Woman for women
Top executive seeks to create a diverse and inclusive work space
WORKING for a company with a 45,000-strong
workforce throughout the Philippines is certainly no walk in the park. But challenges are what gets Toni Tompar, vice-president for client operations of Teleperformance Philippines (TP), raring to meet the day.
Why not, when the company is a leading global group in digitally integrated business services, and serves as a strategic partner to the world’s largest companies in many industries?
Baptism of fire
“We strive to maintain a fun and vibrant work environment,” Tompar says. “We encourage innovation anywhere we can. Employee engagement and recognition programs is the norm. In fact, we have been certified as a Great Place to Work by the Great Place to Work Institute for three consecutive years now. Being the first company to achieve this in the country is something we’re all extremely proud of.”
This year, Teleperformance is celebrating its 25th anniversary in the Philippines, with 22 business sites located in Metro Manila, Antipolo, Cavite, Baguio, Bacolod, Cebu, Cagayan de Oro and Davao.
Tompar started with the company in 2013, when she was hired to be the operations and client services director for a premium hotel and entertainment client. She recalls: “It was one of the first hybrid roles in the company at that time. I was handpicked for it because of my experience in that industry. It was unique advantage, I thought.
“I remember my peers joked how my first 90 days in Teleperformance was going to be a baptism of fire, and it was. Working with such a dynamic group of talent, I felt that TP was a good cultural fit for me, that I would be able to advance my career in the company. After a year, I was awarded more clients and given a new site assignment.
“There’s a secret pride in being able to work multiple Teleperformance sites. It’s like earning badges. I was offered to manage a business unit of my own and got promoted to VP of Operations in 2016. It came at a time I least expected, but knew I was ready to do the job.”
With over 17 years of experience in the industry, Tompar quickly learned that balancing work and home is a full-time occupation, such that she is able to implement and oversee multiple projects. “It’s like riding a bike,” she explains. “You’re constantly pedalling. Each day is an opportunity to make a difference and find joy in the ride.”
In this new normal, Tompar is proud of Teleperformance’s initiatives for women that have helped them in terms of their career advancement and over-all work experience. “I am a proud member of the TP Women board,” Tompar says. “It is one of the main strands of our Diversity and Inclusion initiatives, dedicated to advocating and championing the contributions and value of women in the workplace.
“Among the projects we have been doing are webinars, courses and programs for women in the organization. The most recent one was our International Women’s Day event last March, where we engaged and shared with peers and colleagues how women can experience rewarding roles at work and at home.”
For the event, Teleperformance invited the entire organization to share personal commitments of positive action and behavior change to challenge gender bias, stereotypes and inequality through the #ChoosetoChallenge social media campaign.
“As leaders, both women and men, we try to effect change within our own circle of influence through our advocacies and through our own actions and choices,” Tompar says. “I like to think that people, who work with me are encouraged to be themselves at work, unapologetically, allowing an environment that is safe for everyone regardless of their background and orientation.
“No one is perfect. It is okay to be vulnerable, to be willing to learn from talent around you. As much as we push for policies that support equality, it is our behavior — what we say and do — that will demonstrate why equality is important and why it is worth our efforts to keep pushing.”
No one is perfect. It is okay to be vulnerable — to be willing to learn from talent around you.”
Her own path
The third of four girls in the family, Tompar’s parents Tony and Terry are entrepreneurs. “They built a family business together with a few of their good friends,” Tompar says. “They developed the business that later became a chemical and water supply corporation. My two elder sisters Prexie and January are both very involved with the business until today. My younger sister Diana and I were the only ones, who ventured out on our own paths and worked for other companies.”
The person, who truly inspired Tompar in both her personal and professional life, is her mother. “My mom is the rock. She had a full-time career and took care of us growing up. Depending on where people are in her network, she’s either addressed as ‘Ma’am Terry’ or ‘Mom Terry.’
“Outside of us, siblings, many people address her as ‘Mom.’ She’s always so grounded and so generous. She never let success or failure get to her head. She always seems like she got everything all figured out even when things are at their roughest.”
Tompar boasts of having the most amazing “kids,” her furry babies, who are her pride and joy. “My boy Zero is an 11-year-old Jack Russell terrier and the alpha of the house. Piper is my baby girl Labrador Retriever. The giant labs are out in the yard: Jelly and her pups Castro, Peron,
Putin and Thatcher, all named after political figures past and present. Thatcher was stolen from our yard and that broke my heart.”
The lady calls herself a “wanderer” when she’s off from work. “I took my first solo long-haul trip when I was 21 and have been around the big pond and back,” she says. “I appreciate that work has given me the opportunity to continue to do that — to see more of the country and more of the world. Work takes me to western countries quite a bit so I’ve grown to love exploring Asia for leisure.
“When Covid-19 hit, I dove into my hobbies more. I read non-fiction books, with war and science being appetizing topics lately. I’ve done the plantita and the Korean series gigs during the lockdowns. I collected old bikes just to tinker with them, less cycling, more collecting to be honest. But what really stuck was DIY [do-it-yourself] and home improvement. Cleaning is very relaxing and fixing things is a thrill. Everyone should try it.”
When Tompar was younger, she wanted to become a superhero and save the world. She says: “I grew up to reruns of Wonder Woman 1984, and I don’t mean the movie. I mean that era of Linda Carter, not Gal Gadot. Then, there were the Justice League cartoons in the afternoons. When I realized I didn’t have superpowers, I later had more grounded ambitions.”
She at first planned to become an architect or a doctor. She took the entrance exams for physical therapy at a medical school in Cebu, but never completed her enrollment. She finally graduated with an architecture degree from the University of San Carlos Cebu in 2001, practising for a couple of years as a junior designer at a local firm. She switched careers shortly after she got her professional license in 2003.
“In hindsight, I never thought I was sidetracked at all, nor disappointed that I switched industries after securing a license to practice,” she explains. “We don’t always figure things out at the get go. Some of the top global leaders bailed out of college. I was fortunate to have graduated albeit, in a completely different field, but ecstatic to find my way into the BPO (business process outsourcing) industry. I love what I do and it inspires me to be a better version of myself.”