For the third consecutive year, Maya, a Philippine digital financial services platform offering digital banking and payments services, has been recognized at the HR Excellence Awards Philippines, this time for rethinking how employees get everyday work done, receive feedback and navigate their careers.
The thinking behind much of that work mirrors how Maya builds its digital payments and banking products — find the friction and take it out.
The question Maya is asking is simple: Why should routine work have to wait for HR?
Maya has been moving more everyday transactions into self-service, giving employees and managers direct ownership of processes that previously required manual intervention from HR, while using technology — including AI — to take repetitive work out of the way. In parallel, the company has redesigned how performance and career development are handled.
At the 2026 awards, held at Grand Hyatt Manila, Maya was among around 64 companies that participated across various categories. It received a Silver Award for Excellence in Performance Management Evolution and a Bronze Award for Excellence in the Use of HR Tech.
It was also named a finalist in five additional categories: Employee Engagement, Employer Branding, Leadership Development, Talent Acquisition and Talent Management.
Maya shifts routine HR tasks to self-service and AI
IMAGE CREDIT: Maya
The shifts are concrete.
Employees can now generate commonly requested documents — such as their own Certificates of Employment for travel, bank and loan applications — while managers can initiate transfers, promotions and other team changes directly in the system instead of routing inputs through manual consolidation and uploads.
AI is being applied in the same way. For BIR Form 2316 validation, Maya uses AI-assisted checks to flag inconsistencies at submission, allowing HR teams to focus on exceptions rather than reviewing every form entry manually. AI is also being used for LinkedIn recruitment sourcing and market-data analysis.
Performance and career development move beyond annual reviews
IMAGE CREDIT: Maya
Performance management has also moved beyond the traditional year-end review. Managers are expected to discuss priorities and progress throughout the year, give feedback while employees can still act on it, and connect current performance with future development.
Career development is getting more structured as well. Maya’s Career Growth Navigation framework sets out what is expected in an employee’s current role, what readiness for the next level looks like and the different paths employees can take — whether as specialists, through lateral moves or into leadership.
“There are things employees should be able to do without waiting for HR, and technology helps us get those out of the way,” said Charee Lanza, People Group Head at Maya. “But there are also things you cannot automate — good feedback, coaching, career conversations and important people decisions. We want our teams spending more time on those.”
That is also how Maya approaches AI across the workplace: taking on repetitive work and helping people move faster, while decisions that need context and judgment stay with people.
For Maya, the goal is simple: less time moving paperwork and information around, and more time helping employees and managers make better decisions.
Maya operates a digital financial services ecosystem in the Philippines, with Maya providing digital banking services and Maya Business offering payment solutions for businesses. Maya Bank is regulated by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), while deposits are insured by the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation (PDIC) up to P1 million per depositor.
