Employees

BPI remains as the employer of choice among Philippine financial institutions. With strengths in three main employee engagement drivers of career development and opportunities, goal clarity, and leadership, we introduced more initiatives to boost competency development among our officers and staff, worked to accelerate promotions, and identified the right metrics to better align human resource measures with corporate strategy. Moreover, we strive to provide a safe, secure, and conducive working environment for our employees, to continually safeguard their rights and provide equal opportunity for everyone to realize their fullest potential and make them agents of uplifting change for their communities.

To these ends, we have instituted the following policies and activities with the corresponding data on Health, Safety, and Welfare of employees:

Employee Training and Development. Employee training and education are essential to the Bank's growth strategy. By ensuring that our staff, specialists, and officers are trained, steeped in best practices, and exposed to an environment that nurtures continuous leading, we are able to provide the highest quality service to our clients.

We have a wide array of training programs and activities designed along the Bank’s business objectives, aimed at honing the skills and capabilities of our employees in carrying out their daily duties, as well as preparing them to assume higher responsibilities as the next leaders of the organization. These programs range from the new employee orientation and values orientation workshops for new hires; officers training programs, which initiate new officers into their leadership roles; sales officers training programs; advanced leadership programs for officers; courses on financial

We use a blended learning approach that includes workshops, coaching/mentoring, instructor-led training sessions, and web-based training courses. We also design and facilitate leadership and management training programs for supervisors, functional managers, and senior managers to support our investment in leadership development. Mid-level officers take part in the BPI Leadership Excellence Acceleration Program (BPI LEAP). BPI LEAP has become a benchmark in training and development. Major focus areas include:

1. Leadership and Management Development – Programs that provide opportunities for BPI Leaders to develop their ability to lead, inspire, and motivate their team members and organization. This would also cover Professional Effectiveness Programs that would develop Personal Leadership.
2. Functional – Programs that develop and strengthen specific functional and technical competencies required from the individuals so they can perform their functional tasks effectively.
3. Core and Team Effectiveness – Programs that would provide foundational knowledge and competencies for any member of the BPI team. This would also cover programs and interventions for teams at BPI.

The Bank requires every employee to undertake a minimum of five training days every year, ensuring not only their continuous professional improvement but also their being updated on industry developments.

For 2021, the Bank conducted, at least, 241 programs. Here are only some of the highlights of the above-mentioned recent trainings of the Bank:

Employee Welfare. To remain the employer of choice among Philippine banks, the Bank has adopted a compensation policy that it believes is competitive with industry standards in the Philippines. Regular employees are provided with a comprehensive pay and benefits package, which is reviewed periodically and adjusted to retain current employees and attract new talent.

Tied to this is a performance management system that calls for the alignment of individual key results, competencies, and development plans with the Bank’s overall business targets and strategy. Officers and employees undergo regular performance evaluations based on their individual accomplishments vis-a-vis their responsibilities, as well as that of the business unit or the Bank. This takes into consideration our earnings performance, asset quality, business volume, customer satisfaction, corporate governance and the long-term strategy, goals and outlook of the Bank, among other things. Deserving officers are granted an annual performance bonus, which is directly related in amount to the size and quality of the Bank’s annual earnings. The performance bonuses are based not only on an employee’s individual productivity and performance relative to assigned targets, but also on a relative comparison to the performance of peers within their rank.

Another testament to BPI’s commitment of offering greater value to its employees—and aligning management’s interest with shareholders—is its equity-linked incentive plan to its all its officers, including junior officers from Assistant Manager and up (with eligibility requirements): Executive Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP). A major initiative of the Bank under its long-term incentive program, the Executive Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP) was launched in 2013. The ESPP gives the officers the opportunity to buy shares of stock in BPI, at a discounted price based on the volume weighted average of BPI’s share price for the past 30 days. Management believes that this stronger alignment between the interests of BPI officers and interests of shareholders will benefit all stakeholders, i.e., more robust earnings and a healthier balance sheet will be reflected in a stronger and higher stock valuation.

The Bank also extends the inherent benefits of being a financial institution by offering our employees and their families our products and services at affordable terms. These include low-interest rates for auto and housing loans, medical and group term insurance, salary and emergency loans. In addition, we provide financial security to employees even after their retirement from the Bank through a retirement benefit plan. The Bank has a defined benefit retirement plan which defines an amount that employees will receive dependent on the employee’s age, years of service and compensation. The Bank also has a defined contribution retirement plan, where the defined benefit minimum guarantee is equivalent to a certain percentage of the monthly salary payable to an employee at normal retirement age with the required credited years of service based on the provisions of Republic Act (“RA”) No. 7641. All non-unionized employees hired on or after the effective date are automatically enrolled under the new defined contribution plan. Employees hired prior to the effective date shall have the option to elect to become members of the new defined contribution plan. Plan assets for both the defined benefit and defined contribution plans are held in trusts, governed by local regulations and practice in the Philippines.

