GRI 103-2, 103-3, 203-1
Our employees enable us to deliver basic services to millions of Filipinos every day. We know that a motivated and productive workforce is essential in keeping our businesses running. Without our employees, nearly everything will grind to a halt, throwing entire cities in chaos and deeply ruining an economy already battered by the pandemic. Thus, we put a premium on our Company’s greatest asset — our own people — caring for their welfare and well-being through effective and empathic human capital management. MPIC is committed to maintaining a safe, diverse, and inclusive workplace where our employees can thrive, succeed, and excel. We help our employees reach their full potential by encouraging feedback, providing competency training, and offering career advancement opportunities. With our recent experience with the pandemic, we strive to create conditions for achieving work-life balance, ensuring not just their physical health but their mental health as well.
Through our array of employee development programs and by providing employees with fair and equitable pay and benefits, we were able to retain 80% of our total employees across the group in 2021 despite the many difficulties created by the months-long community quarantines. Given the nature of our businesses and our lineup of development and expansion projects, we hired 5,272 new employees, equivalent to 30% of our total employees in 2021.
Employee Engagement and Development
Retaining valuable talent has become important in today’s competitive labor marketplace, which is why employee engagement and development is now considered a pivotal driver in business success. Many companies around the world now invest in strategic programs that promote employee engagement, talent development, and career advancements in order to drive employee job satisfaction, retention, and productivity. MPIC is no different from these companies as we constantly identify and put into place measures that support the holistic growth of our employees.
We kickstart initiatives that develop our employees’ competencies through relevant training that are appropriate to their skillsets and in line with skills required for the future. Where necessary, we provide online training modules to employees required to work from home. These training sessions are part of ongoing talent development programs across our different operating companies. They have been designed to enhance the core, leadership, and technical competencies of our employees and to set up the foundation for any succession plan.
Gender Diversity and Inclusion
We ensure the equal representation of men and women across the MPIC Group. An inclusive work culture boosts employee morale, improves employee retention, and strengthens the capability of our human capital. To cope with the diverse challenges of the business, we cultivate diversity of work experience and expertise in the workforce. We strive to achieve a healthy gender balance within the workplace starting with our recruitment process. We observe fair hiring practices that ensure an equal chance for all. Regardless of gender, all our employees are given the same opportunities for professional growth. Although we promote gender equality and inclusion across our operating companies, Meralco’s and Maynilad’s commitment to gender inclusivity took it further to the next level.
Protecting our Employees
IF-EU-320a.1, IF-EN-320a.1, TR-RA,320a.1
MPIC safeguards the general welfare of employees across the Group, with a premium placed on their health and safety. This includes strict compliance to COVID-19-related measures to promote a safe workplace amidst the ongoing pandemic. Among local conglomerates, we took the lead in fully vaccinating our employees and their dependents, not just to protect them and their families, but our customers and other work partners as well.
We provided free COVID-19 tests and COVID-19 health kits for monitoring and treatment. MPIC also has a Daily Health Check Platform called MPIC S.A.G.I.P (Self-Assessment on General health Information Program) to easily identify team members in need of healthcare assistance. We adopted flexible working arrangements where we can and when needed in consideration of
our employee’s physical and mental health, and their mobility situation. We disseminated relevant updates and information on a fairly regular basis through multiple channels to keep our employees informed.
MPIC also continues to work hard in ensuring that all our employees are safe, secure, and fairly comfortable while at work in our plants and offices or while in the field. We consistently implement occupational health and safety programs and protocols across the Group.
Aside from physical health, MPIC now pays equal attention to the mental health of our employees. We have taken steps to strike a healthy work-life balance for employees while establishing mental health programs that can serve as crucial lifelines to employees. We have begun transforming our workplaces into spaces that cultivate an environment of acceptance and understanding, where employees are encouraged to seek help when they need it.
Meralco: #Mbrace Gender Diversity and Inclusion Program
The representation of women in corporate boards is a key indicator of measurable gender performance. At Meralco, 2 out of 11 board seats belong to women. By placing women in leadership positions, Meralco seeks to encourage its female employees to pursue career advancement within the organization. Meanwhile, women represent 22.6% of Meralco’s workforce, which is 10% higher than the global average in the energy sector.
