The Aboitiz Recognition Night, one of the most anticipated events in the Aboitiz Group, pays homage to the dedicated service excellence, exceptional loyalty and hard work, and the invaluable contributions our A-People have accomplished each year. With this year’s theme of “Spectrum”, team members decked out in a band of colors, representing the different backgrounds, roles, personalities, interests, and points of view, yet finding meaning in the Group’s common purpose and our unique culture, the Aboitiz Way.
We anticipate that during the Team Awards, Service Awards, or during the special performances, audience reaction can rival the energy of the crowd at a rock concert. Indeed, it is inspiring to see the all-out enthusiasm when we cheer for our teammates and I believe it captures how much we respect and value each other’s contributions to our organization.
– Erramon I. Aboitiz, President & CEO, Aboitiz Equity Ventures
THE ABOITIZ 2019 SERVICE AWARDEES
The service awardees, all of whom exude the Group’s core values in their work, are a true testament that with the Aboitiz Way, they have withstood the test of time. This year, the Group awarded 49 dedicated and hard-working A-People from 10 years to 35 years of service from Aboitiz Equity Ventures, Inc. (AEV) and AboitizPower (AP)
THE DON RAMON ABOITIZ AWARD OF EXCELLENCE
Another significant recognition to honor our exemplary team members and team leaders is through the Don Ramon Aboitiz Award of Excellence (DRAAE). The DRAAE award is the Group’s way of keeping alive the Aboitiz values by awarding this to the individual who embodies the principles that Don Ramon Aboitiz, the Aboitiz Group founder, strongly espoused. It is the highest and most distinguished award an individual in the Aboitiz Group can receive.
Annacel A. Natividad, First Vice President – Chief Risk Officer of AEV, was given the distinct honor of being the sole receiver of this award for 2019. Under her leadership, Annacel successfully developed and implemented a series of Risk Management Systems and frameworks for the Group. She is also a leader for AEV’s Quality Management Team. She is a very hard working and respected expert in Risk Management, even spearheading the competency development for risk practitioners in the Aboitiz Group, which is now a benchmark framework in the risk industry across the region.
Peer and leader recognition is also closely connected to engagement. When we are acknowledged for a job well done, it gives us a sense of accomplishment, develops in us a stronger affinity to our roles, and raises our confidence levels — all of which are paths to improving productivity and higher retention. Across the Group, we have many A-People making a difference while pursuing our ABCs, who win by thoughtfully responding to the needs of our stakeholders, and go the extra mile to make sure we deliver on what we promised.
– EIA
Aside from the recognition of the service awardees and DRAAE, the event was made even special as AEV and AP awarded the 2019 winners of the Aboitiz Way AEV Team Awards and AP Team Awards. The refreshed Aboitiz Way Team Awards merely gives more focus on our core values, which means categories are now grounded on Innovation, Responsibility, Integrity, and Teamwork, which are also the base of the awards’ categories and criteria. Here is an overview of each category:
INNOVATION (Improvement): This category gives recognition to projects that seek continuous improvement, may it be in service, process, or product. Recognition Night is our way of celebrating each other, to shine a spotlight on our fellow team members, and honor each other’s achievements in a big way.
INNOVATION (Breakthrough): Projects that are bold and pioneering, projects that are first of its kind for the Aboitiz Group. These initiatives are cutting edge, trendsetting, and truly, speaks of innovation.
INTEGRITY: These are projects that managed to excel in delivering the Brand Promise to our customers and untiring in terms of improving customer service to exceed customer satisfaction. These efforts were also successful in bringing or expanding our markets and customers.
TEAMWORK: This category champions projects that foster a collaborative atmosphere within teams, inter-CSUs, or across the group. These are projects that broke silos and made a significant impact to increase team member engagement.
RESPONSIBILITY: category champions projects that were successful in balancing the interest and involving our stakeholders to ensure that they have a fair share of the value creation we are involved in. These projects also advocate sustainability and care for our environment.
For AEV, a total of seven entries vied under various categories for this year. The projects were carefully screened and were further filtered by the panel of judges composed of AEV executives and leaders from various groups and departments.
