Innovation

Executive Circle Corporation (ECC) is a Filipino-owned IT and BPO company in the Philippines. Its main services are information technology, IT project management, and business process outsourcing. The innovation emerged in June 2020, which was then a part of the CSR of the company. According to the President, the company’s mission is to provide high-quality services abroad and opportunities to Filipinos. The company noticed a high volume of graduates in the country, not just for regular students but also for special students such as the deaf and the mute. This high volume of the potential workforce made the company's top management decide to hire people with disabilities.

The president explained that hiring people with disabilities, particularly the deaf, provides opportunities to the less privileged. He said, “It’s a matter of mapping the skills and capabilities of the people to a job description they can deliver.” This main innovation is an example for SDG#8 (to provide decent work and economic growth) and SDG#10 (to reduce inequalities).

In the company, the deaf employees are given tasks such as answering chat and emails for the company's BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) department. He was amazed at how fast, detailed, and efficient these employees felt happy at work. Some of these employees mentioned that they feel empowered and grateful because they can work side by side with regular employees. Their data accuracy and speed are great assets for the operations of the company.

Inspiration

“The mission and vision of the company are geared towards sustainability in terms of the people and the society they belong to, and this includes the environment they live in, and financial freedom to all,” as stated by Mr. Manalansan. It started as a CSR of the company that later became the company’s strategy in sustainability. It was the board of directors of the company who came up with the initiative. They regularly discuss and strategize on how they can grow aligned to the 3P’s (people, planet, profit) goal of ECC that is “Empowering People for a Brighter Future.” They realized that this untapped talent can be harnessed and could help the business and the community.

Overall impact

ECC provides high-quality services to their local and international clients. The company embeds quality, integrity, and sustainability in every service they provide, which is reflected in their customer feedbacks. High-quality training and career growth are given to all ECC employees regardless of their background and disability (SDG#8). Through this, the company can sustain the family culture, trust, and growth of all employees. It’s a win-win situation for the employees, the company, and other stakeholders. It gives hope and strength, especially to the less privileged (SDG#10).

Business benefit

According to Mr. Manalansan, “Manpower is the driving force that enables ECC to move forward and deliver its purpose.” Excellent product and customer service are what they deliver. Their responsibilities are to provide chat and email support to business clients overseas, wherein the deaf and mute employees are part of this workforce. This gives them a sense of a higher purpose to grow, contribute to the organization, and give hope to other people with disabilities. It increases their morale, self-worth, and drive to be better and help the company grow.

Social and environmental benefit

Most people with disabilities (PWDs) in the country don’t have enough opportunities to do office work. ECC provides opportunities to people with disabilities, which most Filipino businesses somehow do not address. ECC wants to ensure greater workforce diversity and opportunities for PWDs.

The company also focuses on minimizing carbon emissions through efficient use of office equipment by turning them off when not in use, especially the air conditioner (A/C), as the Philippines is a tropical country. Mr. Manalansan also said, “We implement a paperless scheme where we only use electronic documents, digitally signed of course. And we also promote the use of biodegradable products which will not harm mother nature”. He also mentioned that they plan to use solar energy SDG#7 (affordable and clean energy) as a sustainable source of electricity for the office, which is clean and cost-efficient. In addition to this, they also plan to integrate AI (Artificial Intelligence) in their training modules to increase consistency, quality, and efficiency in terms of results (SDG#9 (industry, innovation, and infrastructure) for the company’s future expansion.

Despite the pandemic, ECC was still operational and has not closed. All employees are working from home, and engagements with their foreign clients are still continuous. “We are implementing work-from-home keep our employees safe. The Internet plays an important role in communications. Through this network that we build work from home, and of course, our servers from Amazon, we make it happen. We have the right people on board to do the job, and we must continue pursuing that operational excellence.”

Mr. Manalansan also explained, “At the onset of the pandemic, no one was ready. No one anticipated that this would happen. The transitioning part to address that work-from-home scheme that we needed to implement was really a challenge for us, but since we’re an IT company, it was less than other non-IT companies. It was easier for us because we have been using Zoom for quite some time and internet as well when we communicate with foreign clients and when we communicate with people who also work from home due to proximity… so there you have it.”

“It’s a matter of defining…leaders of a company have to define what their purpose is? Is it really just for profit? If they believe in sustainability in balancing 3Ps (people, planet, profit), then these companies can do the same as what we do. And if that happens, this will be a better world to live in for all people.” as stated by the president.

The president believes that this innovation can provide more jobs to Filipinos, including those who have disabilities, and hopefully, other companies would follow.

Interview

Martin Manalansan, President