Businesses told to invest on honing people’s skills

CEBU, Philippines - To stay competitive in the market and prepare for the economic integration by 2015, companies are advised by the People Management Association of the Philippines (PMAP) to invest in the creativity of their labor force which is considered as their top asset above all.

According to Vera Cris Villamor who works as the head of the Corporate Shared Services department of Julie’s Franchise, companies should be able to come up with strategies to further hone the skills of their people.

She suggested them to constantly conduct trainings and development sessions to help their manpower grow with their respective companies and become competitive among others.

She also noted that keeping the best talents in the workplace remains a challenge for most companies, adding that human resource (HR) practitioners are primarily responsible of coming up with innovative strategies to keep the former. 

“No matter how much you want to keep them, employees come and go. You can’t stop people from going where opportunities are present. What we want is to keep the best people by not necessarily competing through pay but creating a pool of employees who can easily take over and accomplish their tasks responsibly,” she stated.

She cited that among the sectors in Cebu, the business process outsourcing (BPO) sector posted the highest attrition rate of employees at 25 to 35 percent among the different industries in Cebu.

“The BPO sector has the highest turn-over of people hopping from one company to another. Such practice is more popularly done by the so-called call center hoppers,” she said.

Asked if the country is already geared for the ASEAN unified market two years from now, Villamor said that companies should prepare themselves to be able to respond to the stiff competition in terms of skilled labor when it comes.

Meanwhile, Intellicare Cebu Regional Office assistant vice-president for VisMin operations Chito Recamadas noted that the HR profession has totally evolved over the years, expanding from being a strategic partner of employee management to sitting at the table as boardroom partners along with the executive team.

“Gone are the days when HR practitioners used to be timekeepers and policemen of the organization.  It has elevated itself and can now influence the top management when it comes to decision-making. We have changed a lot,” he said.

He then cited that in order to fulfill such highly-acclaimed position in the company, talent managers should equip themselves to get into the business and continue seeking ways to improve themselves and step up in the fast-paced industry.

He further noted that they should constantly develop their skills and take advantage of the learning opportunities from their management employees and fellow HR practitioners.

Recamadas previously served as the president of PMAP Cebu while Villamor currently works as the regional conference adviser for the 13th Regional Conference of PMAP Cebu.  — (FREEMAN)