VELASCO, JEFFREY F.

ACC102: MANEGERIAL ECONOMICS

1-BSA-B PROFESSOR TABLIZO

Hybrid Work Set Up Strategy

Businesses are greatly affected by the implementation of lockdowns during the different levels of
quarantine since the spreading of Covid-19 crisis in the country. The big task of business entities is to
survive against the economic problems that brought by the lockdown imposed by the government. In
this article, I will emphasize the human management strategy undertaken by a business entity to cope
with changes in work scheduling.

The business entity featured in this article is the Ayala group, the country’s oldest conglomerate.
On April 25,2020, chief human resource officer John Philip Orbeta, who said that the “new normal
might mean that a huge number of its full-time employees would not report to office anymore.” Ayala
has been preparing health protocols in bringing back its workforce under the assumption of an extended
lockdown, which include daily health tracking of its employees, regardless if they were directly hired or
subcontracted. On top of direct employees, Ayala has about 100,000 “partners,” Orbeta said, referring to
outsourced workers like construction employees and clerks.“While they’re not our direct employees, we
need to make sure that they’re also included in the healthcare tracking because they would be in the
workplace. We need also to track them,” he said. In response to it, the Ayala Group will continue to
have up to 40 percent of its employees working from home. The human resource management strategy
undertaken here is the “hybrid work schedule.” This approach is common among the businesses
nowadays.

In this arrangement, employees can perform their tasks from the office, while occasionally doing
some of their work from outside the office (mostly their homes). This triggered the redesigning of office
spaces based on the number of people at the office and capacity of the space under social distancing
policies. We’ve seen readjusted, more flexible work schedules to accommodate both remote workers
and those stationed at the office.

For my perspective, the advantages of this strategy are the following: safety of employees,
flexibility, productivity, and creative way of collaboration. First, the main the purpose of this strategy in
lockdown is to ensure the safety of employees against the Covid-19. It gives prioritization of
employees’ welfare. Second, flexibility, the ability for employees to decide where they can work best
can improve their satisfaction and productivity, bringing positive results to their performance, leading
also to productivity. Lastly, we can explore further a new way collaboration even employees are apart.

However, this hybrid work set up strategy has its own disadvantages, knowing the nature of
Ayala group as a real estate player in the country. It diminished one of the key factors they need,
namely, client experience. Considering also their financing nature, customers are used to coming in for a
physical consultation for specialist services; this may disrupt the familiar customer experience.
Additionally, is the problem regarding internet connection, hybrid work set up may increase productivity
but if there internet problem then it decreases it.

In summing up, the hybrid work set up human resource management strategy gives companies
with same nature like the Ayala Group an opportunity to become resourceful in amidst the Covid-19.
Fortunately, because of this strategy the Ayala Group is considering making hybrid work arrangements
permanent as it increases its focus on digital transformation for its operations. The hybrid work set up
looks fit for Ayala Group.
VELASCO, JEFFREY F. ACC102: MANEGERIAL ECONOMICS
1-BSA-B PROFESSOR TABLIZO

References:

Canivel, R. S. 2020. Work-from-home will be new normal for many Ayala employees. Inqurer.Net
Retrieved from: : https://business.inquirer.net/295689/work-from-home-will-be-new-normal-for-many-
ayala-employees#ixzz6cRXqgaDN. Retrieved date: 10-31-20

Valdez, D. 2020. Ayala firms plan permanent ‘hybrid’ work setup. Business World. Retrieved from:
https://www.bworldonline.com/ayala-firms-plan-permanent-hybrid-work-setup/. Retrieved date: 10-31-
20