Through the Human Resources Department’s #Mbrace Gender Diversity and Inclusion Program, Meralco seeks to build a more gender- balanced and inclusive organization. In 2021, we welcomed an additional female board member, and 101 new female hires up by 55.4% from 2020. Discussions on equal opportunities and non-discrimination are conducted as part of the new employees’ onboarding to help them understand their rights and obligations.
MPTC: Recognizing and rewarding employees
Computerized systems have become widely available to manage road traffic and safety. However, people are still required to run these systems in the overall operation and maintenance of vast lengths of expressways. MPTC relies heavily on its more than 1,000 employees to do this work. As such, MPTC has seen it fit to invest accordingly in rewarding, empowering, and improving the competency of its employees.
Across MPTC and its subsidiaries, various learning and development programs are in place to reinforce management’s leadership and decision making skills and to improve the technical and leadership competencies of employees. Most of these programs have adapted to the new workplace normal, moving the training sessions online in response to the work-from-home setup. For example, MPTC now employs LinkedIn Learning as a new avenue for competency development.
MPTC promotes a culture of teamwork, collaboration, and mentorship through its Performance Coaching Program as well as through Mentoring Sessions. Coaching and mentoring empower employees to take initiative and make the right decisions for the good of the company. MPTC’s internal newsletters and websites (Northlink and Southlink) regularly feature articles written by its own employees.
Employee recognition is key to keeping employees engaged and productive. At MPT South, day-to- day recognition has become institutionalized due to its simplicity, especially recently with Applauz, which encourages everyone to send words of praise or appreciation to a fellow employee. Since 2018, MPT South has also been showing appreciation to employees via L.E.A.D. Talks, which endorses employees to meet with Center of Excellence Leaders of MPTC. Meanwhile, NLEX Corporation launched its 1st Online Employee Appreciation Day in July 2021 through the company’s Facebook page. These are on top of the formal recognition programs that emphasize the core values of the tollways group and contribute to the achievement of the organization’s goals such as NLExemplary for NLEX, WHOwaran for MPT South, and Circle of Excellence for MPTC.
As a result of all these people-focused programs, MPTC scored 96% in employee engagement in the 2021 Willis Towers Watson Employee Engagement Survey. Since 2019, NLEX Corporation has been awarded the Investors in People (IiP) Gold Standard due to excellent people management practices.
Maynilad: Retaining employees through talent development
Maynilad’s own people have made it possible for the company to continue providing essential water services during the pandemic. Maynilad recognizes its employees’ contributions to its sustained operations and business growth. At the same time, it nurtures its teams by providing enabling work conditions that inspire them to reach their full potential. One of the ways by which Maynilad maintains a safe and inclusive work environment is by investing in talent development.
In 2020 and 2021, Maynilad achieved a high critical talent retention rate of 96% for technical experts. Professional development opportunities offered by the company were seen as a top factor as to why employees decide to remain with Maynilad. Maynilad has allotted P195,907 budget for its Technical Ladder Program, which aims to develop technical experts that are critical to the current and future success of the company within the next 3-5 years. The program’s six pilot participants expressed general satisfaction with the new initiative and as such, have also indicated their intention to stay longer with the company. By the first half of 2022, Maynilad targets to identify more participants for this program.
Maynilad also obtained high critical talent retention rate for current and future business leaders of the company. It posted a 93% retention rate in 2021 for identified leadership successors, attributable to the effective implementation of the Maynilad Leadership Development Program. To redesign and accelerate the roll-out of the program.
Maynilad spent P3.7 million. In partnership with the University of Asia and the Pacific – Southeast Asia Business Studies and the First Pacific Leadership Academy, Maynilad developed new courses for executives and managers. A revamped leadership course for supervisors will also commence in 2022. Likewise, Maynilad’s draft of its Policy on Succession Planning is set for management approval within the first half of 2022.
Talent development initiatives have helped Maynilad prepare employees for greater responsibilities. In 2021, 16 senior managers and executives were considered for top management succession, while 55 mid-level managers were lined up for possible department-level succession. Around 70% of these identified successors for top management positions was considered ready to assume the responsibility within a month or a year. For those being considered for department-level leadership positions, around 45% was considered ready within a month or a year.