And the winners for the AEV Team Awards are…
INNOVATION (BREAKTHROUGH)
KINDer by Aboitiz by the Aboitiz Foundation, Inc., AEV Reputation Management Department, and AEV TechGroup, won the hearts of our panelists as it is the first crowdfunding platform of this kind for the Aboitiz Group that allows everyone to help create a kinder world, one click at a time. As the Netflix for advocacies, KINDer offers a simple and intuitive interface that empowers people to support causes that speak to their hearts. It enables various Aboitiz business units, nonprofits, and companies to reach more donors, connecting those who need help with those who want to help. This platform is able to track who the donors are, their giving behaviors, and the top causes they support is very useful in re-engaging donors according to segmentations.
INTEGRITY
The project that undoubtedly won this category is The Aboitiz ABC Summit, spearheaded by the AEV Reputation Management Department and Aboitiz Foundation, Inc., combines the Aboitiz Group’s annual CSR Forum, Sustainability and Reputation fora into a two-day landmark gathering of business, development, and government representatives that features a comprehensive overview of how sustainability and CSR are folded into corporate strategies, showing the link between how the Group deliver its promise of Advancing Business and Communities and our commitment to contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals.
TEAMWORK
The AEV TechGroup bagged this category coming up with a project that is a one-stop-shop for everything Aboitiz — inclusive, intuitive, and mobile-ready. With the AGORA 2.0 powered by Workplace by Facebook, team members now have a broader opportunity to collaborate internally and cross-functionally to increase productivity while maintaining company security. This also strengthens the sharing of best practices across business units and removing silos. Internal groups and multi-company groups, live streams, calls and video calls, live polls, and chatbots are just a few features of this new platform has to offer. After only six short months, AGORA 2.0 achieved high engagement rates on content, relevance and productivity and will only continue to accelerate in the succeeding years.
RESPONSIBILITY
A clear winner for this category is KAWIYAGAN: Biyaya ng Pagbabago Livelihood Program by the AEV Government Relations. This is the first and only concrete Livelihood Program for Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) inside the Marawi Temporary Shelter Community. It was able to help the IDP of Marawi to establish their own sustainable entrepreneurship through retailing of baked products done from their own homes and sold within their community. To date, this is the first tangible livelihood program in Sagonsongan Transitory Shelter. Each bakery kit contains steel oven, bread racks, working table, display shelf, delivery bicycle, baking tools and initial supply of Pilmico Halal flour.
THE ABOITIZ WAY AP TEAM AWARDS
The same process follows, a rigorous screening in front of an esteemed panel of judges in the Group, for The Aboitiz Way AP Team Awards, they only difference is the added value of Service Excellence to their list of categories.
And the winners for the AP Team Awards are…
TEAMWORK
The Diversity and Inclusion Initiative by the AP Legal, AP Reputation Management, AP Human Resources won this category as it aimed to highlight AP’s culture statements on high performance and atmosphere. AP Legal, AP Reputation Management, and AP Human Resources conducted a series of activities which celebrate the diverse backgrounds of AP, spread awareness that the uniqueness of each team member is a source of our success, and promote AP as an employer of choice, with this project, they also hope to drum up employee engagement and highlight teamwork.
RESPONSIBILITY
A winning project, Project BEAM (Building, Empowering, and Motivating the Youth Project) by AP Energy Trading and Sales came up with this project as a response to the call for each individual to be agents of impactful change through education. CSR initiatives have been at the forefront of stakeholder and community management for the AP Sales and Marketing team. Since its inception more than 5 years ago, the teams have been committed to not only drive business but also cultivate relationships with customers, the community and local government stakeholders in a sustainable way.
A NIGHT OF BRILLIANCE
To add more color to the night, other activities were added such as game booths (PacMan and BuzzWire) which helped the employees have fun. Special awards were also given during the program such as Most Radiant Male, Most Radiant Female, and Best Dressed Teams. In Cebu, a Pixel Perfect Photo Competition was held to showcase the creativity of the A-People.
The program ended with a song number tribute for the service awardees, which then commenced into a night of good music and everybody showing off their groovy dance moves, because in The Aboitiz Recognition Night, the spotlight is on you.
