QBE launches ‘perfect’ Cebu site
AUSTRALIAN insurance company QBE launched its newest site at the Skyrise Alpha Building in Cebu Business Park, its second since the QBE Group Shared Services Centre (GSSC) established a centre in the Philippines in 2013.
As the cosmopolitan city of the south, Cebu is the perfect location for QBE. Executive General Manager of QBE Group Shared Services Karen Batungbacal said, “The quality of English is very good. Usually in Manila, we resort to Taglish, but I know here in Cebu, they are conscious either in speaking Cebuano, Tagalog or English, and that discipline in the Visayas is not readily practiced in Manila.”
Batungbacal also commended the voice quality of Cebuano employees, calling it outstanding. “And we’re pleased as well with our engagement and retention rates in Cebu,” she added.
Batungbacal also believes that the less traffic and better quality of life in Cebu would make employees less stressed when they arrive at work, pointing out that the environment in Cebu is more conducive to quality outcomes with the high level of volunteerism.
At present, QBE has over 600 employees in Cebu, but Mike Emmett, Group Executive Officer of QBE Insurance Group, said the company aims to increase its employees to 1,000 by the end of the year. The number would bolster the position of QBE’s Philippines office as the fourth largest employer of the group’s global operations.
Following the first GSSC at the Net Cube Building in Bonifacio Global City in 2013 and now in Cebu, QBE Insurance Group continues to strengthen its place among the top 20 general insurance and reinsurance companies in the world. (Mariana Varela, Silliman University Intern/With PR)