Meanwhile, the number of Maynilad’s internal licensed engineers from 2019 to 2021 increased from 725 to 820. The former represents 33% of represents 40% of Maynilad’s labor force in 2019 while the latter represents 40% of Maynilad’s labor force in 2021. The enhanced engineering and technical capability of Maynilad is a testament to the effectiveness of the Cadet Engineer Program. From 2008 to 2017, the Cadet Engineer Program has churned out 372 cadet engineers, 59% of which are still actively employed in Maynilad to date. With 43 Internal Subject Matter Experts or Technical Trainers, the program develops well- rounded engineers to augment the company’s internal engineering workforce.
Maynilad: Articulating a Gender Diversity and Inclusiveness Policy
Maynilad’s top management has endorsed a new Gender Diversity and Inclusiveness Policy to address the glaring disparity between the male-to-female ratio of both rank-and-file and leadership level employees. Maynilad aims to hire more female employees within the next few years. It also aims to streamline present policies related to diversity and inclusivity. Maynilad co-created with its employees the implementing rules and regulations of the new policy as well as Maynilad’s overall Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Program.
Maynilad: Focusing on employee wellness campaigns
Maynilad cultivates a strong workforce by prioritizing the health and well-being of its people. In 2021, efforts at promoting employee health and safety were focused on the Lost-time Accident Program and two wellness advocacies or campaigns — Itanong Mo ‘Kay Doc and Maynilad We Got Your Vaxx (WGYV).
Together with external partners, Maynilad rolled out the Itanong Mo ‘Kay Doc campaign, live event sessions wherein employees get to ask doctors about the COVID-19 vaccine. Two live sessions were held in 2021, attended by a total of 1,087 employees and which received an overall average rating of 3.36. Meanwhile, Maynilad’s We Got Your Vaxx (WGYV) campaign released 45 different publication materials which informed employees on frequently asked questions about the COVID-19 vaccine prior to their actual vaccination.
MPHHI: Securing the health and safety of healthcare professionals
As the operator of the largest private hospital network in the Philippines, MPHHI relies on its employee base of healthcare frontliners who provide professional services in hospitals, provincial cancer radiotherapy centers, health colleges, and medical laboratories in various parts of the country. To protect its employees who are constantly exposed to a variety of health risks on an everyday basis, MPHHI invests in various protocols, programs, and facilities that keep its workplaces and equipment clean and disinfected. It also invests in the necessary personal protective equipment for the use of its personnel. In relation to COVID-19, MPHHI administered 49,313 doses of vaccines to its hospital staff. By the end of 2021, 100% of MPHHI’s healthcare workers were fully vaccinated.
LRMC: Improving job satisfaction and productivity through training
Professional development is an important factor for satisfaction and improved productivity. To motivate their workforce, our companies invest in initiatives that strengthen the set of necessary competencies required to become effective in their roles. For LRMC, strengthening the competencies of its staff is critical in ensuring passenger safety. Thus, the company invested in e-learning and technical training sessions to ensure that its people are continuously updated on the latest know- how and trends.
In 2021, LRMC employees spent 32,400 hours on the Learning Management System (LMS) for online training on leadership, cyber security, and management skills, among others. LRMC also developed an in-house app for the LMS, allowing employees to undergo training on their mobile phones or tablets. To ensure the high quality of learning, LRMC conducted Training of Trainers (TOT) and developed in-house modules on topics relevant to the roles of LRMC staff.
LRMC allocated P500,000 on fees and facilities for its employees’ technical training on topics such as Rapid Earthquake Damage Assessment System (REDAS), Business Continuity Management System (BCMS), Risk Management, and Lean Six Sigma. It also invested P250,000 on Emergency Response Team Training, P5 million on emergency equipment and fire trucks, and P67.7 million on fire protection systems, allowing LRMC employees to experience hands-on emergency drills and simulation exercises with the Philippine National Police, Bureau of Fire Protection, and the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
These competency building initiatives, coupled with employee engagement activities like townhalls and virtual company celebrations, led to a more fulfilled and motivated workforce. LRMC recorded a 10% improvement on employee satisfaction in 2021.
