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For the past months, I have been doing executive coaching with Insular Life. Every time I enter the building, I am greeted with a “Magandang Araw” smile.  This is true starting with the guard, the employees, the janitor.  The warmth of their welcome just makes my day.

A new employee also shared with me the experience in her first month being introduced to w weekly reflection and discussion on “how to be a professional”. She came from a call center and she realizes that this is pervasive culture, it is in fact work place practice. How did Insular arrive at a culture like this? I decided to interview Susan Nicholas, Insular’s proactive and  hard working First Vice President for Human Resources.

LABOR MANAGEMENT COUNCIL

Tita: How did you begin to build this amazing sunshine culture?

Susan: I use to work with a multi-national company where I witnessed the negative effects when labor and management do not see eye to eye. I decided when I was hired at Insular that partnering between employees and management becomes a reality.

Susan: It is working hand in hand with the Labor Management Council. It is composed of elected representatives from the different divisions and some appointed management representative. The newly elected council always kicks off with Leadership Training. This builds pride in being Aguila, the corporate symbol is the Philippine Eagle. It also means “Gabay ng Insular Life Association”.

BUILDING CULTURE

Tita:  How did the structure of the Labor Management Council help build the culture?

Susan: The council has 3 committees: the Information and Awareness, the Productivity and Efficiency committee and the Sports and Special Events Committee. They get deeply involved and immersed in the day to day working life of Insular.

 KEEPING EMPLOYEES AWARE

Tita: Please give me examples how they work to impact culture?

Susan: For example the Information and Awareness Committee, helps build the corporate look, reinforcing the branding of the “foresighted Guardian. It also encourages sharing of the “magandang araw experiences”. Every anniversary they sponsor contests and quiz show that inculcate the corporate brand to employees. For example,
our last campaign was on”life stage marketing”. It was very interesting as the committee started the “i-kuwento mo”, movement. It starts with one plot by a person or team, then others pick up and develop the plot  how insular life can be of value. It is similar to the inventive possibilities  of the comics books. What happens in the plot hits the core of discussions and  review of what is learned learned in the training  classroom of a family for example  entering different stages.

HELPING THE BUSINESS

Tita: And how does the Productivity and Efficiency Committee work?

Susan: It is primarily centered on helping the business achieve its objectives. So it is directly linked to the business. For example last quarter we launched a referral program for agents among employees. Employees were trained on what we are looking for in an agent. Or employees assisted in updating customer information. These were highly successful campaigns because of the passion employees have for the company.

 SPORTS AND SOCIAL EVENTS

Tita: Then for Sports and Social Events?

Susan: This committee gets involved in year round sports activities. They manage the blood donation events, participates in life insurance consciousness week. It also manages annual family outings and the Christmas party.

Tita: What does the main Council do?

Susan: It focuses on employee welfare

MAGANDANG ARAW CONCEPT

Tita: Tell  me more about how the concept of how “Magandang Araw” started?

Susan: The concept of “magandang araw” effort was to make the day of the customer pleasant. Its several component are embodied in  SHINE.  S- means sustaining yourself, H- is handling stress, I- is interaction with customers, N- is nurturing, E-is  exuding the magandang araw experience.

SHINE TRAINING

Tita:  So, how does one get to SHINE?

Susan: First we do a 2 day training course that revolves around understanding yourself, and how to handle stress and manage time. It also covers steps in delivering customer service, understanding people better, determining positive language and the different levels of  customer relations management. We also reinforce what they learn in the classroom into stories of frequently encountered cases and technical and behavioral scripts. We also have reinforcement mechanisms such as mystery customer and mystery caller.

Tita: So in summary what does SHINE do?

Susan: It allows the employee to translate his/her love for the company so it translates into value for the customer.

Tita: Thanks to you and “magandang araw”.

 [Tita Datu Puangco is the President and CEO of Ancilla Enterprise Development Consulting, an innovative provider of Enterprise and Organization Development solutions in the ASEAN region. These solutions include strategy planning and execution, leading change breakthroughs, managing corporate academies, executive assessment and coaching, value and culture development and setting up of human resource systems. For your letters/ feedback, kindly email: tita.datu76@gmail.com, For other inquiries, please call 8810-3129/0920-9218332/0917-8348176]

22 thoughts on “LET EMPLOYEES SHINE”

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