Startup Recruits Employees during Corona, Shopee & Pahamify

The highest increase occurred in Shopee and Pahamify. Based on a study of 31 technology companies in Southeast Asia, including Indonesia, five of the six business verticals were aggressively recruiting new workers during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Research from the RevoU Content Marketing team shows that startups in the health, education, e-commerce, financial technology, and transportation sectors in Southeast Asia are aggressively recruiting new employees during the corona pandemic.

Only the tourism sector grew negative 14%. The study looked at the number of employees in April 2019, 2020, and 2021, based on LinkedIn Premium Insights data.

The highest growth in labor recruitment occurred in the health sector (26%) and education (21%). Meanwhile, e-commerce and transportation grew 14% each, while fintech grew 4%.

Shopee is the company with the highest number of employees, namely 23,032 people. “Employee growth during the pandemic was also the highest, at 78%,” quoted from the report Friday (28/5).

In addition, Zenius education startup recruitment growth reached 97% during the pandemic. This is higher than before Covid-19, 68%.

As of September 2020, Zenius has over 15.7 million users. The number jumped 12 times on an annual basis (year on year/yoy). The company that collaborated with Gojek received series A funding of US$ 20 million in February 2020, and Series B earlier this year.

Another educational startup, the increase in the number of Pahamify employees grew significantly from 51% to 294%. In March 2020, this startup received funding from Y Combinator for US$ 150 thousand.

Meanwhile, Ruangguru experienced a slowdown in employee growth during the pandemic, from 98.48% to 21%. In fact, this educational startup received US$ 150 million series C funding in December 2019 and expanded to Vietnam.

Last April, Ruangguru received another US$ 55 million in funding. The company is also aggressively opening job vacancies for dozens of positions for hundreds of workers in Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam. In the e-commerce sector, apart from Shopee, the number of Tokopedia employees increased by 15%.

Some Statups Experience the Slowdown in Recruitment

While Bukalapak fell 16.3%. In September 2019, this red-colored e-commerce terminated employment (PHK) to target profit.

For the health category, Alodokter’s employee recruitment growth slowed from 63.82% to 20.88%. Likewise Halodoc, from 53.24% to 26.76%. The slowdown in employee recruitment growth also occurred in the transportation sector.

The increase in the number of Grab employees slowed from 22% to 8%. Then Gojek, from 26% to 10%. At the start of the pandemic, Grab laid off 360 employees in Southeast Asia. Meanwhile, Gojek fired 430 employees in the middle of last year.

In the fintech industry, the highest slowdown in the increase in recruitment occurred at LinkAja, from 226% before the pandemic to 36%. Likewise, OVO from 14.68% to 8.31%.

Meanwhile, employee recruitment by tourism startups has decreased on average during the corona pandemic. Klook for example, growth in the number of employees grew 100.73% before the pandemic.

During corona, negative 29.42%. Then, OYO fell 49.65% and RedDoorz was negative 5.5%. Only Tiket still recorded an increase in the number of employees during the pandemic, although only 1.84%.

Pahamify Strives to Provide Added Value to Education in Indonesia

Educational technology and learning application company, PT Pahami Cipta Edukasi (Pahamify) seeks to provide added value to education in Indonesia.

This is manifested through various programs and activities launched by Pahamify, not least during the Covid-19 pandemic. Distance Learning (PJJ) is implemented in all schools to anticipate the transmission of Covid-19.

The Coordinator of Pusmenjar Learning at the Ministry of Education and Culture Susanti added that since the beginning of the pandemic the government has issued a number of policies related to teaching and learning activities in Indonesia.

Pahamify’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Syarif Rousyan Fikri said the COVID-19 pandemic had brought changes to education in Indonesia.

This condition forces students, teachers, parents, and all education stakeholders to adapt to the new learning system. Pahamify continues to maximize its features and services in order to optimally help Indonesian students.