June 28, 2021 • 33 mins
How do you build a workplace culture and why does it matter? As business leaders grapple with retaining talent, inclusion and wellbeing, building a culture centered around purpose is top of mind.
In this episode, YS Chi speaks with Rashelle Cejo, vice president of human resources for LexisNexis Asia and RELX shared service centre in the Philippines. The centre, known as REPH, is one of the fastest-growing business facilities by headcount with over 4,000 employees in Manilla. As the very first hire for REPH in 2010, Shelle has first-hand experience of the growth story of the centre. She shares her insights on the initiatives that have contributed to REPH receiving a number of global recognition awards for best employer brand and reflects on creating a sense of purpose, giving back to the community and the future of work.
This podcast is brought to you by RELX.
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Episode Transcript
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YS Chi (00:00):
The Unique Contributions podcast is brought to you by
RELX. Find out more about us byvisiting RELX.com
Rashelle Cejo (00:08):
I think it's all about the people. The key to
sustain any business is to lookat the most important resource,
its people. I'm proud to saythat it has been our people that
has been our ambassador.
YS Chi (00:40):
Hello, and welcome to our second series of unique
contributions, a RELX podcastwhere we bring you closer to
some of the most interestingpeople from around our business.
I am YS Chi and I'll beexploring with my guests some of
the big issues that matter tosociety, how they are making a
difference and what brought themto where they are today. My
(01:00):
guest today is Rashelle Cejo,who is vice president of human
resources for LexisNexis Asiaand RELX Shared Services Centre
in the Philippines. The centrewhich is known as REPH, is one
of the fastest growing businessfacilities by headcount with
over 4000 employees. Shelle wasour first, very first Filipino
(01:21):
hire for REPH in 2010 and hasfirst hand experience of the
growth story of the centre. I'llbe asking Shelle about the
challenges she faced growingREPH from the ground up, about
the importance of culture andcorporate responsibility and
human capital trends in the postCovid world. Shelle thank you
(01:41):
for joining the podcast. It'sgreat to have you with us today.
You're based in Philippines. Canyou tell us a little bit about
how things have been over thereduring the last few months?
Rashelle Cejo (01:53):
Thank you YS. It is my pleasure to be here and
I'm deeply honoured to besharing my story with you all.
It has been a year since we werein lockdown here in the
Philippines. The past year hasbeen challenging given the
pandemic but it has also helpedus to be resilient and agile in
(02:14):
so many things, especially inour personal and professional
life. In fact, what I can shareis that I have developed a habit
of binge watching, or marathonviewing of movies and TV series.
I have also loved the experienceof being a technical support for
my daughter, who is currentlyengaged in an online learning.
(02:35):
In terms of the business, we arestill working from home because
we are very much mindful of thecurrent situation in the
Philippines. Especially sincethe majority of our employees
are taking publictransportation. But overall, if
you'd asked me, everything isdoing well.
YS Chi (02:53):
That's good to hear that it's turning up. Is vaccines
being distributed now in thePhilippines?
Rashelle Cejo (03:02):
Yes, vaccines are being distributed. But the
elderly and the healthcareworkers are actually prioritised
by the government. We hope thatin the future, we will be able
to have all of our employeesvaccinated as well, including
their family members.
YS Chi (03:19):
That will be terrific.
Shelle, you grew up and youstudied law. Then you came
through multiple experiences toRELX in HR. Why were you first
interested in the law? And whydid you move into HR? I love
(03:40):
your story.
Rashelle Cejo (03:46):
As a child, I love reading books and watching
movies about the law because Iam amazed about the profession,
and what it can do to helppeople. In fact, when I was in
elementary and high school, Ihave been involved in student
organisations. I was part of thestudent government and also
school politics. And that openedmy eyes to what I really want to
(04:11):
do. And that is to stand up forone stride, help people find
justice and be their voice. Sowhen I was in college, I took up
legal management as mybachelor's degree. I had my
internship at the Regional TrialCourt, then immediately I went
to law school. On my fourthyear, I got the chance to work
(04:36):
for one of the top premier lawfirms in the Philippines. It's
Accralaw. I worked there as aparalegal. This experience I
really value because it openedmy eyes to different realities.
But looking back, I probably wastoo idealistic on how and what
the law should be, or how itshould be practiced. It's not
(05:01):
what you always expect to be orwhat you read in books, or even
see in the movies. Plus at thetime, I also wanted to try
different things, like I wasdoing events management,
training people. So I went outof the law firm and the first
job that I got was in humanresources for a local hospital.
(05:23):
I was tasked to focus onemployee relations. But I also
got interested and at the time Iventured into other facets of
human resources. I was hiringfor doctors and nurses, and that
particular job in the hospital.
But what I want to share isactually the first multinational
(05:44):
experience that I got. That waswith GlaxoSmithKline. I was then
part of the merger of GlaxoWellcome and SmithKline Beecham
in the Philippines. I stayedthere for five years, and that
was actually the place where Itried different facets of HR,
like recruitment, employeerelations, compensation and
(06:07):
benefits and learning anddevelopment. I think that's when
I finally realised that I couldembark on this new career path
and get serious and do good atit. At the time generic drugs
came in the Philippines, andpharmaceutical company got
affected. But that was also thetime when the business
(06:28):
processing services and sharedservices came into the
Philippines. That was called thesunshine industry of the
Philippines.
YS Chi (06:38):
Wow, I love that expression, sunshine industry.
Tell us a little bit more aboutwhat that means. I think I can
guess at it. How has theindustry shaped the country as a
whole?
Rashelle Cejo (06:51):
At the time YS, it was just the the global
financial crisis. ThePhilippines really needed
something to hold on to, tosurvive the economic conditions.
