There are times when employees of a company or organization pool whatever resources they have and use it to help a fellow employee who is in need. This method is what several employees at iQor in the US embodied to create the iQor Qares program in 2019 and has become a huge success, being able to provide over $150,000 employees cases globally.
iQor’s presence in the Philippines is no stranger to helping out members of the community and carried the iQor Qares program to another notch. According to James Down, senior director for operations of iQor Philippines, the iQor Qares program was registered in the Philippines in April 2023 as a nonprofit charitable organization. Like what is done globally, the program’s goal is simply to provide financial support to employees or “iQorians,” their family members, and the communities where the company operates, who experience life-altering events such as terminal illness, fire, and natural disasters.
“Here in the Philippines, we cultivate the spirit of “Bayanihan” within iQor folks as an opportunity to give back to the community and to give back to those people that they work with every day,” he added.
Under the program, every iQorian is provided with financial assistance for three life-altering events during their time with the company. And each event has a maximum allocation of P100,000.
Based on iQor’s records, it has already helped 187 “iQorians” in the country and 54 of them were Filipinos who applied for the program from January to May of 2023. There are 38 more iQorians who will be provided with financial assistance in the coming days.
iQor Philippines Vice President for Operations Michael Dela Pena said none of the Filipino iQorians who applied for the iQor Qares programs were turned down. “It means that the people who apply for the iQor Qares program have really a (for the lack of a better word) valid need for it.”
The iQor Qares program is sustained by donations from iQorians themselves – either through a one-time donation or a payroll deduction through iqoreqares.com – or through quarterly fund-raising activities. And 100% of the funds raised for iQor Qares in the Philippines will help local employees, their family members and their local communities.
“When we launched this program locally in May, the statement ‘iQor Qares. iQorians act’ came out organically. It’s the need to give back which sustains the program and it’s also a personal promise I made to myself and why I chose to join iQor,” Dela Pena said.