Kalibrr successfully launches Kalibrr Academy – a free monthly workshop series for HR and Recruitment

MANILA, Philippines – In partnership with the Ateneo Graduate School of Business, PruLife UK, and Interchange Consultancy, Kalibrr successfully launched its Kalibrr Academy workshop series on September 27, 2018 at the Ateneo Professional Schools at Rockwell Center, Makati. Kalibrr Academy’s free monthly workshops touch on various topics about the top hiring trends and industries in the Philippine job marketplace by inviting thought leaders who can share their knowledge and practices on their respective fields of expertise in the HR and Recruitment industry. As an avenue for professional learning, the workshop series aims to further upskill jobseekers and professionals in their career.

The theme for the launch of Kalibrr Academy was “Employee Life Cycle: What Every Line Manager Should Know”. Invited to speak for the event was Myrna Neri, MPM, a seasoned HR/OD Professional, a certified John Maxwell coach, and a consultant for the Asian Development Bank, and other corporate and educational institutions. For its first whole-day session, Kalibrr Academy was able to gather a diverse mix of attendees; graduate students, HR practitioners, software engineers, real estate agents, nurses, etc.

The initial remarks were given by Paul Rivera, Co-Founder and CEO of Kalibrr, who kicked off the morning with a simple message, “Innovation is caring.” HR and Recruitment encounter various issues and roadblocks. In order to innovate, individuals involved should care enough to be proactive in solving such problems.

For the main discourse, the attendees welcomed Myrna Neri who immediately got the audience’s attention and active participation throughout the day as she discussed her most valuable lessons about the industry. Tackling subjects such as human resource management, employee experience, employee life cycle, differences between the duties of HR and line managers, and strategies for recruitment, retention, and termination of employees.

According to Nico Serrano, Student Council President of Ateneo Graduate School of Business, “Kalibrr Academy is one of the milestones of AGSB and I think it’s a good opportunity for Ateneo students to learn more about the leadership role in the human resource industry: on how to resolve the issues and challenges and experiences of the employees in the organization. I’m here because I represent the AGSB Student Council and it’s a good opportunity for me to learn [sic] about HR issues from another perspective, aside from our MBA studies”

The program generated warm reception and positive feedback from the participants. Erika Guitarte, HR Manager of Innovantage, expressed her interest because coming from a startup setting, her main goal is to build their company’s culture. “This is our first time to attend a workshop that covers this particular topic. We want to join workshops like this for us to teach our line managers regarding how to handle people. Without the help of managers, how can we do it? We cannot do it alone since they’re always the ones with the employees.”

Another attendee who shared a favorable experience was Alfred Apura, HR and Admin Assistant for Zuellig Family Foundation. “In terms of discussion, perspectives are widened. The module is really simple but because of the experiences and sharing of other participants, it became collaborative,” he said.

TJ Antonio, IT Consultant and a graduate of AGSB also responded positively. According to him, “At any given time, you should always invest in yourself. In learning more,  it’s still better to hear from people who actually took the time to do surveys and to study it. It’s always great to learn something new, especially from experts and I think Ms. Myrna is one such expert.”

Coming from a student’s point of view, Reemsha Inayet who studies MBA in AGSB also had her own insights for attending the lecture. With the goal of entrepreneurship in mind, she saw the workshop as a preparation for her future business where she will be handling her own team. “I really want to learn how to manage my people in the future and I would want to know the perspective of my boss as well because I know that someday I will be my own boss,” she said, “I look forward to more workshops of Kalibrr and I think this is a great partnership because not every organization or school has these other programs. We only invite speakers for a certain topic but now with this partnership, I think it will bring more people into Ateneo. It’s interesting to see diverse people from different backgrounds and perspectives.”

Throughout the discussion, the audience was very much engaged in the module, the activities, and especially the break-out sessions which brought HR and non-HR professionals to actively collaborate.

The overall event closed off with an enthusiastic atmosphere from the participants who promised to return for the next workshops and also invite their connections in order to benefit from the course training offered by Kalibrr Academy.

Kalibrr is a technology company that aims to transform how candidates find jobs and how companies hire talent. Placing the candidate experience at the center of everything it does, the company continues to attract the best talents from all over, with users of 1.6 million and counting. Kalibrr ultimately connects these talents to companies in search of their next generation of leaders.

The only end-to-end recruitment solutions provider in Southeast Asia, Kalibrr is headquartered in Makati, Philippines, with offices in San Francisco, California and Jakarta, Indonesia. Established in 2012, it has served over 18,000 clients and is backed by some of the world’s most powerful start-up incubators and venture capitalists. These include Y Combinator, Omidyar Network, Patamar Capital, Wavemaker Partners, and Kickstart Ventures.

For more information, visit Kalibrr on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.