Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Institute of Management
Institute of Management
Institute of Management
The internship officially started on the 15th day of September. Me and my co-
intern were able to meet the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of AGORA PH since we
were assigned in the Office of the CEO as part of the research team. He gave us
guidelines for the work-from-home set-up and I have learned that we can work on a
flexible work schedule without him micromanaging everything we do. He also
mentioned the schedules for the presentation, and it is an outcome-based duty that we
need to finish and be prepared for every presentation. The next day, I was moved to a
different department - People and Culture Department (P&C - HR). There was a new
project management and I was tasked to do the Salary Benchmarking. Since AGORA
PH is an ecommerce entity, I adopted the organizational structure of one of the most
well-known ecommerce brands in the Philippines (Lazada). I also compared it to the
existing departments of AGORA PH. The next thing I do is to search for a specific job
title for each department and to look for the salary offer for each job position per
company. I was only able to finish three departments (Sales, Marketing, Technology &
Development) with one website which is Jobstreet, while I was tasked to get three
sources for dependable comparison. On the 3rd day of OJT, I continued to fill up all
the vacancies and include the website INDEED. I also attended the interns’ alignment
meeting with my trainer and discussed the task that he gave. He appreciated my work,
yet he also noticed that there are a lot of positions that need to be filled. After the
meeting I continued to look for other job titles as well and when I got a plenty of lists, I
also computed the average salary which to be included in the summary of the 3
sources for comparability. That sums up my week. I am not finished yet and still have
a lot of information to be added but I hope I will be able to finish the comparability
benchmarking next week.
Another week has started and I continue to work on the salary benchmarking I
was tasked to undertake. I completed the remaining sections such as marketing,
operations, accounting, technology and development and supply chain. This was filled
up on the third source of comparison. At the end of this day, the research on salary
benchmarking I was working on last week is already finished. The work was also
appreciated by the trainer and gave good feedback because they are currently using
the information that I researched.
On September 28, since I was also tasked to do the recommendation ranks and
corresponding pay scale, I started researching on how to establish a salary structure.
In a company, different ranks have different amounts of remuneration. I have learned
that it is important to have a threshold on the salary to practice fairness and
reasonable pay among employees and use the information as a basis for entry level
rates up to the level when they get a promotion. This can also be adjusted depending
on the budget of a company. I used the pay grade system to calculate the minimum
and maximum salary range for each tier. The time that all the details needed is
determined, I accomplished two recommendations that the company can use.
The third day of the week started with a meeting with the P & C department. I
was tasked to do the Agora PH skills inventory to determine the training and
development skills needed by the head of each department. As they answered the
In my fourth week, I started to do the pending task I left last week. I did
research on the assistance of the government and other entities to startup businesses.
The institutions that I found include DTI, DOLE, and Small Business (SB) Corporation.
These entities are offering financing loans with zero interest which can be helpful for
startup companies like Agora PH. It also promotes programs that hold seminars and
training for the owners or leaders of an entity which is also relevant to the skills
inventory that I made last week. I finished it today but in case I can still find new
programs, I will just update the spreadsheet.
On the 5th day of October, I was tasked to do research on the rates and
packages that a sourcing medium is offering for recruitment. I list down all the
mediums that are available in the Philippines and the prices of each. I also emailed
them for inquiries of and confirmation of the rates if there are inclusions and add-ons.
One of the companies has replied and confirmed that their rates include tax. This is for
a comparison of different applicant sourcing websites so that Agora PH can choose a
service they need.
The next day I continued to search on different sourcing mediums since I was
not yet finished. I added the companies offering job posting services for employers
which can be used for recruitment since Agora PH is in the process of hiring
applicants. I was also contacted by one of the sourcing mediums that I emailed
yesterday.
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For this day, I posted the different job hiring openings of Agora Ph to
Facebook job pages for a wider reach. I was also tasked to do a comparison of
training and development providers which is based on the need of the department
leads that I found out during the skills inventory survey. I search for training for
strategic planning, contract negotiations, and managing performance.
This 11th day of October, I contacted the account manager of Jobstreet for the
follow up of their initial offer. It went well and they gave credits that Agora PH can use
for the job postings. I also started to prepare the presentation for the 7 training areas
that we will give to SOCO selling sales training providers that we met last week. The
people & culture department held a meeting today regarding the consolidated table of
organization and other tasks. I was tasked to do that, so I wanted to finish the T.O. for
this day. Even though I extended my time today, it was worth it in case of revisions
needed.