So the BPO was considered as thesunshine because it has been at
an increasing growth. Even withthe current pandemic situation,
(07:16):
it saved our economy. When youtalk about the BPO industry, and
the shared services industry, weare not just talking about the
back office or call centresupport. We also talk about the
information technology,knowledge process outsourcing,
(07:36):
game development, engineeringdesign, medical and legal
transcription. So it is asunshine industry because it
gave a lot of job opportunitiesfor a lot of people in the
Philippines. I know to date wehave 700 BPO's in the
Philippines. It is the largestsector of employees that has
(08:00):
given a lot of jobs toFilipinos.
YS Chi (08:04):
It's pretty appropriate though. For the listeners who
don't know the term BPO, itmeans business process
outsourcing. For a country thatemphasises so much about
education. The country hastremendously educated
population. This is just soappropriate, isn't it?
Rashelle Cejo (08:24):
That is correct YS. In fact, the reason why the
BPO has been very successful inthe Philippines is because of
the number of graduates that weproduce, and the kind of talent
that we can give to our partnersoverseas.
YS Chi (08:41):
Right. I remember the first time I visited you in,
2013 or 14, and as I was walkingby you were serving customers in
multiple languages. I said, wow.
I'm hearing everything from,Chinese, Japanese, Korean,
Bahasa, Spanish, French. It wasquite striking to me.
Rashelle Cejo (09:07):
That is correct YS. The industry is not just on
the side of the business that istransactional. It has grown
beyond that. So we providebilingual services and now we
are venturing into what we callthe knowledge process
outsourcing. More complex kindof roles, and more on the higher
(09:30):
level kind of engagement withour stakeholders.
YS Chi (09:35):
That's right. We're going to get to that a little
later, because certainly REPHdoes not sound like a BPO at
all. It's so much more advancedthan that.
(09:57):
Well, let's dive deeper intoyour role at RELX first. You
were initially hired to buildout a shared service facility
for our LexisNexis business unitwith 500 employees. Can you tell
us a little bit about those veryearly days? How did you attract
the best talent, while othercompanies that have much more
(10:18):
brand profile than we do. Bignames and better recognised
names were all around you inthat business park. They were
all global brand names and yetyou attracted some great people.
Rashelle Cejo (10:32):
When we first established LexisNexis shared
services, we looked for an areawhere we can get the talent. And
where we are located now is theU.P. TechnoHub, which is
actually right in front of theUniversity of the Philippines.
As you mentioned, this is also asite or a hub for other
multinational companies, such asHSBC, IBM. We have Convergys,
(10:58):
Concentrix and TeleTech. Theseare big names in terms of what
we call captive shared services.
LexisNexis is not a consumerbrand. It is known in the legal
community and the academe, butdefinitely not the general
public. So we needed to developa good marketing and branding
strategy based on who we are asan organisation and what we do
(11:22):
for the community. And when youbuild a team from ground up or
from scratch, you really need tounderstand, the mission, vision
and purpose of the organisation.
We needed to think of ways onhow we can establish a culture
or ways of working, which isvery much aligned with the
(11:44):
direction of the organisation.
So when we were recruiting forLexisNexis, we tried to look at
what is the main purpose ofrecruiting for legal
professionals in a company? Sowe even have this job
advertisement and we said that,do you want to advance the rule
(12:06):
of law? Join us. Or somethinglike that. Because we know that
if we get the right talent, wedon't just stop there, we must
engage them. We find them apurpose, so that we are able to
retain them for a long timewithin the company or within the
(12:27):
organisation.
YS Chi (12:31):
Which you have done. And again, we're going to get to
that a little later. Shelle,internally for RELX also and for
LexisNexis. It must have beenchallenging because Philippines
was not known to be one of thoseglobal customer support centres.
When there are places like Indiaand China, I'm sure people
(12:52):
didn't think of Philippines as anatural place. What were some of
the challenges you faced to tryto educate internally?
Rashelle Cejo (13:00):
Yeah, you are absolutely correct YS, we did
experience a lot of challenges.
To establish a captive orinternal shared services is not
an easy journey. The main reasonfor setting up a site is all
about cost savings, labourarbitrage. When we do that,
people's job will always beimpacted one way or the other.
(13:24):
And so we had to experiencetransition, and some of it is
quite painful. We experienced alot of pushback during the early
days. We got questions like,where is the Philippines in the
map? Do you even speak Englishfor you to manage a call centre
team? Or what's the educationalsystem like? So we had to go
(13:48):
back and explain to people aboutwho we are as a country. We told
them that we were an Americanquality for close to 50 years.
That when they visit thePhilippines, they will see that
it has a Western influencesculpture. We have college
graduates here. And sometimesthere was an opportunity for me
(14:13):
to show them some record fromthe government showing that our
problem is more ofunderemployment versus
unemployment, because we havemore college graduates than
jobs. We had to go through thatexperience because some of the
transitions and trainingdiscussions have been
challenging. There was really aneed for us to orient or educate
(14:36):
our colleagues about the countrybefore we reached this point
were in, where were consideredto be shared services for RELX
as a whole. So in a nutshell, wereally have to gain their trust
and confidence.
YS Chi (14:56):
Which you did, because once success stories we're
shared and others were enticed,it was almost a tsunami, wasn't
it? The initial plan was to hire500 people, and that obviously
was exceeded by eight times nowalready. Now you're covering all
(15:18):
of RELX's business units as wellas RELX itself. Now, in order to
do that, obviously you had toretain people and make a culture
of excellence work while havingfun. Tell me a little bit about
culture that you help foster?
How is it that we can get suchincredible satisfaction scores
(15:40):
and recognition from outsideworld as a great place to work?
