Employee Engagement, Training, & Development

We fully recognize that engagement, learning, and development are vital for our employees to realize their full potential. As such, we strive to provide the requisite competencies and skills for them to succeed in their roles, to increase productivity, and produce a stable pool of talent for future leadership opportunities.

Upskilling and reskilling gained heightened importance in 2022 with the growing shifts in the way business is done. It became an imperative strategy for companies to enhance their learning and development programs to respond to the emerging needs of business.

In 2022, our employees logged a total of over 593,000 learning hours, up by 88% compared to the previous year. Online learning increased when CHR partnered with LinkedIn Learning and Udemy, which allowed training and development to expand its reach Groupwide. Learning administrators in each business unit were trained to do content curation to develop learning pathways in the LinkedIn Learning platform. These learning pathways were assigned to identified employees for completion, resulting in more than 238,000 content completions on the platform. Learning in groups also increased as sessions on the platform were conducted in larger forums to create a sense of community among employees in our plants and sales facilities. Onboarding and learning conversations were made available as well using online collaboration tools such as Microsoft Teams and Zoom.

The development of high-potential and high-performing employees is a particular focus area in SMC. In addition to purposive career paths, coaching and mentoring, there are advanced learning programs where these employees can further hone their skills. These are the following:

• Management Development Program (MDP), run by Corporate HR;

• Leadership and Management Development Program (LMDP), run by the Ateneo Graduate School of Business;

• Executive Management Development Program (EMDP), run by the Asian Institute of Management; and

• ExecOnline, run by globally recognized institutions such as the Columbia School of Business and the University of California Berkeley.

These programs provide leadership development and continuous learning opportunities and have become a laboratory of novel ideas, producing capstone projects that are high-impact and relevant, and promoting themes related to sustainability, innovation, and future of work. Despite pandemic constraints, hybrid learning allowed managers based outside of Metro Manila and from offshore facilities to participate in meaningful learning experiences. Participants were able to collaborate and appreciate the synergies that came out of class discussions, workshops, and case studies. The MDP, which is geared toward high-potential supervisors and team leaders across SMC, has 148 graduates since 2017. LMDP has a total of 23 batches since 2016, EMDP has 3 since 2018, and ExecOnline has one since 2019, for a total of 660 graduates who have completed the more advanced courses. For 2022, the programs produced 120 projects related to San Miguel’s sustainability programs such as plant-based butter, and biocoal from spent grains as a source of energy for plant facilities.

Apart from leadership and work-related competencies, programs are also offered for holistic well-being, health, and creative talent development. These are in the form of webinars, individual consultation, interest groups, and even internal competitions.

Finally, we conduct employee volunteer programs that help cultivate an engaged workforce, such as Volunteers in Action program by Petron, visitation to Saguitlang pupils by NCC, and various employee-initiated programs in provincial locations.

Apart from leadership and work-related competencies, programs are also offered for holistic well-being, health, and creative talent development.

Performance reviews are an important mechanism to drive the achievement of business goals and strategic initiatives. Given agreed goals at the start of the year, the employee’s performance is rated objectively based on the achievement of these goals by year-end. Also included in the review is an assessment of the employee’s strengths and areas for development, as well as developmental plans. For officers, middle managers, and non-unionized rank and file employees, the performance rating becomes the basis for salary increases in the following year. For unionized employees, salary increases are governed by their CBAs; nevertheless, some of them still undergo performance reviews.

While performance reviews are expected to be completed for all officers, middle managers, and non-unionized employees, the actual compliance rate is still below standard. Between women and men, a higher percentage of women undergo performance reviews. To facilitate the performance review process, San Miguel piloted the use of SAP Success Factors as its platform for human capital management in 2018 and has progressively increased both the application modules activated and the organizational units migrated to the platform. The goal of HR is not only to attain a comprehensive coverage of performance reviews, but also to enhance its value as a motivational and developmental tool.

Moving forward, one of our imperative development tasks is to raise awareness and build capability for sustainability among our employees across the Group. We are working on a combination of internal and external programs to equip our employees in ESG, including setting up a knowledge platform to serve as a groupwide repository of ESG resources and data and launching employee engagement programs to instill an ESG mindset in our workforce.

For over a century, SMC has built a legacy of creating world-class products that are recognized globally. To achieve this, the company recognizes that its employees are its most valuable asset, and investing in them is key to excellence, innovation, and quality. That is why SMC has established in-house schools for its employees across various business units to develop specialized skills, keep up with industry trends, and drive innovation.

One such in-house school is the San Miguel School of Brewing, which has been the primary institute for developing future brewmasters, quality assurance professionals, technical specialists, and brewery engineers since its creation in 1975. The school has produced brewmasters and other key technical people, and today, it is an accredited provider for Continuing Professional Development (CPD) of the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) Councils of Chemical Engineering, Chemistry, Mechanical Engineering, and Electrical Engineering. This means that employees not only gain the knowledge and skills needed to advance their careers but can also obtain necessary CPD credits to maintain their licenses.

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