Phoenix Petroleum to retain work-from-home setup (Sabong News)

Phoenix Petroleum to retain work-from-home setup By MYRNA M. VELASCO Uy-led Phoenix Petroleum Philippines Inc. announced that its employees will continue with work-from-home (WFH) arrangement until July this year, despite the easing of restrictions on the coronavirus pandemic. In a statement to the media, the company noted that its management had decided to sustain the WFH set-up “for its knowledge-based employees who do not need to be in the office, and will reassess the situation by the third quarter of the year.” As emphasized by Phoenix Vice President for Human Resources Celeste Ong, “we deem it best to maintain our current work set-up, and allow employees who do not necessarily have to work on-site to fulfill their duties at home.” Phoenix Petroleum currently has 647 employees. The company executive qualified that “despite the non-traditional work set-ups, our employees have been able to adjust accordingly and remain productive.” Phoenix Petroleum Senior Vice President Raymond Zorrilla similarly stated that “the move to let employees work remotely is also aligned with the Department of Energy’s support for WFH.” He added “we’re one with the DOE’s push for WFH and other alternative work set-ups amid economic challenges, particularly in the oil industry,” – and he was referring to the soaring oil prices that could then make a dent on consumers’ pockets if they will need to commute to their workplaces on a daily basis. “We believe in the benefits of our current work set-up since our employees can function effectively and efficiently without spending more time and money traveling to and from work,” Zorrilla stressed. With Phoenix Petroleum’s ascend in recent years as the country’s third largest oil company, Ong asserted “we are proud that our personnel have been adaptive throughout the unpredictable developments of the pandemic.” The oil firm indicated that since the strike of the global health crisis in 2020, “a large part of the company’s employees have been placed on work-from-home set-ups and other alternative arrangements to prioritize safety,” adding that “Phoenix was one of the first companies to announce in 2020 that the majority of its workforce will adopt alternative work arrangements.” Beyond safety, the company explained that “the decision to allow employees to work from home was fueled by employee preference” – and that has been backed by internal research and focus group discussions undertaken with its workforce — the outcomes of which portended that “84-percent of employees who are on WFH arrangements prefer to continue functioning remotely or at home even post-pandemic.” Ong further said “we value the feedback of our employees, and since they have been able to fulfill their obligations even under unconventional work set-ups, the company is willing to support their needs to feel safe and taken care of.” She highlighted “even our engagement rates have been high for the last two years, showing that with the right tools and initiatives, WFH may actually be more ideal.” The company primarily cited that based on a 2020 company-wide survey which cornered 99.46-percent response rate, “Phoenix achieved an average score of 4.47 for employee engagement, and a 4.36 satisfaction rate across a 5-point scale,” while the same survey in 2021 showed an even higher response rate of 100-percent, and showed just a “little difference in results with a 4.33 engagement rate, and a 4.24 satisfaction rate.”