As estimated, there are revisions needed subject to changes of the T.O.
yesterday. I just updated the presentation for the sales department as directed by me
during the meeting today with the supervisor. For today, I finished the presentation for
the 7 training areas that I started preparing yesterday. The P&C interns are also
tasked to post the job posters to different social media platforms for the widest
dissemination.
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This Wednesday, I was researching the 2020 and 2021 rates of Phil Health that
will be used for the Full-Time Rate (FTR) of the key persons in Agora PH. I was tasked
to gross-up their salary rates in consideration of the deductions for income tax and
other deductions like Phil Health, Pag-Ibig, and SSS. The P&C Department also held a
meeting today regarding the Out of Office Forms (O.O.O), interviewer’s assessment,
and Jobstreet available credits. I was tasked to do the know-how of O.O.O if it is
possible that from Google forms, the employee filing the O.O.O. will automatically be
reflected to the Google Calendar, so that the HR would know if there is someone who
is filing or when the respondent is out of office.
For this day, I have learned how to do the task I was given yesterday. During
our meeting today, I presented and navigated on how Google Forms, Google Sheets
and Google Calendar will coordinate to automatically reflect the forms to the HR’s
calendar. This is a good discovery for me and for the company, as this system will
bring ease to everyone. I also made a presentation for this procedure so that other
people can also use this in the future. I also updated and proofread the T.O. today
because it will be presented by the HR officer tomorrow.
On the 15th day of October, I made an AGORA logo for the People Operations
Manager that she can use to be identified. I continued the pending research for the
FTR so that I can do trial and error or to formulate the formula that I can use for all the
salary rates. The P&C also held an alignment meeting. After that we also held a
meeting for the navigation of O.O.O. which will be used by the people in the company.
I also updated the T.O. because it was requested by the upper management to do
changes on the format.
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That concludes my week and I was also happy to remember that this day is my
official first month as an intern at AGORA PH. I’m looking forward to more exciting
events that will happen soon.
This 18th of October, I started the research on the employee contribution for the
Full Time Representatives (FTR). I need to make sure that the rates are correct and
updated for the year 2021. These include the SSS, Philhealth, and Pag-IBIG in which
the PhilHealth rate for 2021 is suspended, so I used the rate for 2020. I also do
research on how to get the net take home pay in relation to the deductions and the
income tax rates to be used on Employer-Employee relationship under the TRAIN
Law.
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This Tuesday, I made my own formula to gross-up the monthly salary of the
FTR and get the net pay of their actual salary. It is quite challenging for me to
formulate since I need to take into consideration the amount of deductions and income
tax rates that vary as the gross pay increases. I made four self-made calculators
based on the graduated income tax rate and the corresponding annual income. I do
trial and error on the amounts to get the desired net pay. Finally, I was able to get the
right amounts.
From the formula I made yesterday, I now get ready to compute each of the
FTR. I use the 2021 contribution table of SSS to accurately encode the right amount
because the contribution increases as the base pay increases. I also take in
consideration the other deductions and the grossed-up salary pay as the annual
income increases. This indicates that I need to use another formula for a higher range.
Today, I already completed the computation for the FTR.
On October 21st, Agora PH held an event “Interns’ Meet and Greet” which was
attended by all the interns (34) together with the Chiefs and Department Lead. The
management gave us a warm welcome as we also got to know other interns from
different departments. The Chiefs also state their encouragement in working at the
company. After the event, the P&C department also held a meeting for the tasks and
weekly cadence that will be held in the afternoon. I made a presentation of a guide on
the Out of Office form. The P&C Department held another meeting for the weekly
cadence. This is our first cadence and we get to present our finished and ongoing
tasks to update everyone on the status of the report.
This Friday, I started working on the research for the development and training
providers for the skills needed by the department lead which includes project
management, contract negotiations, IT systems and New Technology. I also made
Google forms together with the spreadsheet for the filing of Out of Office for each
department. I also do a job posting to social media sites like LinkedIn and Facebook.
We also had our movie night led by the P&C department with the movie Cruella. It is
such a great movie and I had fun watching it. That concludes my 6th week, though I
have one pending task I’m looking forward in finishing it next week.
