Monroe Consulting Group’s Technology Division was delighted to host Ingenico Indonesia Country Manager Masurie Salim this week as part of the executive recruitment company’s commitment to maintaining its overall knowledge of the industry.
Masurie joined PT Integra Pratama (PT Integra) in 2010 before its acquisition by France-based Ingenico in 2013 and became PT Ingenico International Indonesia. Under Mr Masurie, the company is now Indonesia’s leading electronic payment solutions company with approximately 70 percent of the market share.
Technology Division head Tina Nugraheni said it was an honour to host Mr Masurie, who is also known as Kim, as it was important that Monroe’s specialist technology recruitment consultants were highly knowledgeable about the industry in which they operated. Monroe Consulting Group, which has offices throughout the Asia-Pacific region, specialises in recruitment in the technology, professional, industry, consumer goods and health industries.
“The first thing our consultants do when they arrive at the office is to read the latest news, they have to read about the industry, trends and so on so they have the knowledge required to do their jobs effectively,” Tina said. “The second thing is to go out to meet the real people. This is much more important than telephone conversations because the chemistry is different. Our personal touch is more effective.”
She said Kim was able to brief the technology consultants on a range of issues, including an overview of Ingenico’s operations, the Indonesian payment industry, government regulations and the company’s perception of the recruitment market in general.
“And this is a two-way street; technology industry executives know about us and want to know more about our recruitment services, particularly given the scale of our client base and our candidate database comprising close to 100,000 professional Indonesians,” she said. “It’s good for both sides. For us, we increase our knowledge of the industry and for our clients, they gain a much better picture of how we operate and the wider recruitment market.”
Asked about the benefits of doing business with Monroe, Kim said Ingenico were able to “leverage Monroe’s wide network of people to help us find the right person for the right job.”
“It is such a small pool of people in Indonesia that have in-depth knowledge about the payment industry and that makes it harder for us to find experienced people and the best talent,” he said. “And to make it even harder, I believe most of the payment companies in Indonesia impose non-competition clause in their employment contracts.”
Tina agreed, saying the industry was still in its infancy and was expanding rapidly. “It is such a small pool of talent in this particular industry – it is very fluid and marked by high staff turnover and increasing salaries,” she said.
“The hardest part is filling very specialised job roles such as EDC or mobile software programmers as the Indonesian education system has little to help develop these important, sought-after skills,” she said. “Even in sales there is a shortage of talent. What companies often have to do is take someone from a similar industry and train them themselves.”
Tina said what differentiated Monroe from other recruitment companies was its investment in training recruitment consultants to understand not only the basic skills of recruiting and the relevant industries. Monroe also provided an “A to Z service” for companies.
“Sometimes when companies enter the Indonesian market they don’t have a clear picture about the market itself. Not only do we provide human resources solutions, but we can also provide clients with a comprehensive overview of the market itself, as well as establishing businesses in Indonesia. I have involved [Monroe Managing Director] Andrew Hairs in this many times as he is able to provide expert advice.”
She said many companies launching businesses in Indonesia believed they could source staff through online advertisements or on business-related Website such as LinkedIn. “I say to them the best candidates often don’t advertise themselves online” because people in Indonesia tend to trust in the personal touch and this is where Monroe is strong.”