Amid the challenges they had to face in the past decade, the homegrown SupportZebra remained one of the city’s fastest-growing BPO firms despite the ongoing pandemic.
The company recently celebrated its 11th anniversary with a simple blessing of its new branch at One Providence in Lifestyle District, Corrales Avenue, this city last February 18 to mark another milestone with the theme “Breakthrough to Excellence.”
According to SupportZebra’s Managing Director Niño Duran Ph.D., “Breakthrough to Excellence is going out of your comfort zone and for you to be able to feel comfortable with being uncomfortable. We need to challenge our people, we need to train them above sa ilahang na andan, we need to challenge our home-based workforce because our work-from-home team is growing.”
“Right now, we are ensuring that work-from-home is part of our options, dili lang on site work. Kay naa man gyud uban nga gusto mo trabaho sa ilahang mga balay, and with that we were made to make a major adjustment, since our familiar territory is on site work. Now, if we transition our employees to a work-from-home set up, how do we manage it? It’s a risk, but we need to follow that path because that is the trend, we need to innovate and establish our new normal set up,” Duran concluded.
Since its beginning in a small office space back in 2010 (SupportZebra formerly known as FBC Business Solutions), to this day, the company retains a handful of employees who remain loyal up to this day, recognized as valuable assets. These individuals received recognition for their tenure in the said company.
Despite the pandemic, the company experience an unprecedented growth. Compared to some businesses who were struggling to keep their doors open, the BPO industry grew. Seeing the value and contribution of its employees, the company made investments to provide a flexible and healthy working experience for its employees during this pandemic.
In addition, Duran said that SupportZebra itself aims to double its workforce. With an expansion in the pipeline for its One Providence branch, the move aims to provide more job opportunists not only in this city, but to employ people from other regions as well.
“We want to hit the 1000 mark in terms of growth and Lifestyle District is close to our main office and the recruitment hub in C.M. Recto Ave.,” Duran said.
In March, SupportZebra plans to build an expansion office on the 5th floor of One Providence, and add 300 more seats which means more job opportunities for job seekers who wish to work with SZ.
Both this city’s Mayor Oscar S. Moreno, and Misamis Oriental Governor Yevgeny Vincente B. Emano lauded and are grateful to SupportZebra for helping the people of MisOr and Cagayan by providing job opportunities, especially during the ongoing pandemic.
Moreno said “I would like to thank SupportZebra for believing in Cagayan de Oro, and establishing your business here in the city. I have come across several materials that mention SupportZebra and I am very, very much impressed. Despite the pandemic, SupportZebra has managed to find ways to be resilient and still deliver BPO services not just to the people of Cagayan de Oro, but worldwide.”
Meanwhile, Emano expressed his gratitude and said, “I can sleep soundly at night that those souls that are working with your company will be able to eat 3 decent meals a day, send their children to school, and give them a good future, because I know with 500 employees you are already able to help, 500 families you are able to feed every day. Let me congratulate the company for what you have done in your business and vision, and most especially for reaching 11 years even with the current challenges.”
SupportZebra has come a long way from its humble beginnings to a competitive BPO firm, not only in this city but throughout the country.
In a video message, SupportZebra Founder & CEO, Nathan Yap said “Two words really resonate with me. First is grateful, I am grateful for the opportunity to lead this amazing team and organization and the opportunity to take us to greater heights, grateful to each one of your hard work in making SupportZebrafor what it is – a BPO that clients love working with. Grateful for all of our clients who have stuck with us during this pandemic. I am grateful for where we are at today.
“The second word that resonates with me is growth. As we reach 11 years we are now starting to become adults and more mature. Before we haven’t had any system processes and now we are really starting to become a premium level BPO and I am very excited seeing the progress; not only what we accomplished today, but what we will accomplish in the future”, Yap concluded.
