Ayala Group considering formally adopting work-from-home arrangements

Published July 16, 2020 03:42 PM By JON VIKTOR D. CABUENAS,GMA News

The Ayala Group is now considering formally adopting work-from-home arrangements as part of its policies moving forward, its top official said Thursday.

According to Ayala Corp. chief executive officer Jaime Zobel de Ayala, the group is set to discuss telecommuting arrangements for employees amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

"I think we're going to have to shift and take health issues into account and particularly, if a vaccine is not found in the near future, we will have to take people's health much more formally into account," he said in a virtual briefing with the House of Representatives Committee on Economic Affairs.

"We're gonna think it through. Definitely, definitely, I can say that there will be a shift in the way we work, and working from home will definitely become far more acceptable and much more of the norm than in the past," he added.

Metro Manila and other "high-risk" areas were placed under an enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) from March 17 to May 15, followed by a modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) until May 31.

A general community quarantine

(GCQ) was put in place from June 1 to 15, and has since been extended until July 31.

At present, some 35 to 38% of the group's workforce are now on work-from-home arrangements, most of whom are frontliners.

"Maybe those numbers will stay as we go on. A lot of people still have to be on the frontline -- engineers, people who deal with the customer in a frontline way," he said.

"But definitely, one can say that the shift is there. We should accept it, we should embrace it, and all of us in the sectors that can provide services particularly on technology to make life easier for everyone should really ramp up our investments in those areas and be able to give the Filipino consumer and employer the tools that they need to be able to do that," he elaborated.

The Ayala Group has business interests in real estate and hotels; financial services and insurance; telecommunications; water infrastructure; electronics solutions and manufacturing; power generation; transport infrastructure; automotive; international real estate; healthcare; education; and technology ventures.

Its significant subsidiaries include Ayala Land Inc., Manila Water Company Inc., Integrated Micro-Electronics Inc., AC Energy Inc., and AC Industrial Technology Holdings Inc.

Zobel de Ayala noted that work-from-home arrangements will bring about many positives such as cost savings, less transportation "headaches", and the more efficient use of time.

However, he noted that human interaction may still be needed moving forward given its benefits to the business.

"Personally, I'm a believer that human interaction leads to brainstorming, to solutions to working in ways whereby nature's social animals, and we work and build relationships by interacting with each other formally," he said. —KBK, GMA News

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