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On Tuesday, I continued to search for the training providers I was working with
yesterday. It is a good thing that I was able to find companies that offer a public
seminar with schedules so I can plot it on the calendar that I made for convenience. I
also had a meeting with my supervisor regarding the Out of Office Form that should be
edited as per request by the People Operations Manager. We also discussed the
interview assessment form for the interviewer to clarify and solve the problems on the
use of the Google forms. As per discussed, I edited the forms needed for all the
departments. I also updated the weekly cadence spreadsheet.
On October 28, I started preparing the recommendation for the training and
development provider that I think is best for the company which considers the price,
availability of the department lead and works through online. I included in the
presentation each of the areas and its function as well as the provider, quotation, and
the expected learnings at the end of the training. I also included in the spreadsheet the
details of each company provider so that if they do not have the time on the scheduled
date, they can contact the provider for a custom-made training.
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This Friday, I continued the draft of the recommendation I was working on
yesterday. I schemed the providers that they need which I think is convenient for them
when the department leads are ready to be in training. We also have a Brown Bag
session for this day. It is a talk about “Social and Emotional Literacy” led by the guest
speaker – Dra. Carolina Gracia – Gener. This is a good way to remind everyone that
our emotions are valid but our actions and intentions should also be appropriate. It’s
nice that it is also interactive as the department leads are also sharing their
experiences related to the topic.
That concludes my 7th week. It is quite challenging but with the words of
wisdom at the end of this week, it is also uplifting and full of inspiration in dealing with
ourselves and towards other people.
On the 4th day of November, I was asked to revise the settlement procedures
flowchart and turn it into a process that includes decision making procedure. I learned
that process symbols which are shapes have different uses when making a flowchart.
After revisions, the settlement procedure is finished and approved. For the accounting
forms, I made a purchase request form. I also attended the weekly cadence under the
P&C department and presented the different sourcing applicants with their
corresponding rates and validity to be used for job postings and hiring. I also had a
meeting with Ms. Daisy regarding the Google Workspace access and utilization.
This Friday, I continued creating accounting forms which include the purchase order
and did research on the purchase process. I was also tasked to create a Google Form
for the Letter of Engagement of Agora Ph to the Merchants. This also includes the
terms and conditions, and different arrangements to be filled up by the merchants.
That concludes my week this November. It is good to obtain new experience from this
department as it handles Accounting, P&C, and Legal. It is also a pleasure to be
directed by the Agora Ph People Operations Manager.
This Tuesday, I made a cash receipts journal as part of the accounting forms
needed. This is part of the special journals used in a company in recording the cash
receipts. I included this journal because I think this is important in recording
transactions since the admin department also holds the accounting side of Agora Ph
for documentation. I also made a Cash disbursements journal so the admin can also
use this to track disbursements and for documentation.
On Wednesday, I made a cash count sheet. This is for monitoring the cash on
hand in cases they will establish a petty cash or the cash on hand itself. I also create a
balance sheet on a spreadsheet as part of accounting forms from the document sent
to me. Income statement is also part of this, that they can use to perceive the
performance of the company in a given period.
This 11th day of November, I made a Statement of Cash Flows because this is
part of the file sent to me. This is useful for them to track their cash inflows and
outflows and to see the cash balance on a given period. I am still getting updates from
the P&C department and we are tasked to post the job poster which is open for all
interns on all courses. I posted this on LinkedIn for a better reach of applicants.
On Friday, I made a receiving report for the cycle of purchase order I made last
week. I also created a check register so they can input the transaction from the check
request voucher when it is approved. The admin department held an alignment
meeting for all the interns together with Ms. Daisy and Ms. Mary Grace. This is for
assignment of tasks to be directed next week. Agora Ph also held a movie night led by
the P&C department – The Tomorrow War. This is a good way to bond and relax this
week. That sums up my 9 th week and I’m looking forward to more learning before my
internship ends.
INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT
This Tuesday, I had a meeting with Ms. Daisy regarding the process of each
accounting form I made and presented it to her. We discussed the petty cash
resolution as well as the process on the petty cash voucher. I needed to add more
authorization to the voucher and a more detailed policy. My supervisor recommended
using the documentation control system template. This is the template that I need to
use in making the policies, identifying the responsible person, flowchart, and proper
documentation of the reference forms used in completing the process. I started to
make a draft for the granting, utilization, and replenishment of petty cash funds. I also
did research on the standard policy implemented by COA and other private entities in
accordance with this matter. At the end of the day, I sent the draft of the petty cash
policy to my supervisor.
