Amadeus, an advanced technology solutions for the global travel industry, continues to expand in the Philippines as it has the most competitive talent market in Asia’s lower-middle-income countries.
According to its Global Talent Competitiveness Index 2019 (GTCI), an annual benchmarking report that reviews countries’ abilities to grow, attract and retain talent – the Philippines is the 58th most competitive out 125 countries.
The Philippines as a highly competitive market for Amadeus
Amadeus began its operations in the Philippines in 1997. Today, Amadeus employs 520 people in the Philippines wherein 46% Men, 54% of women is the breakdown in the Philippines, with an average age of 31 years old or millennials.
Sabine Peck, SVP People, Culture, Communication & Brand, Amadeus
The country is strategically very important to the company. Over the last three years, it’s business in the Philippines has grown by 35%. Beyond engaging its existing pool of employees, they are always on the lookout to attract more talent in the Philippines.
“Our talent acquisition unit is one of our strategic pillars to enable future business sustainability and growth in the Philippines. One mission-critical objective for us is to attract and engage a diverse talent pool. To do so, we have transformed our recruitment model to enable a better digital end-to-end candidate experience,” Sabine Peck, SVP People, Culture, Communication & Brand, Amadeus.
“We have upskilled our recruiters to master new digital techniques to the source, find and engage talent. These techniques were modernized to streamline the application process by offering video interviews and real-time assessments remotely. This allows us to expand our net across the country, and not just within our key cities like Manila,” she added.
In Manila, their hiring model has always been growing talent from within, which means they hire a lot of candidates fresh from universities in the Philippines.
In the past three years, they have sealed and strengthened their partnership with the different universities such as – De La Salle University, Mapua University, University of Santo Tomas and University of the Philippines and they are continuing to forge seven more partnerships this year.
Through these partnerships, the graduates of the said universities are allowed to spend their internship in the company by giving them a first-hand experience to work that they do, to the culture and access to the expert in the company. The partnerships also allowed the brand to work with these universities by giving inputs as a company in curriculum design and instruction.
A Sense of Purpose for its employees
We see that millennials typically have high expectations from their careers, are motivated by ‘lifestyle’ and have no doubts about switching jobs every 2 – 3 years if their needs are unmet.
That said, the company developed a corporate social responsibility that outlines the company's good intentions through the passionate work of its employees on the ground.
Early this year, the company launched its “Green is the New Blue”, a new internal awareness campaign that focuses on green issues to maximize the positive impact on its communities by helping protect biodiversity at a local level.
The global campaign includes all 19,000 Amadeus employees in over 190 countries around the globe. The movement consists of different environmental challenges linked to specific green topics like plastic-free, green on holiday and zero waste, and employees are encouraged to accept the challenge and share their experiences via our company-wide social media tool.
Aside from that, the company also offers Global Amadeus Volunteer Day for employees to take part in projects that they are passionate about. In September here in Manila, Amadeus participated in International Coastal Clean-up day and was able to collect a total of 28 bags (173 kilos) of coastal trash.
“Engaging our employees in volunteer work is just one of the ways we help the travel industry grow more responsibly. Through the passionate work of our employees, most especially in the Philippines, we were able to demonstrate our commitment to our communities and to building a more responsible and sustainable travel and tourism industry,” she expressed.
“When employees from a company the size of Amadeus decide to roll up their sleeves, it is truly incredible what can be achieved in just one day,” she furthered.