Rashelle Cejo (15:48):
Yeah, establishing a great people and
culture strategy is really thekey to sustain the business of
people and services. That hasbeen one of the objectives of
attracting and retaining talentfor RELX and especially for
(16:09):
existing in an industry likewhat we have right now. We've
talked about how we engagepeople. One of the things that
has been on top of my mind is,how can we lure a lot of
millennials to work for theorganisation? But at the same
time, how do we remain true toour mission and values as an
(16:30):
organisation? I remember when Iwas being interviewed for the
job, I was asked by Alex Watson.
He said, what corporate socialresponsibility engagement can
you help or build in thePhilippines that we can grow, as
we grow the organisation? Sothat has been a constant
reminder to me. From thenonwards it was always a
(16:54):
challenge to create an engagingwork environment, and helping
people find their purpose withinthe organisation. It's not just
attracting and retaining butengaging them at its core. What
makes them feel fulfilled in anorganisation and be proud of the
company that they're workingfor.
YS Chi (17:16):
It's a very young team, isn't it?
Rashelle Cejo (17:19):
Yes, very young.
YS Chi (17:22):
And very eager to learn and to continue to grow?
Rashelle Cejo (17:27):
That is correct.
Yeah, we have very youngemployees who are always fired
up to do a whole lot of things.
And sometimes, human resourcesor the team just needs to wait
for the employees to come upwith all of this ideas. If I may
share, last year we werethinking about how do we do RE
(17:51):
activities in a virtual world. Ithink it was not a challenge for
some of our circles and even ourERG's because they did came up
with a lot of activities. Evengetting us a lot of RE cares
donated time, even in a virtualwork environment. They were
(18:13):
helping communities, virtuallyraising funds to get more PPE's
for the frontline workers, oreven donating groceries to the
communities that we support. Thepandemic didn't stop the energy,
the passion, the engagement ofthe people. In fact, it has
challenged us to be morecreative in terms of doing
(18:37):
something that has never beendone before, because of the
unprecedented situation. Butstill, we delivered and we can
fulfill or rather see and feelthe engagement of the people.
YS Chi (18:49):
Yeah, I'm glad you didn't make me sing for that
fundraiser. You were recognisedby World HRD Congress as Best
Employee Engagement Company ofthe Year, and also Global Best
Employer Brand. What a pride forthe team. Tell us a little bit
about what you think are theunderlying qualities that have
(19:15):
earned you these recognitions?
Rashelle Cejo (19:17):
I think it's all about the people. The key to
sustain any business is to lookat the most important resource,
it's people. You may see that wehave not spent much in terms of
marketing and branding. I'mproud to say that, over the
years it has been our peoplethat has been our ambassador.
(19:43):
The reward and recognition thatwe have gotten over the years is
actually a testament of how ouremployees are engaged in
different events and activities.
Somehow it got the attention ofpeople looking at our website,
our social media campaigns. Andthe sweetest part of it is when
they recognise that its bestemployer brand, together with
(20:06):
the other popular brands. And ofcourse, the employee engagement
of the year, which is truly atestament of what we have done
over the years that I thinkwould really help in terms of
not just attracting retainingtalent. But also making them be
engaged in what they do andcontinuing it. So my best answer
(20:29):
to that is really all about thepeople being engaged, and being
great ambassadors of theorganisation. Nothing beats
that.
YS Chi (20:42):
So just one more question around what we do.
Shelle, as we look to the nextfew years, what are some of the
areas in which REPH is reallyfocused on excelling in and
innovating?
Rashelle Cejo (20:58):
That's a very good question YS because we are
now celebrating our 10th year,and our focus is about future of
work and the next state maturitymodel for the organisation.
We're looking at several ways interms of bringing us up to the
next level, like processexcellence automation,
(21:21):
artificial intelligence. All ofthose things are part and parcel
of the kind of growth that weare looking at. But more than
that, this particular situation.
The pandemic, us working fromhome, also gave us the
opportunity to step back andthink of ways and how we can
utilise this experience of oursto deal with the next phase of
(21:44):
our growth. Right now we'rediscussing about, okay, we have
proven that people can beproductive and efficient and
even be creative in a work fromhome set up. So can we now
develop a hybrid type of workwhere people can work from home
and work from the office? Howcan we have more flexibility, in
terms of the work that we do nowthat trends and technologies is
(22:09):
really geared towards worthwhileonline information and
technology? How can we move itup another notch and make sure
that we have more opportunitiesfor growth in the IT space? Can
we hire more data scientists andanalytics, folks who can help
serve the different divisionsthat we have? So we're looking
(22:29):
at the workspace. We're lookingat the talent models that we
have, and we're also looking athow can we upskill and upgrade
the kind of talent that we havewithin the organisation. It's
all about the future of work.
YS Chi (22:47):
In that future of work, do you see more collaboration
opportunity, even when we arenot physically together?
Rashelle Cejo (22:58):
Yes, certainly.
In fact, one of the things thatwe have discussed. Is there a
possibility for us to focus ouroffice space as an area for a
collaboration type of spaceversus conference rooms,
hotelling type for leaders andemployees. So that at least the
(23:21):
trend is not just having aphysical work office for each
and every employee. But there isflexibility around office
spaces, and utilise the spacefor more connection and
collaboration meetings.
YS Chi (23:42):
But you would be very good at this because you have
been 1000s of miles away fromyour collaborators all over the
world in Lexis and RELX, andyou've done such a marvellous
job.
Rashelle Cejo (23:53):
Well, hopefully we will be successful so that we
can continue the kind of supportthat we have, or that we offer
to our stakeholders.
