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Small, medium start-ups struggle to retain talents in ‘salary war’

A 2018 study by the McKinsey Global Institute and the World Bank that projected a shortage of 9 million skilled and semiskilled workers for the digital sector in Indonesia between 2015 and 2030.

Adrian Wail Akhlas (The Jakarta Post)
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Jakarta
Mon, October 14, 2019

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Small, medium start-ups struggle to retain talents in ‘salary war’ This picture taken on Sept. 12, 2017 shows entrepreneurs working at the EV-Hive event space, a co-working space, in Jakarta. (Agence France -Presse/Goh Chai Hin)

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mall and medium start-up companies operating in Indonesia are prioritizing training programs and a supportive work culture rather than boosting pay in an effort to retain talents amid a fierce salary war.

A limited talent pool amid the fast-growing digital economy has triggered a high employee turnover in start-ups, which involves astronomically high salary figures.

Human resource startup Urbanhire chief executive officer Benson Engelbert Kawengian should find another way to retain his 60 employees while the country’s unicorns, start-ups with a valuation above US$1 billion, do head hunting to expand their teams.

“We cannot compete with the salaries of unicorn companies,” Benson told reporters in Jakarta on Tuesday.

“[Therefore], we provide a development class for our employees every Friday so that they can grow. Other than that, we are trying to build a good working environment by allowing the staff to make collective rules,” he went on to say.

Online grocery shopping platform HappyFresh human resources business partner Borries Abridita voiced a similar view. 

Read also: As businesses automate, Indonesia struggles with skills training

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