BPI strictly complies with labor laws and regulations and implement best practices in our workplace. The Bank recognizes the existence of company union(s) and the rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining. The Bank does not discriminate on gender, religion, age, race, color, political stand or social background. It strictly enforces non-employment of minors and is against forced compulsory labor. We maintain harmonious relations with our labor unions. The Bank also has an open-door communications policy to address concerns among employees immediately before they escalate.

As a requirement in their certification process, the Bank also trains and retrains security personnel, who are not formally part of our workforce and belong to third-party agencies, every two years on human rights-related topics. This is to ensure that they uphold the rights not only of our employees but also of our clients, suppliers and other stakeholders that do business with the Bank.

The Bank also has various interest clubs to allow employees to pursue their passions and explore talents outside of work while building camaraderie and esprit de corp.

The Bank also looks after its retiring employees through the conduct of annual seminars on estate planning, investment opportunities in the Bank and outside, and transition from being an employee to an entrepreneur. There are also counseling programs that help employees face life during retirement. The Bank’s off-boarding program has also been strengthened to further equip BPI retirees as they transition to the next chapter of their lives – among other improvements, processing of documents has been made more convenient.

Employee Health, Safety, and Well-Being. BPI continued the implementation of its Safer and Stronger program for keeping employees safe, informed, and connected especially during the pandemic.

BPI assigned a dedicated COVID Care Team, a 24/7 team that will support COVID-positive and COVID-exposed employees. COVID Buddies were also identified, who were HR personnel assigned to each individual COVID patient to provide guidance on employee health benefits and work arrangements; liase with local government units or health facilities, if needed; and provide emotional support during the isolation or confinement period.

Mobile, non-mobile, and hybrid work arrangements were made available to employees depending on job functions. Significant enhancements in work tools allowed sustained productivity while minimizing contact rates and COVID-19 transmission.

Employees who had to report on-site were provided with special meal and transportation allowances to help cover food and commuting expenses. Shuttle services were provided to over 3,500 employees in 36 routes nationwide since its inception in 2020.

Health protocols continued to be implemented for clearance before entering the workplace and for ensuring safety during the work day. Despite requiring vaccination, social distancing is still observed and all premises are regularly sanitized throughout the day.

The umbrella wellness program, Be Well, was carried out in full force this year with the introduction of various programs targetting the holistic well-being of employees. Bi-monthly relevant webinars on physical, emotional, and mental health topics were conducted. A magazine show called “Be Well On Air” was developed with each business unit co-producing an episode every other month, covering various wellness topics. This activity fostered camaraderie and allowed employees to showcase their various talents.

In May 2021, BPI launched its VacctoNormal campaign to encourage employees to get vaccinated as a way to return to the “normal” way of living. This was launched with the Ayala Vaccine and Immunization Program (AVIP), which offered COVID vaccines (both the primary series and boosters) for free to our employees, and at cost to their dependents, through 31 vaccination sites nationwide.

The VacctoNormal campaign effectively cascaded information to employees through webinars with highly-regarded infectious disease specialists; infographic posters with facts about COVID and the vaccine; testimonials from “vaccine influencers;” a Facebook frame promoting the Bank’s VacctoNormal campaign; and live assistance and photo/video coverage at all AVIP sites.

Vaccinated employees received special metal VacctoNormal pins which, when worn with the BPI ID lanyard, provided a sense of security to co-workers and clients alike. WinVacc raffles were also drawn for employees who have signed their dependents up for the vaccination through the AVIP, with cash prize equivalent to one vaccine order.

Employee volunteerism. The bank has a built-in volunteerism program called BPI Bayan, which encourages and organizes employees to devote some of their personal time to help communities relevant to BPI and its clients. BPI Bayan is self-sustaining—using a seed fund granted by the bank in 2009, when the program started, the employee volunteers have since grown the fund to finance the community development projects they organize.

In 2021, there were a total of 68 BPI BAYAN groups comprised of 4,876 members who implemented their projects addressing the needs of their local communities. Their outstanding volunteer projects implemented within the year were recognized during the annual BPI BAYAN Awards.

Employee Awareness and Compliance with Policies. Policies and guidelines on employee welfare, health and safety, conflict of interest standards, anti-bribery, and anticorruption, insider trading, related-party transactions, whistleblowing, data privacy, consumer protection, and others are included in the Bank’s employee manuals available in the internal electronic database. In addition, these policies are regularly communicated to ensure awareness of the need to comply with said policies.