YS Chi (24:12):
We cannot have this conversation Shelle, between us
and not talk about REPH'sincredible dedication, a lot of
it I credit you personally, forcorporate responsibility. Tell
me more about this. I have beenpart of the journey with you,
but the audience would reallybenefit from hearing about how
(24:36):
REPH pursued corporateresponsibility from day one. And
why is it so important to yourteam?
Rashelle Cejo (24:44):
Yeah. As mentioned a while ago, it all
started when I had my firstinterview and the challenge was,
what kind of CSR activity can Ihelp build in the Philippines.
That is totally different fromsupporting an organisation one
time. That was not really theintent. The intent was aligning
(25:07):
with expanding the help as wegrow the organisation in a
certain country or a certaincommunity where we are. And it
was the same challenge that Iposed to our pioneer employees
back then. One of our employeescame up with, can we support
Kapatid Kita Mahal KitaFoundation. We researched, we
(25:29):
looked for the reasons why weneed to select this community.
It was near the office. It was acommunity. We call it Payatas.
It's a big dump site in MetroManila. The children there and
their families are working andare living there at the same
time. It was also aboutalleviating poverty through
(25:52):
education, and continuingsupport and commitment to
provide assistance. But whattruly struck me the most,
probably is the fact that theonly way for us to help the kids
is to get them out of there,helping their parents to work in
Payatas. Get them to be scholarsso that they can study and be a
(26:18):
beacon of hope to theirfamilies. It was at that time
that we also learned that thechildren had to stop school
because of the global financialcrisis. Again, this was 10 years
ago. So the support for thechildren stopped. But we were
only small at the time. So wesaid, we cannot support a whole
(26:40):
lot of people. Can we start withnine scholars or 20 scholars
first for the first year,depending on how much support we
can get from our employees.
After 10 years now, we aresupporting 220 scholars, and I
was informed that we havealready 13 scholars with
(27:01):
bachelor's degree holders. I cansay that, with the support of
our employees, they have seenthe growth of the children and
the scholars themselves. So theyhave been engaged. Every year,
they have continuously helped HRand the other circles to come up
(27:27):
with different events to keep onraising funds, so that we can
continue the help and supportthat we provide for the kids.
YS Chi (27:38):
Yeah, so I think that the KK kids are not kids. At
least the ones that you'vesupported initially, and you
continue to bring in new onesevery year. They're absolutely
adorable when they show you howmuch your support means to them,
not just in studying, but actualnutrition and safety and all
(28:01):
that. I think they'remarvellous.
Rashelle Cejo (28:03):
The company didn't stop there YS. Now we
have a second site, as you know,in Iloilo. So in that community,
we also have Friends of Cancer.
We have the indigenous people ofPanuran community. So we have
expanded our support in terms ofCSR, through the help of again,
our resource groups, for prideand even Women Connect. So that
(28:26):
circle of assisting, growing andextending our support is not
just in Manila, but we haveextended it to Iloilo as well.
YS Chi (28:39):
Yeah, I am glad to hear that lIoilo has its own local
needs that you are supporting.
But it goes beyond thesecharitable and communal
engagement, right? It's allareas of corporate
responsibility, inclusion,ERG's, diversity, so on.
Rashelle Cejo (29:02):
That is correct.
That is correct. When you lookat it, it's not just donating
cash. It's about donating theirtime, and also their talents. So
you can see that through thedifferent efforts of our
lawyers, of those graduates ofnursing. They go to the
community and help out one wayor the other. So it's something
(29:25):
that is an engagement activityin itself, more than a CSR
activity.
YS Chi (29:33):
Right, and is this making a difference in terms of
REPH being viewed uniquelyagainst competition?
Rashelle Cejo (29:40):
Yes, definitely.
That's why you will also seethat we have different awards
coming from the PhilippineEconomic Zone Authority. It's a
government entity. For the pastthree years, they have given us
the outstanding communityproject award. Even the Asia CEO
have recognised our CSRactivities. Because in other
(30:02):
organisations, they have a potof money. Ok, donate this to a
certain organisation. But whatwe are doing here, it's not just
donating money but it's actuallycoming from our employees. We
have highlighted that this isactually out of the engagement
and support of their employeesthat is somehow the most
(30:25):
important thing to do. It'sreally taking them out of their
work and making sure that theycontribute in a different way. I
think that's the reason whywe're getting the recognition
because they see that it isbeyond just a foundation that we
are supporting. There is arelationship that is built, and
(30:47):
it is continuing.
YS Chi (30:51):
That is what we call unique contributions. Shelle, as
you look toward the next 10years, tell me a bit about your
ambition for the team. It's notabout just adding headcount,
isn't it?
Rashelle Cejo (31:08):
Definitely. It is not just about adding headcount.
It is now more about upgradingthe kind of professionals or
people that we hire. It's aboutupscaling our employees, making
sure that they are ready for thenext level. In fact, that is
actually one of the mainobjectives of our next state
(31:30):
maturity model. How do we trainour current employees? How do we
evolve the whole organisation tobe in a mature state, with
automation with processexcellence. With different
efficiencies in the processesthat we have, so that we it is
not transactional. It is more ofa strategic support to our
(31:55):
business and to our stakeholdersas a whole. But at the same
time, we also need to focus onthe flexible work arrangement,
the access to medical supportonline, and all of these circles
and groups to help employeesmanage the chang. Primarily
focusing on the mental healthand well being of our employees,
(32:18):
and giving due recognition tothe needs of women in the
workplace, to enhance inclusiveand diverse culture that we
have. I think all of this willreally help us prepare and be
ready for the future of work.
YS Chi (32:33):
I think you will be a good role model for us to learn
from, as you test all thesedifferent concepts and pilots.
