First Balfour awarded IIP Platinum

Senior executives, management committee members and project managers do the ‘Push for Platinum’ poseFirst Balfour has been awarded the Platinum accreditation by Investors in People (IIP), the highest accolade that can be achieved against the IIP standard and is currently held by only 2% of IIP-accredited organizations. This achievement makes First Balfour the first and only IIP Platinum-accredited engineering and construction company in the Philippines.

Awarded with the standard accreditation in 2010, IIP Bronze in 2013, IIP Silver in 2017 and IIP Gold in 2020, First Balfour joins a small group of IIP Platinum-accredited Philippine companies.

HR and organizational development head Ma. Victoria Aquino said: “The decision to go for the highest accreditation level was primarily driven by First Balfour’s massive growth strategy this 2024 and beyond. To become a truly high-performing organization, we had to adopt the right framework and best-in-class people practices through IIP.”

An internal campaign, “Push for Platinum,” was launched in August 2023 and involved a series of activities and the distribution of materials such as fact sheets and campaign-branded tokens.

Campaign lead Ronna Anasarias shared: “I got to witness First Balfour’s journey against the earlier IIP standards over the past decade, but this is by far the most satisfying win.”

Within each of the four standards, IIP has four levels of “maturity”—developed, established, advanced and high-performing. First Balfour earned its Platinum standard having achieved “high-performing” in seven out of nine indicators.

HR head Carlos Pedro Salonga noted: “Achieving this award is the culmination of the collective efforts of our leaders and employees in building and preserving a high-performance, high-engagement culture. It is a testament to the shared aspirations of the entire organization in creating a work environment whose main differentiating capability is its people practices, setting it apart from its competitors. And as we celebrate our 55th anniversary this year, we continue to look forward to more exciting innovations from our employees and cocreators that enable our company to fulfill its mission and commitment to a sustainable future.”