DFA to address ‘insensitivity’ of personnel to OFW concerns

MANILA, Philippines - After receiving reports that its foreign service staff were not responsive enough to the needs of overseas Filipino workers (OFW), the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) has decided to conduct sensitivity trainings among its personnel.

Estrella Roman, special assistant to the DFA’s Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs (OUMWA), said the department decided to have the training after it receive reports from its officials about the “insensitivity" of the agency’s employees to the concerns of OFWs.

“For the information of everyone, we have had similar complaints of seemingly lack of sensitivity of some foreign service personnel," Roman said during a recent forum at the University of the Philippines in Quezon City.

“We want to avoid (situations wherein) OFWs (are) not being given proper information or not being provided with the maximum service available," she said.

According to Roman, the agency now requires all foreign service staff due for foreign service posting to spend at least a week of training at the OUMWA and the Office of Consular Affairs.

“This is to familiarize them on how Assistants to the Nationals (ATN) handle matters," said Roman.

The DFA’s Foreign Service Institute is taking measures in making ATN sensitivity an integral part of its pre-employment orientations, according to Roman. “It extends those who render service to Filipino citizens abroad."

She said the orientations are now being extended to attachés, personnel of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, Department of Social Welfare and Development, and even to the Department of Trade, and Industry and Department of Tourism.

“It is not just an internal initiative, we’re also engaging other players," she said.

According to BNET Business Dictionary sensitivity trainings — a form of human relations training — are "group-based training designed to help participants develop interpersonal skills."

The training was developed in the 1940s by Kurt Lewin at the US National Training Laboratory. Among the objectives of the training according to BNET are to “develop sensitivity and awareness of participants' own feelings and reactions, to increase their understanding of group dynamics, and to help them learn to adapt their behavior in appropriate ways."

The training could be done through group activities such as discussions, games, and exercises. - KIMBERLY JANE T. TAN, GMANews.TV

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