Thank you, Shelle so much forjoining me today for this
podcast. And I hope that youcontinue to come up with most
unusual innovations, andsurprise all of us as you have
(32:55):
for the last 10 years.
Rashelle Cejo (32:57):
Thank you YS, challenge accepted. Thank you.
YS Chi (33:01):
Thank you to our listeners for tuning in. Don't
forget to hit subscribe on yourpodcast app to get new episodes
as soon as they're released.
Thank you so much for listening.
The Unique Contributions podcast is brought to you by
RELX. Find out more about us byvisiting RELX.com
Rashelle Cejo (00:08):
I think it's all about the people. The key to
sustain any business is to lookat the most important resource,
its people. I'm proud to saythat it has been our people that
has been our ambassador.
YS Chi (00:40):
Hello, and welcome to our second series of unique
contributions, a RELX podcastwhere we bring you closer to
some of the most interestingpeople from around our business.
I am YS Chi and I'll beexploring with my guests some of
the big issues that matter tosociety, how they are making a
difference and what brought themto where they are today. My
(01:00):
guest today is Rashelle Cejo,who is vice president of human
resources for LexisNexis Asiaand RELX Shared Services Centre
in the Philippines. The centrewhich is known as REPH, is one
of the fastest growing businessfacilities by headcount with
over 4000 employees. Shelle wasour first, very first Filipino
(01:21):
hire for REPH in 2010 and hasfirst hand experience of the
growth story of the centre. I'llbe asking Shelle about the
challenges she faced growingREPH from the ground up, about
the importance of culture andcorporate responsibility and
human capital trends in the postCovid world. Shelle thank you
(01:41):
for joining the podcast. It'sgreat to have you with us today.
You're based in Philippines. Canyou tell us a little bit about
how things have been over thereduring the last few months?
Rashelle Cejo (01:53):
Thank you YS. It is my pleasure to be here and
I'm deeply honoured to besharing my story with you all.
It has been a year since we werein lockdown here in the
Philippines. The past year hasbeen challenging given the
pandemic but it has also helpedus to be resilient and agile in
(02:14):
so many things, especially inour personal and professional
life. In fact, what I can shareis that I have developed a habit
of binge watching, or marathonviewing of movies and TV series.
I have also loved the experienceof being a technical support for
my daughter, who is currentlyengaged in an online learning.
(02:35):
In terms of the business, we arestill working from home because
we are very much mindful of thecurrent situation in the
Philippines. Especially sincethe majority of our employees
are taking publictransportation. But overall, if
you'd asked me, everything isdoing well.
YS Chi (02:53):
That's good to hear that it's turning up. Is vaccines
being distributed now in thePhilippines?
Rashelle Cejo (03:02):
Yes, vaccines are being distributed. But the
elderly and the healthcareworkers are actually prioritised
by the government. We hope thatin the future, we will be able
to have all of our employeesvaccinated as well, including
their family members.
YS Chi (03:19):
That will be terrific.
Shelle, you grew up and youstudied law. Then you came
through multiple experiences toRELX in HR. Why were you first
interested in the law? And whydid you move into HR? I love
(03:40):
your story.
Rashelle Cejo (03:46):
As a child, I love reading books and watching
movies about the law because Iam amazed about the profession,
and what it can do to helppeople. In fact, when I was in
elementary and high school, Ihave been involved in student
organisations. I was part of thestudent government and also
school politics. And that openedmy eyes to what I really want to
(04:11):
do. And that is to stand up forone stride, help people find
justice and be their voice. Sowhen I was in college, I took up
legal management as mybachelor's degree. I had my
internship at the Regional TrialCourt, then immediately I went
to law school. On my fourthyear, I got the chance to work
(04:36):
for one of the top premier lawfirms in the Philippines. It's
Accralaw. I worked there as aparalegal. This experience I
really value because it openedmy eyes to different realities.
But looking back, I probably wastoo idealistic on how and what
the law should be, or how itshould be practiced. It's not
(05:01):
what you always expect to be orwhat you read in books, or even
see in the movies. Plus at thetime, I also wanted to try
different things, like I wasdoing events management,
training people. So I went outof the law firm and the first
job that I got was in humanresources for a local hospital.
(05:23):
I was tasked to focus onemployee relations. But I also
got interested and at the time Iventured into other facets of
human resources. I was hiringfor doctors and nurses, and that
particular job in the hospital.
But what I want to share isactually the first multinational
(05:44):
experience that I got. That waswith GlaxoSmithKline. I was then
part of the merger of GlaxoWellcome and SmithKline Beecham
in the Philippines. I stayedthere for five years, and that
was actually the place where Itried different facets of HR,
like recruitment, employeerelations, compensation and
(06:07):
benefits and learning anddevelopment. I think that's when
I finally realised that I couldembark on this new career path
and get serious and do good atit. At the time generic drugs
came in the Philippines, andpharmaceutical company got
affected. But that was also thetime when the business
(06:28):
processing services and sharedservices came into the
Philippines. That was called thesunshine industry of the
Philippines.
YS Chi (06:38):
Wow, I love that expression, sunshine industry.
Tell us a little bit more aboutwhat that means. I think I can
guess at it. How has theindustry shaped the country as a
whole?
Rashelle Cejo (06:51):
At the time YS, it was just the the global
financial crisis. ThePhilippines really needed
something to hold on to, tosurvive the economic conditions.
So the BPO was considered as thesunshine because it has been at
an increasing growth. Even withthe current pandemic situation,
(07:16):
it saved our economy. When youtalk about the BPO industry, and
the shared services industry, weare not just talking about the
back office or call centresupport. We also talk about the
information technology,knowledge process outsourcing,
(07:36):
game development, engineeringdesign, medical and legal
transcription. So it is asunshine industry because it
gave a lot of job opportunitiesfor a lot of people in the
Philippines. I know to date wehave 700 BPO's in the
Philippines. It is the largestsector of employees that has
(08:00):
given a lot of jobs toFilipinos.
