GoTo Group, Indonesia’s largest technology group, has been named one of the best employers in the Southeast Asia, Taiwan and Hong Kong region by Glints, receiving an award from the Glints Best Employer Awards 2022 in the Diversity and Inclusion category.
The annual Glints Best Employers Award recognizes and celebrates 10 companies in Southeast Asia, Hong Kong and Taiwan for their outstanding achievements in building and managing their workforce, especially now in the post-pandemic world.
With the theme of “Beyond Borders”, the 2022 Glints Best Employers Award features five award categories; Diversity and Inclusion 2.0, Talent Transformation, Thriving Workforce, Tech Talent Magnet and Smart Teams.
GoTo, which oversees Gojek, Tokopedia and GoTo Financial, is committed to creating a diverse and inclusive workplace. The group wants to ensure that every employee from any background feels welcome and appreciated, and does not hesitate to show their best personality every day.
In a statement, GoTo noted that through the creation of a diverse, equal and inclusive culture, companies can become more innovative, productive, resilient and responsible.
For GoTo, ensuring diversity and inclusion requires a comprehensive and thorough process, spawning various policies and programs to ensure all employees know that they are valued, involved and supported. This policy is in accordance with GoTo's diverse business ecosystem, which consists of on-demand transportation, e-commerce, food and grocery delivery, logistics and fulfillment and financial services.
According to GoTo head of Sustainability Tanah Sullivan, the group had to understand what diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) meant to them as it differed from country to country — employees in Vietnam, Indonesia, India and Singapore would see DEI differently from one another.
“It was still a somewhat new topic in this region, so we couldn’t just copy and paste from a market where DEI meant something very different compared to here,” she said.
Tanah said that GoTo aggregated all the input from employees across its markets to help the group form one overarching vision of DEI, after which it set up a DEI council to develop and manage DEI policies, with employee representatives from different functions at different levels as part of the council.
After establishing the council, GoTo held monthly virtual meetings with employees to obtain feedback and set up employee resource groups (ERGs) to enable them to collectively make policy recommendations and request additional resources as needed.
This infrastructure provides all employees access to the same pool of resources within GoTo, allowing them to advocate for and drive change within the organization and giving them a level of autonomy not often found in other corporations.
GoTo Financial’s senior Engineering manager Giovanni Sakti said that the company’s DEI initiatives had helped him keep an open mind when hiring engineers. Instead of focusing on specific schools or degrees when selecting candidates, he continued, the company recruits whoever passes its hiring tests.
“Vocational school graduates have successfully passed our tests and entered our ranks,” he explained.
Gojek's workforce development program incorporates DEI into talent recruitment and management, as well as holding DEI training programs to educate against unconscious bias and promote inclusiveness.
The company also formed voluntary ERGs led by employees that facilitate interpersonal relationships between coworkers, while the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) provides preventive and supportive assistance to employees in both personal and professional challenges.
Gojek Product manager Aakanksha Vijayvargiya said she had benefited from being part of the Women@Gojek ERG, which has been “an integral part” of her work life.
“It not only facilitates employee retention and helps attract new talent, but also boosts employee confidence and engagement,” she said.
At the same time, Tokopedia has implemented a number of policies and programs to support female employees, parents, prospective mothers and new mothers, as well as employees with disabilities.
The company offers pregnant mothers 90 days of paid maternity leave that they can use before and after delivery, and also considers those who have had a miscarriage by providing them 45 days of paid miscarriage leave.
Tokopedia's NakaParents ecosystem provides parents with e-counseling, webinars, virtual playdates and child immunizations at home, while the NakaDifabel program focuses on job opportunities for candidates with disabilities.
Tokopedia’s Customer Experience lead, Karunia Khairunnisa, said the NakaParents Ecosystem is a “fantastic privilege” as it makes her feel “supported and appreciated”, allowing her to properly balance her role in the company and as a working mother.
