My partner and I were not actually aware of CRIBS Foundation until this activity happened. Later we've found out that CRIBS, which actually means Create Responsive Infants by Sharing, started way back in 1974 by two Lutheran missionary wives who took care of sick babies from the Department of Social Welfare and Development. From then on, this non-government organization -- whose funding comes mostly from private sources -- has never stopped providing the community with Foster Care Programs directed to the welfare of abandoned babies and sexually abused young girls.
To be honest, we didn't really know what to expect from this organization. But the moment we reached the humble home of CRIBS Foundation in Marikina, we found ourselves asking 'is this it?' Yes, it was a mix of shock and excitement -- shock because from the outside, it was just a plain, old residential unit; and excited too since the place was incredibly quiet, making us eager to come inside and witness for ourselves this kind of "mystery".
So to help us out, we have interviewed CRIBS Foundation's Administrative HR Officer, Ms. Diasy Poja. And through her, we were able to answer our questions ranging from Leadership Styles and Attitudes, all the way to Managing Deviant Behavior. As surprising as it might get, we were able to see a lot of similarities between this kind of organization and those very mainstream companies that management students like us would almost automatically think of.
In the Philippines, being a social worker is not deemed to be a logical job because of the heavy workload and the low salary attributed to it. Given this, among other operating costs, there are only a few organizations that cater to the needs of abandoned children in sponsored shelters. White Cross, for example, located in San Juan, offers temporary shelter to homeless children since the late 1930s. CRIBS, in a similar manner, is a foundation providing a home to abandoned or abused children. Even if its operations is not as big as other more mainstream companies, it still needs to employ leadership and strategy in order to motivate and develop its employees to be in line with the goals of the foundation.
CRIBS Foundation has three kinds of employees: caregivers, social workers, and administrative staff. The foundation has two branches, namely New Beginnings, catering to abused girls, and Receiving Homes, catering to abandoned babies. For the former, there are three positions in accordance to superiority of roles: Supervisor, Caregiver-in-charge, and Caregiver. The same holds true to the latter, although the titles are House Parent, Social Worker-in-charge, and Social Worker.
Diversity is not a problem with the CRIBS as they specifically target employees who fit their job description. For example, aside from focusing primarily on women, they also prefer young caregivers, who are stronger, or more mature social workers, who are more respected, for their different branches. With a more focused demographic and team backgrounds, it is, theoretically, easier for the foundation to work together as a group without having to deal much about differences in culture. Moreover, the foundation also assesses the personality traits of their employees if it suits their job or not. Honesty, determination, and patience top the list of traits that are sought for when working with CRIBS. Without these, it would be relatively hard for the employee to cope with the daily pressures of taking care of children.
Seeing the workplace, there seems to be unity and cooperation among the employees, especially in the respective area that we visited. There are clearly defined roles assigned to each employee and this helps in the cohesion of the team as a whole.
This unity and cohesion among the employees are just a product of their efforts to pursue various staff development activities. Also, they have this "Self-Care" for caregivers and social workers. Most of us call this as a day-out. But this day-out for the employees is still considered as a work day, and thus comes with pay. This is a good opportunity for the employees to build camaraderie as they enjoy a day to go swiming, do bonding activities, etc.
To further enhance their skills, CRIBS also allow their workers and volunteers to undergo team building seminars and acquire team building modules. The CRIBS Administration, who received trainings from different external institutions, pass this learning to their workers through their "Growing Great Kids" Program. The program includes series of workshops and trainings for the employees to equip themselves better in a demanding but fulfilling task to raise kids.
As you can see, just like other mainstream companies out there, non-government organizations such as CRIBS do also eye for members who cultivate honesty, determination and patience among others.
However, even in a small setting, deviant behavior inevitably happens. Aside from the usual reasons of lack of supervision and low salary, there are other variables that should be taken into account that makes employees of CRIBS engage in deviant behavior.
Does job security necessarily mean increased productivity? According to Ms. Poja, it probably is not the case. In fact, if the employee is in a “probationary” status, they tend to become more hardworking and obedient when compared to regular ones. One cause of this may be due to the absence of a “threat” of extermination to regular employees, especially since labour laws in the Philippines prohibit job termination without good probable cause. In this case, the CRIBS administration would make warnings in the form of verbal and written, and then employ either suspension, demotion, or, in an extreme case, termination, if the offender still repeats her violations.
Patience also plays a key role among the employees of CRIBS because of the delicate job of protecting and nurturing abused kids. Some kids, as we have observed during our visit, can sometimes get too boisterous and rowdy that they would have tantrums or even not follow authority. Because of this, these employees are specially trained to handle different age groups (ex. infants, toddlers, school-age) and also have guidelines posted around the room on how to properly care for a specific child. In some cases, however, it gets to a point that some employees physically harm kids because of the loss of patience, resulting to termination or resignation.
In this context, we can see that the foundation uses punishment to reduce the possibility of erring employees. However, from what we have learned, the company also uses employee-recognition programs in order to motivate its employees to perform better. The foundation uses mid-year and annual performance evaluations where all merits given to their employees are based upon. It also employs mandatory benefits such as SSS, Christmas bonuses, leave with pay, and a lot more. Besides all these benefits, annual stress management programs for caregivers and social workers are also being utilized for the welfare of its workers and volunteers. Through this, the foundation provides an avenue for them to advance in job position primarily based from outside feedback and tenure with the foundation.
It is noticeable how the company is able to manage deviant behavior. Yes, we think that, with its small budget, it will be hard for the foundation to increase pay for its employees. However, as we have seen, with a transparent system of job advancement based on tenure and merits, the foundation is also aiming to develop its employees to possess bigger roles, which reduces the problem of job monotony in the workplace.
All in all, it is such a wonderful experience for the both of us because we learned a lot about how organizations really work, and how they are set to attain success. For one thing, we saw how important effective leadership and behavior management is in organizations―be it big or small scale―to effectively and efficiently achieve whatever goals they might have set. And to top all that, this experience has actually helped us both realize that these kinds of organizations, apart from the mainstream jobs in corporations that most of us do aspire, must be looked upon because they create opportunities for people to become whole and empowered instruments for changing this society in their own little ways, one step at a time.
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A paper we made for LS100 Class after we visited CRIBS Foundation :-) Shout out to my lifeline partner, William Christophe Ang!
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