YS Chi (08:04):
It's pretty appropriate though. For the listeners who
don't know the term BPO, itmeans business process
outsourcing. For a country thatemphasises so much about
education. The country hastremendously educated
population. This is just soappropriate, isn't it?
Rashelle Cejo (08:24):
That is correct YS. In fact, the reason why the
BPO has been very successful inthe Philippines is because of
the number of graduates that weproduce, and the kind of talent
that we can give to our partnersoverseas.
YS Chi (08:41):
Right. I remember the first time I visited you in,
2013 or 14, and as I was walkingby you were serving customers in
multiple languages. I said, wow.
I'm hearing everything from,Chinese, Japanese, Korean,
Bahasa, Spanish, French. It wasquite striking to me.
Rashelle Cejo (09:07):
That is correct YS. The industry is not just on
the side of the business that istransactional. It has grown
beyond that. So we providebilingual services and now we
are venturing into what we callthe knowledge process
outsourcing. More complex kindof roles, and more on the higher
(09:30):
level kind of engagement withour stakeholders.
YS Chi (09:35):
That's right. We're going to get to that a little
later, because certainly REPHdoes not sound like a BPO at
all. It's so much more advancedthan that.
(09:57):
Well, let's dive deeper intoyour role at RELX first. You
were initially hired to buildout a shared service facility
for our LexisNexis business unitwith 500 employees. Can you tell
us a little bit about those veryearly days? How did you attract
the best talent, while othercompanies that have much more
(10:18):
brand profile than we do. Bignames and better recognised
names were all around you inthat business park. They were
all global brand names and yetyou attracted some great people.
Rashelle Cejo (10:32):
When we first established LexisNexis shared
services, we looked for an areawhere we can get the talent. And
where we are located now is theU.P. TechnoHub, which is
actually right in front of theUniversity of the Philippines.
As you mentioned, this is also asite or a hub for other
multinational companies, such asHSBC, IBM. We have Convergys,
(10:58):
Concentrix and TeleTech. Theseare big names in terms of what
we call captive shared services.
LexisNexis is not a consumerbrand. It is known in the legal
community and the academe, butdefinitely not the general
public. So we needed to developa good marketing and branding
strategy based on who we are asan organisation and what we do
(11:22):
for the community. And when youbuild a team from ground up or
from scratch, you really need tounderstand, the mission, vision
and purpose of the organisation.
We needed to think of ways onhow we can establish a culture
or ways of working, which isvery much aligned with the
(11:44):
direction of the organisation.
So when we were recruiting forLexisNexis, we tried to look at
what is the main purpose ofrecruiting for legal
professionals in a company? Sowe even have this job
advertisement and we said that,do you want to advance the rule
(12:06):
of law? Join us. Or somethinglike that. Because we know that
if we get the right talent, wedon't just stop there, we must
engage them. We find them apurpose, so that we are able to
retain them for a long timewithin the company or within the
(12:27):
organisation.
YS Chi (12:31):
Which you have done. And again, we're going to get to
that a little later. Shelle,internally for RELX also and for
LexisNexis. It must have beenchallenging because Philippines
was not known to be one of thoseglobal customer support centres.
When there are places like Indiaand China, I'm sure people
(12:52):
didn't think of Philippines as anatural place. What were some of
the challenges you faced to tryto educate internally?
Rashelle Cejo (13:00):
Yeah, you are absolutely correct YS, we did
experience a lot of challenges.
To establish a captive orinternal shared services is not
an easy journey. The main reasonfor setting up a site is all
about cost savings, labourarbitrage. When we do that,
people's job will always beimpacted one way or the other.
(13:24):
And so we had to experiencetransition, and some of it is
quite painful. We experienced alot of pushback during the early
days. We got questions like,where is the Philippines in the
map? Do you even speak Englishfor you to manage a call centre
team? Or what's the educationalsystem like? So we had to go
(13:48):
back and explain to people aboutwho we are as a country. We told
them that we were an Americanquality for close to 50 years.
That when they visit thePhilippines, they will see that
it has a Western influencesculpture. We have college
graduates here. And sometimesthere was an opportunity for me
(14:13):
to show them some record fromthe government showing that our
problem is more ofunderemployment versus
unemployment, because we havemore college graduates than
jobs. We had to go through thatexperience because some of the
transitions and trainingdiscussions have been
challenging. There was really aneed for us to orient or educate
(14:36):
our colleagues about the countrybefore we reached this point
were in, where were consideredto be shared services for RELX
as a whole. So in a nutshell, wereally have to gain their trust
and confidence.
YS Chi (14:56):
Which you did, because once success stories we're
shared and others were enticed,it was almost a tsunami, wasn't
it? The initial plan was to hire500 people, and that obviously
was exceeded by eight times nowalready. Now you're covering all
(15:18):
of RELX's business units as wellas RELX itself. Now, in order to
do that, obviously you had toretain people and make a culture
of excellence work while havingfun. Tell me a little bit about
culture that you help foster?
How is it that we can get suchincredible satisfaction scores
(15:40):
and recognition from outsideworld as a great place to work?
Rashelle Cejo (15:48):
Yeah, establishing a great people and
culture strategy is really thekey to sustain the business of
people and services. That hasbeen one of the objectives of
attracting and retaining talentfor RELX and especially for
(16:09):
existing in an industry likewhat we have right now. We've
talked about how we engagepeople. One of the things that
has been on top of my mind is,how can we lure a lot of
millennials to work for theorganisation? But at the same
time, how do we remain true toour mission and values as an
(16:30):
organisation? I remember when Iwas being interviewed for the
job, I was asked by Alex Watson.
