thousand employees across 23 sites throughout the country.
Teleperformance (TP), a recipient of the Philippines Best Workplaces™ award, held a learning exchange with Papua New Guinea’s Key Population Advocacy Consortium (KPAC) and other organizations under its umbrella, at the Teleperformance Vertis North Site.
In partnership with the Department of Health (DOH), through the Project Red Ribbon Care Management Foundation, the company had a dialogue with KPAC regarding the latter’s implementation of community-led services for HIV-affected individuals in Papua New Guinea. Teleperformance also shared the organizational-wide effort to establish a program that destigmatizes safe sex and promotes HIV screening and awareness among employees.
Teleperformance in the Philippines was also recognized and given the Gold Anvil Award by the Public Relations Society of the Philippines for its advocacy program, entitled, “HIV Awareness Program: Building a Circle of Advocates” in 2020.
“Proudly, we are the first organization in the Philippines to have the most comprehensive HIV program in the workplace; and this was made possible through a very important partnership with Project Red Ribbon that taught us everything we know now, and we had embedded in our system,” said Organizational Development Manager and TP Pride PH Board Member Hector Miranda.
“We did more than the [required HIV policy by the government]. Apart from having the policy available, we had to produce — together with Project Red Ribbon — the eLearning course that was made available sometime in [2017]. In 2016, there was testing already happening, and that is [not usually done by an organization],” he added.
In 2015, Teleperformance reinforced an HIV policy within the workplace. This was succeeded by a readily available HIV testing in different TP sites across the country in the following year. The comprehensive program also brought in HIV advocates by 2018.
Currently, at least a thousand TP employees have already availed the free and confidential testing in their respective sites. Condoms and lubricants are also made available on the 23 sites of Teleperformance.
In the discussion, KPAC and its affiliated organizations also revealed the scope of their HIV awareness initiatives, which encompassed marginalized sectors, such as sex workers. The consortium commended Teleperformance for negotiating the health and wellness topic to the stakeholders of the company. They also challenged TP to further their connection with different sectors in need of HIV awareness and screening.