Philippines’ months-long lockdown forces firms to embrace remote working
- As Metro Manila has endured nearly 80 days of ‘community quarantine’, a digital transformation is allowing more employees to work from home
- But the switch to remote working has not been without its difficulties and some industries such as business process outsourcing are struggling to adapt
Yet as Metro Manila neared its 80th day of “community quarantine”, some of the country’s largest firms will emerge from it more open to embracing remote work – even if the going was tough at the beginning, and some industries have struggled to adapt.
PLDT, the Philippines’ largest internet provider, had no experience of implementing a wide-scale work-from-home scheme before the pandemic. To continue operating as normal after the lockdown, it was forced to issue laptops and personal computers to all its employees and pay for fibre optic internet connections to be installed to their homes.
“Collaboration has always been a key thrust within the organisation and the previous mindset was that it was highly contingent on meeting face-to-face,” said Jovy Hernandez, senior vice-president and head of enterprise business at PLDT.
“However, by adopting a work-from-home scheme for ourselves, we now realise the real value of technology and digital platforms in helping us communicate and work together while at home.”