He said, what corporate socialresponsibility engagement can
you help or build in thePhilippines that we can grow, as
we grow the organisation? Sothat has been a constant
reminder to me. From thenonwards it was always a
(16:54):
challenge to create an engagingwork environment, and helping
people find their purpose withinthe organisation. It's not just
attracting and retaining butengaging them at its core. What
makes them feel fulfilled in anorganisation and be proud of the
company that they're workingfor.
YS Chi (17:16):
It's a very young team, isn't it?
Rashelle Cejo (17:19):
Yes, very young.
YS Chi (17:22):
And very eager to learn and to continue to grow?
Rashelle Cejo (17:27):
That is correct.
Yeah, we have very youngemployees who are always fired
up to do a whole lot of things.
And sometimes, human resourcesor the team just needs to wait
for the employees to come upwith all of this ideas. If I may
share, last year we werethinking about how do we do RE
(17:51):
activities in a virtual world. Ithink it was not a challenge for
some of our circles and even ourERG's because they did came up
with a lot of activities. Evengetting us a lot of RE cares
donated time, even in a virtualwork environment. They were
(18:13):
helping communities, virtuallyraising funds to get more PPE's
for the frontline workers, oreven donating groceries to the
communities that we support. Thepandemic didn't stop the energy,
the passion, the engagement ofthe people. In fact, it has
challenged us to be morecreative in terms of doing
(18:37):
something that has never beendone before, because of the
unprecedented situation. Butstill, we delivered and we can
fulfill or rather see and feelthe engagement of the people.
YS Chi (18:49):
Yeah, I'm glad you didn't make me sing for that
fundraiser. You were recognisedby World HRD Congress as Best
Employee Engagement Company ofthe Year, and also Global Best
Employer Brand. What a pride forthe team. Tell us a little bit
about what you think are theunderlying qualities that have
(19:15):
earned you these recognitions?
Rashelle Cejo (19:17):
I think it's all about the people. The key to
sustain any business is to lookat the most important resource,
it's people. You may see that wehave not spent much in terms of
marketing and branding. I'mproud to say that, over the
years it has been our peoplethat has been our ambassador.
(19:43):
The reward and recognition thatwe have gotten over the years is
actually a testament of how ouremployees are engaged in
different events and activities.
Somehow it got the attention ofpeople looking at our website,
our social media campaigns. Andthe sweetest part of it is when
they recognise that its bestemployer brand, together with
(20:06):
the other popular brands. And ofcourse, the employee engagement
of the year, which is truly atestament of what we have done
over the years that I thinkwould really help in terms of
not just attracting retainingtalent. But also making them be
engaged in what they do andcontinuing it. So my best answer
(20:29):
to that is really all about thepeople being engaged, and being
great ambassadors of theorganisation. Nothing beats
that.
YS Chi (20:42):
So just one more question around what we do.
Shelle, as we look to the nextfew years, what are some of the
areas in which REPH is reallyfocused on excelling in and
innovating?
Rashelle Cejo (20:58):
That's a very good question YS because we are
now celebrating our 10th year,and our focus is about future of
work and the next state maturitymodel for the organisation.
We're looking at several ways interms of bringing us up to the
next level, like processexcellence automation,
(21:21):
artificial intelligence. All ofthose things are part and parcel
of the kind of growth that weare looking at. But more than
that, this particular situation.
The pandemic, us working fromhome, also gave us the
opportunity to step back andthink of ways and how we can
utilise this experience of oursto deal with the next phase of
(21:44):
our growth. Right now we'rediscussing about, okay, we have
proven that people can beproductive and efficient and
even be creative in a work fromhome set up. So can we now
develop a hybrid type of workwhere people can work from home
and work from the office? Howcan we have more flexibility, in
terms of the work that we do nowthat trends and technologies is
(22:09):
really geared towards worthwhileonline information and
technology? How can we move itup another notch and make sure
that we have more opportunitiesfor growth in the IT space? Can
we hire more data scientists andanalytics, folks who can help
serve the different divisionsthat we have? So we're looking
(22:29):
at the workspace. We're lookingat the talent models that we
have, and we're also looking athow can we upskill and upgrade
the kind of talent that we havewithin the organisation. It's
all about the future of work.
YS Chi (22:47):
In that future of work, do you see more collaboration
opportunity, even when we arenot physically together?
Rashelle Cejo (22:58):
Yes, certainly.
In fact, one of the things thatwe have discussed. Is there a
possibility for us to focus ouroffice space as an area for a
collaboration type of spaceversus conference rooms,
hotelling type for leaders andemployees. So that at least the
(23:21):
trend is not just having aphysical work office for each
and every employee. But there isflexibility around office
spaces, and utilise the spacefor more connection and
collaboration meetings.
YS Chi (23:42):
But you would be very good at this because you have
been 1000s of miles away fromyour collaborators all over the
world in Lexis and RELX, andyou've done such a marvellous
job.
Rashelle Cejo (23:53):
Well, hopefully we will be successful so that we
can continue the kind of supportthat we have, or that we offer
to our stakeholders.
YS Chi (24:12):
We cannot have this conversation Shelle, between us
and not talk about REPH'sincredible dedication, a lot of
it I credit you personally, forcorporate responsibility. Tell
me more about this. I have beenpart of the journey with you,
but the audience would reallybenefit from hearing about how
(24:36):
REPH pursued corporateresponsibility from day one. And
why is it so important to yourteam?
Rashelle Cejo (24:44):
Yeah. As mentioned a while ago, it all
started when I had my firstinterview and the challenge was,
what kind of CSR activity can Ihelp build in the Philippines.
