Shared growth, shared goals: A closer look into the ownership culture at CGI Philippines

At CGI, the culture of ownership is not just symbolic. It is a commitment that the company's leaders, management, and employees have breathed and lived since day one.

"...and together, as owners, contribute to building a company we can be proud of."? CGI's Dream articulates this ownership culture, which guides the organization and its professionals in everything they do. It is introduced and instilled in each person from day one at the company.

We talked to Jill de Jesus, the Country Leader at CGI in the Philippines, to gain insights into the company's unique work culture. After starting her career as a developer, she ascended through various roles, including Director, Service Delivery Manager, and Team Leader.

What is it like to work for CGI?

I like that working in CGI is very meritocratic and transparent. At the beginning of our career in CGI, objectives are discussed, and there are opportunities for rotation and progression. I started as a developer 16 years ago and was able to move up and gain exposure to different large programs globally and across industries.??

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What makes CGI's culture unique?

We call our professionals 'Member-Partners' as we inculcate and embrace the culture of ownership in CGI. When you join, you can choose to be part owner of the company, and CGI matches the investment. This fosters a shared sense of responsibility and makes each one of us part of the Profit Participation Plan as well. As CGI grows, we all experience shared growth. ?

This ownership culture gives us a deeper sense of purpose and assurance that what we do truly matters. And to continue to experience this shared growth, we give our best and further contribute to maintain operational excellence. Our dream at CGI is all about working together, as owners, contribute to building a company we can be proud of.

Both practices have been embedded as a core program in CGI since 1992 and are implemented across 400 locations around the world. Whenever a new company is integrated into CGI, these are some of the first policies that we implement.

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Specifically for CGI in the Philippines, what activity has positively impacted employees?

Apart from our global, regional, and local town halls, in the Philippines, we have a monthly pulse session where senior leaders (Vice Presidents and Directors) facilitate a dialogue with our members directly. The idea is to receive candid feedback on new implementations or generic feedback about the work and the workplace. The results of these sessions have been both impactful and insightful. These sessions help us in putting a finger on the pulse of our people and get them to trust as well.

?(Image: Jill de Jesus, Senior Vice-President Consulting Delivery & Country Leader CGI in the Philippines)

How do you keep people engaged?

At CGI, members are our top priority. In addition to the multiple engagement activities that we conduct throughout the year, we also foster a culture of continuous dialogue between teams. We believe that continuous feedback and regular connects with your teams help in creating an open and transparent workplace. We encourage in-person and one-on-one discussion with our members about the level of satisfaction in working at CGI. Apart from the face-to-face conversation, our members also fill out the annual survey called the Member Satisfaction Assessment Program (MSAP). The topics range from compensation and benefits, learning and development, down to our core values, culture, and more. All the initiatives and programs that we run are done by keeping in mind our members and their wellbeing, both at a personal and a professional front.

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How does the company handle disengaged employees?

Our managers play a critical role in our member’s careers, and we encourage our leaders to keep their members engaged, especially new joiners. We try to keep our member-to-manager ratio at a manageable level to ensure that there is close interaction and a one-on-one discussion at least (but not limited to) once every two weeks on top of regular governance meetings. ?

To support our managers, we have our HR Business Partners who handle one-on-one sessions. A round-up discussion between our managers and HR Business Partners is done to understand the cause of disengagement. On a higher level, we assess trends on whether this is prevalent in the team or isolated to a particular member. We have multiple avenues and opportunities in the form of learning new skills, upskilling, finding a mentor at the workplace or rotating to another business unit to broaden one’s horizon.

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In what other ways does CGI show support to its people?

We have a center of excellence for health and well-being in CGI called Oxygen, which is a holistic way of taking care of our employee’s mental and physical well-being. We organize well-being webinars, events, and even provide a repository website for various health and well-being resources which all our members across the globe have access to. On top of this, we have an annual global initiative called “Wellness Around the World,” in which all CGI geographies participate. Prior to the pandemic, this was called “Walk Around the World” as all our members from across the globe partake in wellness walks within our communities. This is an event our members look forward to as you get to be a part of a huge community initiative and for a good cause.

As part of our commitment to address well-being holistically, we also have an Employee or Member Assistance Program (MAP), which offers all our members and even their family members free and confidential consultations for psychological counseling and other support services to help through personal or professional challenges.

We also ensure our leaders are well-equipped to support members in their CGI journey. Our middle and senior management undergo different leadership programs to help them develop the relevant technical and soft skills they need to lead their teams and projects. In CGI, we believe that positive influence and service excellence should be seen foremost at the top, and our programs called the Manager Excellence Program (MEP) and Expert Excellence Program (EEP) are specifically designed to help leaders maintain and develop our service delivery and people management standards.

How does CGI promote career development and employee growth within the organization?

We follow our Member Partnership Management Framework (MPMF), which is based on the principle of a solid and lasting relationship between member and leader based on openness and respect. As early as joining CGI, we inculcate this relationship between leaders and members and reinforce throughout their careers that professional development is a shared responsibility. We also have tools that allow our members to look for open positions not just in CGI in the Philippines but also across the globe.

At the leadership level, we also have a development plan to assess which competencies and behaviors are required for our members to move either lateral or upward. This discussion is done regularly, and forms part of their Learning Needs Analysis.

To also support these internal movements, and to demonstrate our belief in continuous learning, all of us in CGI have access to a global award-winning platform called CGI Academia. This resource website has various free courses our members can use if they wish to reskill, upskill, or discover new paths strategic for their careers. Courses finished through this platform are automatically added to one’s learning hours, which can be used as credentials should they wish to move to a different role. Having this platform is one of my favorite things to share about CGI. It just shows how we are all empowered to take control of our career and growth.

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Can you share the challenges you've encountered while helping develop CGI's culture?

We strongly believe in promoting our home-grown talent and this helps in cascading the nuances of culture easily. However, as we continue to evolve, it is also important to get fresh ideas and get new talent into the mix.. The challenge is integrating these new leaders and getting external best practices while staying true to the CGI culture. We were able to address this by implementing our management framework but allowing new tweaks and introducing new initiatives if it shows equilibrium among our clients, professionals, and shareholders. We also introduced a buddy system for our leaders to help them get assimilated with the CGI culture and ensured that the leadership induction (CGI 101) is introduced early in the leaders' careers.?

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And what's your biggest takeaway from these experiences?

It is important to get the right balance between culture and change. ???

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As a leader, why do you think it is important for Philippine businesses to measure and improve their company's culture?? ?

Culture can make or break a company. In CGI, we believe that what gets measured, and results made visible, gets done. So, in the same way that we are very strict in our own internal metrics, it is important to benchmark so that we continue to evolve and be sustainable and successful in the long run. Companies need to evolve and understand where they stand to continuously improve. While there may be some changes to your culture, it should be acceptable as long as we stay true to our core values.

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Personally, what's the best thing about being a champion for high-trust workplace culture?

When there is high trust, work becomes easier, and people are motivated to contribute and introduce innovative ideas. I thrive in a workplace where people are allowed to make mistakes yet take ownership, as I also would like to be treated the same way. ??

What traits or skills do you recommend for people leaders who want to change their culture for the better? ?

Being open to change and listening to your members/employees. They are the people on the ground and would know more about the culture. Empathy is an important trait, and while we know that everyone is different and unique, there should be common themes that will arise.

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