On Wednesday, from the draft that I made yesterday, I needed to add the
company resolution as well as the logo of Agora Ph. I am also revising some of the
policies to make it understandable and complete. I had a meeting with my supervisor
for the birthday celebration of the 3 department regulars. I was tasked to canvas the
prices of the cake and food as well as the delivery fee on each location. I made a
presentation for the suggestion that me and Ms. Daisy has discussed it so we can
send it to the CAO of the company.
On November 18, we discussed the final prices summary for tomorrow’s event. I made
the final presentation for this so we have a copy on the amounts needed for the food of
the employees and interns. I also coordinated with the HR intern for the number of
interns under the P&C and their respective addresses. My supervisor and I had a
meeting regarding the template, instructions, and sample that will be disseminated
upon approval. The Documentation Control System will serve as the standard
template that will be used by each of the departments such as people & culture, sales,
operations, dev. & tech. and marketing. She discussed each of the details in the
INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT
template so I can make instructions in each section required. I finished the DCS
sample in which I inserted a flowchart procedure for the requesting employee and
revised the sections as per discussed.
On Friday, I scheduled the delivery for the cake and food for the birthday
celebration today and updated the status of each delivery. I also collected the receipt
for documentation and put it in one folder. I created a blank form for the DCS as well
as the instructions needed
– DCS Instructions. I also finalize the DCS sample – petty cash documentation, as a
suggestion. I put these three in one folder and sent them to my supervisor. That
concludes my 10th week. I also received an email relating to the instructions of Sir Don
Jandusay – Sales Admin for the Letter of Engagement with merchants. This will be
assigned to me next week.
On November 22, I completed arranging the receipts in one folder required from
last week’s event. This is in line with the expenses summary I made on a spreadsheet.
After that, me and Ms. Daisy held a meeting regarding the Merchant Engagement form
for General Trade (GT). The forms are subjected to revisions as per Sir Don
instructions. After we finished the forms, I was tasked to do the proposal for the 2021
Christmas party of Agora Ph. With the given theme, I need to create a suggestion from
the look of the presentation, invitation, and program. Today, I only presented the draft
of the motif and theme. I was taught to make a livelier color for this.
This Tuesday, I am in a meeting with Ms. Daisy about the additional Non-
Disclosure Agreement (NDA) to be added to the Terms & Conditions for the
engagement with merchants. I also need to create another form for National Key
Accounts (NKA). I was able to finish this during the meeting. For the Christmas Party
proposal, I revised the colors and edited the presentation including the attire and
background of the Theme: Gatsby. After that, as per Sir Don instructions I needed to
put in the bank account details to the forms I made, in which I finished today.
NARRATIVE REPORT
COMPANY BACKGROUND
Agora comes from the ancient Greek term for “market.” AGORA PH is born through
the call of need and to develop digital convenience at our fingertips. As we rapidly
expand NATIONWIDE, we aim to help empowering businesses to improve their
market reach and be an effective sales option for GENUINE and DEPENDABLE local
business brands.
AGORA PH is founded and led by a diverse group of individuals who has a in depth
background and leadership in different industry such FMCG, Retail, F&B,
Telecommunications, Logistics and Information Technology. Our team is highly
dynamic as we ensure that our goals are aligned to our values as individuals.
Our Mission is to be the market of choice as we establish Agora Ph as being the top-
tier digital market platform by having both great vision of helping our partners in
transitioning to the digital market and greatly improving their market reach while
providing our users infinite choices and effortless shopping.
We are strengthened by each other's unique skills to build a strong and solution-
centered to help the community adapt to the new lifestyle.
VISION
To be the top-tier e-commerce platform that offers convenience to the digitized market
with our knowledge and services that will improve the consumers’ NEW NORMAL
lifestyle for a long-term comfort. We are the EVERYTHING STORE.
MISSION
To satisfy and provide consumers the best ecommerce platform by giving access to
thousands of merchants and merging the traditional and new way of shopping. To
market and provide choice stable and established business on increasing their sales
and revenue in the Philippines.