That is totally different fromsupporting an organisation one
time. That was not really theintent. The intent was aligning
(25:07):
with expanding the help as wegrow the organisation in a
certain country or a certaincommunity where we are. And it
was the same challenge that Iposed to our pioneer employees
back then. One of our employeescame up with, can we support
Kapatid Kita Mahal KitaFoundation. We researched, we
(25:29):
looked for the reasons why weneed to select this community.
It was near the office. It was acommunity. We call it Payatas.
It's a big dump site in MetroManila. The children there and
their families are working andare living there at the same
time. It was also aboutalleviating poverty through
(25:52):
education, and continuingsupport and commitment to
provide assistance. But whattruly struck me the most,
probably is the fact that theonly way for us to help the kids
is to get them out of there,helping their parents to work in
Payatas. Get them to be scholarsso that they can study and be a
(26:18):
beacon of hope to theirfamilies. It was at that time
that we also learned that thechildren had to stop school
because of the global financialcrisis. Again, this was 10 years
ago. So the support for thechildren stopped. But we were
only small at the time. So wesaid, we cannot support a whole
(26:40):
lot of people. Can we start withnine scholars or 20 scholars
first for the first year,depending on how much support we
can get from our employees.
After 10 years now, we aresupporting 220 scholars, and I
was informed that we havealready 13 scholars with
(27:01):
bachelor's degree holders. I cansay that, with the support of
our employees, they have seenthe growth of the children and
the scholars themselves. So theyhave been engaged. Every year,
they have continuously helped HRand the other circles to come up
(27:27):
with different events to keep onraising funds, so that we can
continue the help and supportthat we provide for the kids.
YS Chi (27:38):
Yeah, so I think that the KK kids are not kids. At
least the ones that you'vesupported initially, and you
continue to bring in new onesevery year. They're absolutely
adorable when they show you howmuch your support means to them,
not just in studying, but actualnutrition and safety and all
(28:01):
that. I think they'remarvellous.
Rashelle Cejo (28:03):
The company didn't stop there YS. Now we
have a second site, as you know,in Iloilo. So in that community,
we also have Friends of Cancer.
We have the indigenous people ofPanuran community. So we have
expanded our support in terms ofCSR, through the help of again,
our resource groups, for prideand even Women Connect. So that
(28:26):
circle of assisting, growing andextending our support is not
just in Manila, but we haveextended it to Iloilo as well.
YS Chi (28:39):
Yeah, I am glad to hear that lIoilo has its own local
needs that you are supporting.
But it goes beyond thesecharitable and communal
engagement, right? It's allareas of corporate
responsibility, inclusion,ERG's, diversity, so on.
Rashelle Cejo (29:02):
That is correct.
That is correct. When you lookat it, it's not just donating
cash. It's about donating theirtime, and also their talents. So
you can see that through thedifferent efforts of our
lawyers, of those graduates ofnursing. They go to the
community and help out one wayor the other. So it's something
(29:25):
that is an engagement activityin itself, more than a CSR
activity.
YS Chi (29:33):
Right, and is this making a difference in terms of
REPH being viewed uniquelyagainst competition?
Rashelle Cejo (29:40):
Yes, definitely.
That's why you will also seethat we have different awards
coming from the PhilippineEconomic Zone Authority. It's a
government entity. For the pastthree years, they have given us
the outstanding communityproject award. Even the Asia CEO
have recognised our CSRactivities. Because in other
(30:02):
organisations, they have a potof money. Ok, donate this to a
certain organisation. But whatwe are doing here, it's not just
donating money but it's actuallycoming from our employees. We
have highlighted that this isactually out of the engagement
and support of their employeesthat is somehow the most
(30:25):
important thing to do. It'sreally taking them out of their
work and making sure that theycontribute in a different way. I
think that's the reason whywe're getting the recognition
because they see that it isbeyond just a foundation that we
are supporting. There is arelationship that is built, and
(30:47):
it is continuing.
YS Chi (30:51):
That is what we call unique contributions. Shelle, as
you look toward the next 10years, tell me a bit about your
ambition for the team. It's notabout just adding headcount,
isn't it?
Rashelle Cejo (31:08):
Definitely. It is not just about adding headcount.
It is now more about upgradingthe kind of professionals or
people that we hire. It's aboutupscaling our employees, making
sure that they are ready for thenext level. In fact, that is
actually one of the mainobjectives of our next state
(31:30):
maturity model. How do we trainour current employees? How do we
evolve the whole organisation tobe in a mature state, with
automation with processexcellence. With different
efficiencies in the processesthat we have, so that we it is
not transactional. It is more ofa strategic support to our
(31:55):
business and to our stakeholdersas a whole. But at the same
time, we also need to focus onthe flexible work arrangement,
the access to medical supportonline, and all of these circles
and groups to help employeesmanage the chang. Primarily
focusing on the mental healthand well being of our employees,
(32:18):
and giving due recognition tothe needs of women in the
workplace, to enhance inclusiveand diverse culture that we
have. I think all of this willreally help us prepare and be
ready for the future of work.
YS Chi (32:33):
I think you will be a good role model for us to learn
from, as you test all thesedifferent concepts and pilots.
Thank you, Shelle so much forjoining me today for this
podcast. And I hope that youcontinue to come up with most
unusual innovations, andsurprise all of us as you have
(32:55):
for the last 10 years.
Rashelle Cejo (32:57):
Thank you YS, challenge accepted. Thank you.
YS Chi (33:01):
Thank you to our listeners for tuning in. Don't
forget to hit subscribe on yourpodcast app to get new episodes
as soon as they're released.
Thank you so much for listening.
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