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SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2017
Business
Ray S. Eñano, Editor / Roderick dela Cruz, Issue Editor business@thestandard.com.ph
REGUS MANAGER DESIGNS OFFICE SPACE FOR MILLENNIALS By Othel V. Campos
CONTRACTUAL employment is often perceived as temporary. And with this comes the belief that it doesn’t offer any advancement options – one’s career is only as good as the length of his or her tenure. But these are all misconceptions according to the Philippine Association of Legitimate Service Contractors. “That’s not the case. Just because you’re under service contracting employment doesn’t mean there’s no chance or hope for advancement or a better position. In the end, career growth is not dependent on your type of employment – it still about perseverance, hard work and your skills,” says Palscon president Rhoda Caliwara. She says there are already a number of employees of Palscon member companies who are enjoying good jobs and experienced career advancement. One of them is Corazon Llamoso.
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ILLENNIALS demand more mobility and flexibility in work, leisure and personal space. This demand is also what Regus aims to meet, says Lars Wittig, the man behind the company which provides flexible work space solutions in the country.
Wittig, the country manager of Regus Philippines, oversaw the expansion of the company over the past five years. It now has 5,300 work stations across 25 centers, including one that has recently opened in Davao City. Wittig introduced fresh ideas to improve, innovate and make working more relevant for professionals, entrepreneurs and people who value mobility. This led to the gradual, but steady acceptance of flexibility in work and work space in the Philippines. “The trend is now more and more companies, regardless of size, are abandoning the concept of traditional workspace. Co-working is a absolutely a keyword today and that is what we are embracing now,” he says. “Regus provides the flexibility to work anywhere in the world where there is Regus presence compared to when you enter a conventional work space where you sign up for minimum of six or seven years lease and make a very big capital investment. For office space flexibility, Regus is the best choice, regardless if you are an up and coming company or whether you’re a Fortune 500 company,” he says. In 2016, demand for flexible work stations grew 65 percent. Driving the demand is the growing need for flexible working space. As country manager, Wittig’s mandate is to keep up with the demand and respond to the growing need for flexibility. “The need for work space five to six years ahead is impossible to predict. Majority of the upcoming office spaces in the country’s business districts have been pre-committed. If you are an entrepreneur or a start-up company, it will be prudent to go for flexible work space so you can work whenever, wherever you like and your capital is not tied up to assets that depreciate over time. Companies don’t to be stuck in big capital investments,” he says. “With the traffic condition, don’t expect your employees to commute to office everyday. Sitting in coffee shops is not a way to work. And the millennials who are very successful in every way prefer to work at their own pace, at their own time, anywhere. To go forward we have to embrace the millennial thinking,” he says. Wittig first moved to the Philippines over 20 years ago and worked for Coca-Cola Co. as a director for marketing, then with Dole Packaged Foods as marketing manager for Asia and with Philip Morris in the distribution network. Now with Regus, he says human resource experts stepped up along with the changing times. They accept working flexibly, giving managers and select employees access to the Regus work site, where productivity is maximized by optimizing time that would have been spent on the road. Right now, Regus has more than 5,300 work stations in 25 locations in the Philippines and continues to grow its network of flexible work space. It has plans to add 200 more stations to existing locations. It biggest location in Davao hosts 360 work stations. It first office in the Philippines, located at the Entreprise Building in Makati continues to draw crowds of professionals, students and foreign
CAREER ADVANCEMENT STILL POSSIBLE UNDER SERVICE CONTRACTING
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MANAGER.
Regus Philippines country manager Lars Wittig nationals. Wittig says the company has no choice but to keep increasing locations and work stations. It has over 30,000 square meters of prime commercial space. As it continues to establish locations in megacities, Regus is looking at expanding to second tier cities. Zamboanga, Cagayan de Oro, Mactan, Iloilo and Bacolod are among the sites eyed for expansion this year. Another expansion model Regus is working on is a partnership with property developers to allow Regus to operate and manage a Regus office in building owned by the developer. “They [developers)] saw the opportunity. They appreciate the value of flexible work space. If we want to grow as fast as we would like to then we will go to these partnerships. It will accelerate our ability to grow. It is obvious that his type of operation will put in additional leg to their real estate business. It will feed in to their existing real estate business as incubator. To be honest this good business and a great advantage to developers,” Wittig says. Regus does not pay rent. It has a formula for profit-sharing with the developers. It repays the
capital investment the landlord made through profit-sharing. “The more locations we have, the more value we give to our customers,” says Wittig, noting that Cagayan de Oro City is one of the locations eyed for this type of expansion mode. The company’s aggressive expansion program is a part of the strategy to raise the bar in 2017. Regus wants to expand its presence to airports. “I want airports to be destinations not just by airplanes but also destinations to different cities where you can go hosting a Regus meeting at the airport. That is part of our vision to continue to lead in terms of innovation of flexible work space,” he says. “Through a range of office formats, as well as growing mobile, virtual office, and workplace recovery businesses, Regus enable people and businesses to work where, when, and how they want, with a range of price points. Regus, a multinational corporation headquartered in Luxembourg, is the world’s largest provider of flexible work space solutions, with a network of 3,000 locations in over 1,000 towns and cities, across 120 countries, serving 2.3 million members.
“I started out as a promodiser. But eventually I got hired at the office. Service contracting gave me an opportunity to grow, develop my skills, and learn almost everything that I need to know to become better in my job,” Corazon says. Corazon sees her employment under service contracting as a big help to her family. Through this job, she is able to support her father, a farmer, and was able to help her younger sibling finish college. “My younger sibling has just graduated from a four-year course. I funded her schooling. Add to that the fact that I’m able to continuously help my family. These are just a few of the benefits I’m enjoying under service contracting.” Caliwara says that with the continuous operations of service contracting in the country comes Palscon’s commitment of providing hope and progress to a number of Filipino workers. “As long as we, legitimate service contractors, are here, every Filipino worker could trust that that there will be a continuous provision of good jobs and fair labor. There will be more Filipino workers with better jobs making better lives for their families,” she says.
PHINMA CELEBRATES 60TH YEAR
Phinma Corp. executives led by president and chief executive Ramon del Rosario Jr. (third from left) and chairman Oscar Hilado (fifth from left) recognize the best employees of Phinma Group.
PHINMA Corp. recognized its best employees at the Fairmont Hotel in Makati City as a part of the Filipino holding company’s 60th anniversary celebration. Phinma leaders and executives marked the activity as the first of a yearlong celebration. The event entitled ‘Phinma Honors Its Own’ recognized select men and women within Phinma, who on their own time, in their own way, exemplify its mission of making lives better. The gala had Phinma employees
and executives toast to 60 fruitful years of service to the country and the Filipino people through its various businesses and affirm a commitment to decades more of making lives better. Founded in 1957 by a group of young Filipino manager-entrepreneurs envisioning a vibrant and progressive Philippine economy, the company was one of the leaders in cement, oil, paper, roofing and coal. With the turn of the century, Phinma refocused its participation in nation
building from the industrial base to services. Beyond its businesses that seek to provide the essentials of a better life, it expressed its commitment to community service through the recently held one-day simultaneous outreach activity spread out through various areas in the Philippines. Covering community development and environmental preservation, Phinma held coastal clean ups, tree planting, traffic assistance, house building, storytelling activities and more.