Workplace transformation is not just about digitising systems. Organisations are realising the essentiality of values, behaviours, and capability-building in enabling business resilience. 

At Unilab, the Philippines’ leading pharmaceutical and healthcare company with a legacy of over 75 years, this multidisciplinary approach has been effective, shared Nanette Legaspi Aguas, Chief Human Resources Officer and Head - People, Learning and Culture, Unilab, speaking to Vikrant Khanna from Darwinbox. Speaking at Darwinbox’s “The Box” experience lab, where leaders share their HR Transformation stories from the Philippines and inspire the HR community, Nanette shared how Unilab has been leveraging the role of HR as a strategic tool to aid this transformation.

People at the centre of the growth strategy

As an organisation with an aspirational legacy of keeping Filipinos healthier, Unilab’s transformation had not just traversed systems but encompassed the full spectrum of culture and capability change. This started with the vision of their leader, shared Nanette: “If you look at the current market landscape, there’s an opportunity for us to focus on the growth strategy, and that is where we convene as a leadership team to define it.”

According to Nanette, it is the people who shape the needs of an organisation. “It's a clear mandate - it's not just about the business and system, but the organisation and people are the centre of you.” Thus, human resources is about getting sharper around people, culture, and learning. 

Building HR capability and culture 2.0

This transformation thus meant strengthening HR’s own capabilities. Nanette shared that when she joined Unilab three years ago, this was the goal. It involved understanding the vision of the organisation at its core. “At that time, it was a mix of understanding, my personal vision, and building the capabilities of the HR team. It started there.”

As Nanette began working more closely with the team, new opportunities emerged - both to build people's capability and to create meaningful learning experiences. This aligned with the organisation’s broader culture transformation, making it a timely convergence. She explained how this was an opportunity to define local values like bayanihan that echo the spirit of communal unity and cooperation in the Philippines. Beyond defining, it was about enabling behaviours - what do they look like in practice? 

This allowed them to educate the leadership and employees on the core values of Unilab. The result was the organisation’s culture being shaped around being caring, learning-oriented, and results-driven, backed by leadership. This, Nanette emphasised, had been crucial in keeping the organisation agile, professional, and accountable.

Moving beyond administrative burdens, HR thus became a strategic partner,  and technology has been critical in this shift.

Empowering Culture through Technology - the Darwinbox partnership:

“I remember when we were shaping the transformation journey, bayanihan played a very important role, and in defining what Darwinbox will also enable. If you hear the testimonies of our employees, you’ll see what bayanihan means to them and the Unilab culture,” shared Nanette.

Unilab’s partnership with Darwinbox, the AI-native Human Capital Management (HCM) platform that unifies core HR, talent management, payroll, and employee engagement, helped in streamlining HR processes, reducing administrative overhead, and opening new possibilities. “I was very clear that I wanted Darwinbox to be at the forefront and how we're going to enable HR for us to be able to deliver that value to the organisation,” shared Nanette.

Beyond efficiency, the partnership created a cultural shift within HR itself. “I believe that when we went into the Darwinbox journey, that allowed us to open up about what can be done, improve our processes, and also allow the team to collaborate more,” shared Nanette.

Through process reviews and blueprinting, the team began to see possibilities they had once dismissed as impossible. Darwinbox created opportunities for dialogue, integration, and efficiency.

This transformation placed employee experience and adoption at the centre. Nanette recalled how challenges during implementation became opportunities for joint problem-solving. It was never about Darwinbox not meeting needs. “We just needed, as an HR team, to have more rigour in understanding what our needs are. And I truly appreciate the support of Darwinbox, because when we sort of like able to really put front and centre what the challenge is, Darwinbox was there to help us, to allow us to understand,” shared Nanette.

Anchoring growth in people, culture, and technology: driving transformation with purpose

Unilab’s journey demonstrates how people transformation must go beyond systems. It is about aligning people, culture, and technology with strategy, while never losing sight of purpose. By partnering with Darwinbox, Unilab has been able to strengthen its culture by elevating HR capability and creating a platform for growth, according to Nanette. In leveraging Darwinbox’s AI HCM platform, the company has not only redefined HR’s role but also sustained its people-first mission. “I think focusing on what you need to deliver is very important, and that vision has to be very clear. And find the right team that's going to work with you closely,” she said.