Government to train workers on service ethics

MANILA, Philippines - The government has started the program to train and create more polite and efficient workers to curb unemployment caused by the global economic crisis.

Ciriaco Lagunzad III, National Wages and Productivity Commission (NWPC) executive director, said the government would focus on a program to improve quality service program and promote employment.

Lagunzad said the Service Quality for Key Employment Generators (KEGS) aims to enable workers to provide “error free” services to its clients.

He said the program would initially cover the workers in 150 hotels in the country and it will eventually expand to other sectors like the business process outsourcing or call center firms.

“We are hoping that if we will have more polite and more efficient workers in our hotels, more tourists will visit our country and eventually generate more employment,” Lagunzad explained.

Lagunzad said NWPC is giving training for small hotels because the five star hotels can take care of their own workers.

He said NWPC hopes to do the same for BPOs and other so-called “employment generator” sectors.

“We are no longer extending the program to those severely affected by the crisis, but those with the potential to provide more jobs,” he noted.

Labor Undersecretary Lourdes Trasmonte admitted that the country’s productivity level might slide down because of the economic crisis.

“Companies like exports firms are having less and less orders so they would have to produce fewer products and that means shorter work (hours) for the workers,” she explained.

Lagunzad said NWPC is adopting KEGS and other programs promoting productivity to cushion the impact of the global financial crisis to the country’s workers.

“Productivity improvements will enable firms to manage costs and shift to the highest cost effective strategies at this time of economic crisis,” he explained.

Lagunzad said productivity has taken a back seat but with the global financial crisis, firms should seriously pursue productivity improvement measures.