Three Ways Smart Uses Tech and Social Media for a Better Workplace

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Can you see yourself sharing a work idea with your CEO via social media?

For some people, such a scenario is difficult to imagine, as many companies still ban the use of social media (and sometimes even phones!) in the workplace. But for employees of Smart Communications, communicating with top bosses via social media is a normal thing. In fact, Smart encourages them to use digital tools that can improve productivity and make work more fun. Here are some of the ways they do this:

1.      Facebook for work

Smart is one of the telcos in Southeast Asia to use the platform called Workplace by Facebook. This is very much like your favorite social media site, except that it connects people within companies or a group of companies. Smart employees use this to share information and ideas (even with their CEO!), ask questions, receive instant feedback from colleagues, see real-time company news, communicate with co-workers via messaging, and even host video meetings. It allows them to collaborate with people from different departments and across different levels.

But it’s not all about work. Here they can also join different interest groups. There’s one for coffee lovers, another for members of the dragon boat team, and even one for sneakerheads!

Corporate learning is made more fun via gamified sessions.

2.      Training via mobile games

Remember dozing off at your last corporate seminar? At Smart, trainings are made more fun via the Gamified Mobile Learning (mLearning) Program. Notifications are regularly sent out to inform employees about available online lessons, many of which are translated into games. They can then decide which lessons they want to take AND when they want to take these.  Some enjoy taking these courses while stuck in traffic! Some of the lessons are about telecommunication basics, Microsoft Office, and project management.

3.      Digital activities during events

Toward the end of 2015, Smart organized an event for employees called Paskong Pagsaluhan. While there were a lot of on-ground activities, employees were also encouraged to post about these on their personal social media accounts, and to join a video-making caroling contest. To promote a spirit of gratitude, they were also urged to express appreciation for colleagues on Smart’s online commendation portal.

During the event, employees were also encouraged to use the Customer Advocacy Referral App (CARA for short). Through this app, they can help family and friends determine which Smart postpaid plan best suited them, facilitate postpaid applications, and report subscriber concerns faster.

Workplace has fostered a culture of open communication and collaboration among Smart employees, from all levels and departments.

These three programs won Gold Anvils at the 52nd Anvil Awards, which is considered the Oscars of Philippine public relations. Smart took home a total of 24 Anvils, earning them the Company of the Year trophy. 

Receiving the trophies were Smart representatives led by (starting sixth from left) Chief Financial Officer Chaye Cabal-Revilla, People Group FVP Gina Ordoñez, Chief People and Culture Officer Liza Sichon, and People Group AVP Che Agsaoay.

Smart has also won international awards citing it for being a top employer.

If you’re interested to join Smart, please visit smart.com.ph/careers

Up Playwrights' Theater Proudly Presents Angry Christ

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Perhaps one of the most enigmatic works of Philippine contemporary art is the mural entitled THE LAST JUDGEMENT in the Chapel of ST. JOSEPH THE WORKER in the Victorias Sugar Mill in Negros Occidental. The work of the Fil-American painter Alfonso Ossorio was created in 1950, a time of great social upheaval in Negros.

Ossorio was born to a family of great wealth. His father, Don Miguel Ossorio, was from a wealthy Manila merchant clan. Although he was born in Manila, he was sent to study in England at 8 years old and returned to the land of his birth only in 1949. After finishing what many acknowledge as his masterpiece, Ossorio flew back to the United States where he established his reputation as a painter and a patron of such artistic giants as Jackson Pollock and Jean Dubuffet. He never returned to the Philippines.

The mural both shocked and scandalized the people of Negros when it was first unveiled late in 1950. Today, the entire chapel is a tourist attraction as well as an important part of Negros history. It is a singular treasure of Philippine art.

ACT 1 covers the period when Ossorio first came home to begin work. His younger brother Frederic has commissioned a foreign architect to build a chapel. Ossorio brings with him the Countess, Ade de Bethune to design the church’s mosaics. While de Bethune easily integrates herself into the life of the sakadas, Alfonso must struggle with the many influences that shape the mural. The ghosts of his troubled childhood, his sexual preference, the poverty of the sakadas and the growing insurgency all prove deeply troubling. Equally troubling are the conventions of traditional liturgical art which he finds stale and limiting. A fictional character, Anselmo, a boy from a sakada family, is Alfonso’s assistant. Try as he may, Anselmo cannot accept the conventions of Ossorio’s art.

In ACT 2, Alfonso decides on the theme of the mural. Going against all convention and acknowledging all opposing influences, he begins to create a statement that reconciles both dark and light in his nature.

Volkswagen PH Introduces All-New Tiguan SUV, Activates CSI’s Steps to Safety at 13th MIAS

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Volkswagen Philippines, the number one European car brand in the country in 2016, is set to introduce at the 13th Manila International Auto Show on March 30 to April 2, 2017 at the World Trade Center in Pasay City its new product lines as well as activate the second phase of the multi-awarded Child Safety Initiative with the “Steps to Safety” program.


All-New Tiguan

The all-new 5-seater Tiguan compact SUV is powered by a 1.4-liter, 4-cylinder turbo-charged stratified injection (TSI) engine with BlueMotion Technology that generates a maximum output of 150 Ps at 5,000 rpm and torque of up to 250 Nm at 3500 rpm, all coming from a compact, fuel-efficient Euro 6 emission-compliant engine mated to a 6-speed direct shift gear (DSG) transmission. This SUV is laden with safety features, most notably the airbags, including a knee airbag for the driver, the ISOFIX child seats’ anchorage points, and the Electronic Stabilisation Program with the driver steering recommendation.