leaders kept in touch and maintained regular interactions through virtual town hall meetings led by President and Chief Executive Officer Ernest Cu.
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Makati City vaccination site receives purifiers, generators with nano tech
Panasonic, as part of its global campaign to spread advocacy for cleaner and fresher air for life, recently reached out to the local government of Makati City through a contribution in the form of nanoeTM air purifiers, and nanoeTM X generators, that have been verified to have inhibitory effects on the novel coronavirus. The equipment set-up and turnover were done at the main vaccination site of the city located at the Makati Coliseum.
Panasonic Air-Conditioning Philippines CEO Masaru Toyota, Life Solutions Group Country Head Yosuke Tanaka, Makati City Mayor Abigail Binay, and the Head of Makati Incident Command Post Dr. Roland Unson, were present during the site visit.
It has always been the intention of Panasonic to provide cleaner and fresher air to improve the quality of life for everyone with the introduction of the nanoeTM in 1997 and nanoeTM X in 2016.
The Makati City partnership is part of a bigger program of Panasonic in the Philippines to provide air purifying and anti-covid technology of nanoeTM X in selected sites in the National Capital Region to protect medical front liners and Filipinos in vaccination areas and to make them and the public feel safer with the theme “Bring Back the Filipino Smile”.
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Hidilyn Diaz joins BDO as its champion for financial education
BDO Unibank has welcomed Hidilyn Diaz, the Philippines’ first-ever Olympic Gold medalist, to its family of brand ambassadors.
Diaz joins forces with the Bank to champion financial education, not only for her fellow athletes, but also for the unserved and underserved markets including overseas Filipinos.
The 30-year-old weightlifter reminds her fellow athletes, especially those who have achieved their own feats of how they should prepare for the financial future.
BDO said it is thankful to have found a financial education advocate and champion in Hidilyn and for placing her trust in the bank and its wide array of financial products and services to cater to her needs and those like her.
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Small business grant winners
FedEx Express announced the winner and 3 Special Mentions of the 2021 edition of its Small Business Grant Contest (SBGC) in the AMEA (Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa) region.
Four companies from Singapore, the Philippines and South Korea shared a prize pool of $69,000, each receiving a grant to accelerate their growth across the region.
From the Philippines, special mention went to Paul Rivera, CEO and co-founder of Kalibrr, an AI-powered recruitment company
This year, FedEx collaborated with Forbes Asia to recruit future-ready small businesses and start-ups from its ForbesAsia 100 to Watch list. A panel of judges from FedEx and Forbes Asia selected the SBGC winners from among the region’s leading emerging entrepreneurs across a variety of industry sectors. Four winning companies stood out for their novel business ideas and innovative solutions helping to solve some of the world’s most pressing issues.
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Holcim Ph leans on sustainability, innovation
Among Holcim Philippines’ initiatives to contribute to addressing the housing gap in the country is its masonry training program ‘galing Mason.
Holcim Philippines this year launched three new products in line with its thrust of coming up with sustainable products to help builders use materials efficiently and lower project’s impact to the environment.
These include ready-to-use mortar Holcim Multifix, water-repellent cement Holcim Aqua X, and Holcim Autoclaved Aerated Concrete Block Adhesive.
The company is also holding technical briefings with industry partners to demonstrate the performance of these new materials in improving construction efficiency and quality while lowering environmental footprint.
Holcim Philippines is ramping up direct engagements with shelter organizations to better understand the challenges in building affordable homes and inform future initiatives for a bigger impact. This year, it partnered with Habitat for Humanity Philippines to build 500 houses in Valenzuela City and Negros Occidental.
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Philippine Startup Week returns
Philippine Startup Week 2021 is set to hit the virtual stage on November 15 to 19.
The week-long event is expected to draw 15,000 attendees from across the country and abroad for its third run this November.
With the theme “Beyond Recovery: Filipino Startups Redefining Opportunity,” Philippine Startup Week 2021 (PHSW21) aims to showcase the Philippine startup ecosystem’s growth and successes; encourage greater collaboration between startups, MSMEs, enterprises, government agencies, and other stakeholders; and educate investors and foreign startups about the local startup ecosystem.
Interested participants can now register to join the week-long conference for free through the website, phstartupweek.com. There will be over 70 community events, 250 speakers, and more than 150 homegrown startups that will be featured during the Philippine Startup Week.
The conference will feature panel discussions, pitch competitions, program launches, and other events under five tracks: Discover, Develop, Collaborate, Invest, and Showcase.
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Zoom to success
The Philippine Computer Society (PCS) has and has since benefited from utilizing the video conference software program, Zoom, as a means to communicate with its members anytime anywhere online.
Empowered by Globe Business, PCS utilizes Zoom Cloud Meetings, which offers free and professional plans to any company. With the free plan, 100 concurrent participants are allowed 40-minute video conferences. The pro account (an add-on feature), which PCS has been sponsored with, can hold up to 500 participants with unlimited time duration.
Aside from global meetings, town hall forums, and team huddles, PCS has maximized their partnership with Globe Business. Over the past year, they have also been able to invite their members to take part in online learning sessions, such as in Tech Advancement and Data Privacy, and programs such as Virtual Tech Talks.
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Untal joins Pointwest
Information technology-business process management industry stalwart and advocate Rey Untal joins Pointwest as its new president and CEO.
Pointwest, a Filipino-owned global IT solutions and services company, recently made the announcement, highlighting his expertise in IT consulting and outsourcing and over 30 years of experience in companies like Accenture, Nestle, Cargill and ICTSI.
Untal was previous post as president and CEO of the IT and Business Process Association of the Philippines.
Pointwest delivers end-to-end IT and BPO services to a wide range of clients including a very impressive list of Fortune 500 companies.
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Maxicare helps members reignite their businesses
Maxicare Healthcare Corp. joined the Call Center Association of the Philippines’ (CCAP) Serving the World: Contact Islands ‘21 Virtual Conference on Re-Igniting Growth in the New Business Environment.
Maxicare invited Dr. Edsel Salvana, director of Institute of Biology and Biotechnology and member of the Department of Health’s (DOH) Technical Advisory Group on Infectious Diseases who emphasized the need for innovation in ensuring that workplaces are pandemic-resilient and less likely to spread diseases.
Maxicare’s assistant vice president Dr. JC Sevilla also shared how they are helping partner companies reignite growth through the Maxicare HomeCare COVID-19 Management Program which simulates a hospital admission, provides continuity of care from consultation to treatment with 24/7 telemedicine and telemonitoring.
The Maxicare HomeCare program also offers medication including Remdisivir and steroids, as well as ambulance conduction if needed. The program is open for all COVID-19 cases and those qualified cases needing confinement.
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Prosperna makes e-commerce accessible
Prosperna announced the launch of their free lifetime eCommerce plan to help micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) accelerate and grow their business online.
Prosperna makes it extremely easy for MSMEs to accept online orders from their own online store, Facebook, Viber and WhatsApp, offer digital payments and automatically book shipping. Merchants of any size can set up their own online store in minutes directly from their mobile phone or from a browser without any coding experience.
Many Philippine MSMEs like Lola Nena’s, Mayumi Organics, Mindanao Butchers, and Pokleefoods have grown their business online using Prosperna as their eCommerce platform of choice.
