Our Talents

The success of our business rests in the hands of our human capital. In 2024, a total of 9,671 employees across our business groups contributed to our business performance throughout the year, remaining close to our headcount in the previous year.

A total of 2,716 employees in 2024 left the group, taking up 28% of our workforce. Majority of these are from the Construction Business Segment that work on a per project basis. These employees are given the opportunity to sign on again with First Balfour’s when new projects arise. In other business segments, those who have separated from the group cited better career opportunities locally.

In 2024, the group welcomed 3,938 employees across all business segments, again with majority from within the Construction Business Group, in line with increased projects for 2024.

As part of our efforts to continuously invite talents for our business segments, our businesses continue to participate in job fairs and university career for a for talent attraction and employer branding. Through these, we expand our connection with academic institutions across the country enabling us to build stronger applicant pools. 

Strengthening our Human Capital towards our Mission

Equipping our employees with the right tools, resources, and skills enables them to make the most significant impact in our industries. We are deeply committed to enhancing and empowering our workforce so they can perform their best and continue to grow in their careers. 

Embedding Sustainability in our Talents

Unified Human Resource Services across FPH

In our efforts to streamline human resource services across the conglomerate, one of the key initiatives of our Human Resource Group at the FPH enterprise level is the creation of the FPH Corporate Human Resource Shared Services (CHRS). The CHRS began its implementation in 2024 and will continue its gradual roll out in the following year. 

During the year, the HRG has taken steps in implementing the CHRS through Workday to automate the employee life-cycle processes across the FPH Group. Adjacent to managing employee data, the HRG has also initiated the development of the Enterprise Data Management Guidelines with the goal of defining standards, guidelines, rules, and discipline in handling employee data across the FPH group.

Fortifying Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Workplace

The HRG led the in-person celebration of International Women’s Day; this is the first time in three years that we held our event face-to-face. With the theme of #InspireInclusion, we have curated an exciting array of activities, invited insightful and inspiring speakers, and prepared interactive sessions. The goal was to to honor women’s achievements, raise awareness, and promote the value of diversity and inclusion in the workplace.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) has been tackled previously through seminars and learning sessions organized by the group but in 2024 FPH has decided to embrace DEI in practice and encourage our workforce to embody DEI values in the workplace. The initial step towards this goal was the launch of the Overcoming Unconscious Bias Training. This was initially launched exclusively for leaders and people managers in 2023 but with the goal of raising the entire group’s awareness on how one’s biases may influence their decision making and how they interact with their colleagues, in 2024, all employees were required to complete this training.

The training course consisted of 3 modules from the introduction of unconscious bias, the different types of unconscious bias, and strategies for awareness and how to veer away from the unconscious inclination to form a bias. These modules were made possible by our partnership with the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Enhancing Equality in Energy in Southeast Asia (E4SEA) program. 

Compensation and Benefits Strategy

In ensuring pay equity within the organization, we regularly review our compensation packages and external labor market through a benchmarking process. Our salary structure and benefits package are designed to follow regulatory requirements. To remain competitive in the talent market, we look for ways to improve our total compensation package while balancing affordability. Our core compensation strategy lies on three principles:

▸ Ensuring that compensation programs and policies support the delivery of the corporate strategy and create long-term, sustainable shareholder value;
▸ Pay for performance;
▸ Keeping our competitive market position concerning total rewards (these include base pay, variable compensation, and benefits)

Through these, we seek to attract people to join the organization, retain key talent and reward high performing individuals, and motivate employees to develop their skills and competencies based on the changing demands of their job and of the business. This policy and practice applies to the Company’s senior management and the overall workforce.

Protecting the well-being of our employees continues to be a top priority for the conglomerate. By ensuring access to quality health and well-being services, we are able to create a healthy work environment for our employees to perform at their best. FPH does this through periodic employee-centric learning sessions focused on self development, work productivity and one’s social responsibility, and partnering with health and wellness service platforms that provide counselling and consultations with psychologists, well-being coaches, nutritionists, and financial planners. Our employees also enjoy access to health services based on the needs of our employees through a company-run medical clinic located within the office building, health maintenance organizations (HMO), access to medical benefits including annual physical assessments, medical emergency response, annual flu vaccination program, blood supply program, and medical allowances.

Our compensation and benefits programs contribute to our business success by balancing market competitiveness and affordability based on a total compensation approach. These are performance-driven, flexible, legally compliant, and are absent of any gender-discriminatory pay practices. The key elements of our compensation structure are annual base salary, fixed bonuses, variable compensation based on annual targets, and employee benefits.

Inherent to our mission of regeneration, the company views sustainability as a mindset expected from everyone, from our executives down to the employees, hence performance related to ESG is not incentive- based at the moment.

Directors

Under the Corporation’s By-Laws, directors shall receive a reasonable per diem for attendance at each meeting and receive a portion of the annual profits as determined by the Chairman and the President. Directors receive a per diem for every board and committee meeting. In addition, Section 29 of the Revised Corporation Code provides that the total yearly compensation of the directors shall not exceed ten percent of the net income before income tax of the corporation during the preceding year.

The Corporation does not have any other arrangements pursuant to which any director is compensated directly or indirectly for any service provided as a director.

Workplace Health and Safety

Safeguarding health and safety in the workplace ensures the smooth operations in our businesses. FPH and its subsidiaries have policies, procedures, and initiatives consistent to its values and business objectives to ensure the success of the group’s Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems (OHSMS). These are installed as a guiding principle adhered to by its employees and contractors across the group following local and national laws, regulations, and international standards.

Cascading Workplace Health and Safety

To ensure full adaptation of our OHSMS across the group, the FPH Quality, Environment, Sustainability, Health (QESH) Group consults with its stakeholders regularly through committee meetings, Technical Working Group sessions, and engages with employees through activities such as Kapihan sa QESH and Kumustahan. It is through these dialogues that the group is able to receive feedback on execution, insights, and inputs are considered in policy or program initiatives.

In 2024, the Kapihan sa QESH initiative has covered the following topics to an average audience of 50 participating employees and contractors:

▸ Emergency Preparedness and Response and Safe Work Practices
▸ Go Bag Preparation
▸ Managing Heat Stress
▸ Motor Vehicle Safety
▸ Importance of Vaccination 
▸ Smoking Cessation Program
▸ Preparing for the Big One
▸ Emerging Viruses with Outbreak Potential

The Incident Reporting and Investigation Standard (IRIS) remains an effective tool in incident reporting and investigation. This procedure has been implemented by the First Gen Corporation since 2017 and has been adopted at the FPH Corporate level in 2024. The procedure establishes the roles and responsibilities of parties involved, as well as requirements that have to be fulfilled. Through IRIS, FPH QESH and its subsidiaries are informed and able to manage incidents and learnings. The details of the foregoing safeguards in our health and safety system are discussed in Annex 8.

To ensure our employees’ safety in times of emergency, FPH also implements an Emergency Response Plan (ERP) and has established an organized Emergency Operations Center to coordinate emergency preparedness and response. This is aligned with the Incident Command System and in collaboration with Philippine Disaster and Resilience Foundation.