As online E-commerce continues to flourish in Indonesia, it remains an ongoing struggle for companies to recruit and retain key technical and executive-level employees, a senior marketing executive with a leading Indonesian start-up says. Zee Fakier, marketing director of Jakarta-based food-tech start-up Qraved, was speaking at a recent sharing session at executive recruitment company Monroe Consulting Group Indonesia.
E-commerce is booming in Southeast Asia, which is home to 600 million people, a growing middle-class and rapidly rising internet penetration. Though Indonesia lags its regional rivals in a number of key areas, there have been a number of notable success stories, including Qraved, Go-Jek and Traveloka, an online travel booking site and service that is expanding throughout the region.
During an almost three-hour long discussion, Zee explained how start-up businesses raised capital and how user acquisition played a major role in comparison to the monetization of the business.
Zee also discussed a number of other key issues pertinent to E-commerce. Areas he focused on included nurturing talent within an organisation, Monroe’s successful #ExpertsFindingExperts marketing campaign, how start-ups attracted investors, user acquisition, monetisation, understanding Big Data to improve customer experience and recruitment.
“It is no secret that there is a shortage of talent in Indonesia, which is particularly pronounced in the technology sector, including E-commerce,” said Zee, who holds dual South African and Puerto Rican citizenship. “This impacts on our activities on an almost daily basis as having qualified and experienced employees is vital the continued success and growth of a business.”
Zee said paper qualifications and experience were just two factors to be considered during the recruitment process. “Indonesia is starting to catch-up but this is highlighting other areas where the country could be doing better,” Zee said. “We are now placing an increasing emphasis on soft-skills, which includes creativity, problem solving and a general willingness to learn, evolve and develop a great career.”
Zee said he had every faith in Indonesia to continue to invest in the education system and to continue to foster the growth of younger generations, which was vital to the success of the technology sector and the Indonesian economy. “The potential in E-commerce and technology is unlimited and I strongly believe Indonesia will catch up to the likes of the Philippines, Thailand and Malaysia as more and more companies begin to grasp this.”
Zee said that selecting a professional company that specialised in highly specialised technical or executive-level recruitment was a key part of doing business in Indonesia. “Monroe Indonesia certainly fits the bill,” he said. “Monroe understands the sector intimately, they understand the companies they partner with as a recruitment service, can really target hard-to-find talent in the market and can manage salary expectations, which can be unreasonable at times.”
Tina Nugraheni, head of Monroe Indonesia’s Technology Division, said salary expectations were continuing to climb as E-commerce companies fought over an increasingly small pool of talent.
“Monroe have been operating in Indonesia for almost 15 years and is strong in the technology-based sectors,” she said. “We can help companies that are new to Indonesia, or even established companies looking to tap into the potential of E-commerce, to understand the market, the recruitment process and manage salary and other demands.”
Current estimates of the value of the E-commerce sector in Southeast Asia range from US$7 billion to $10 billion with projections that it could hit $90 billion by 2025.
Tina said Monroe often held sharing sessions with industry leaders so that recruitment consultants could stay abreast of the latest news and developments pertinent to the company’s relevant divisions, namely Technology, Consumer Goods, Health, Industry and Professional Services, which included banking, finance and insurance.
“In addition there are major cross-overs between each of our divisions,” she said. “Banking, finance and insurance, as well as consumer goods are also experiencing increased demand for tech- or digital-based professionals, which is fuelling the demand even more.”
About Qraved
Qraved is the one-stop dining solution in your pocket. The Jakarta-based online company is a vast dining aggregation platform that facilitates unforgettable dining experiences. The company helps brands and restaurants to promote themselves on its platform through advertisement and branded content. The company boasts more than 2.1 million monthly unique visitors and more than 7 million page views per month.