Unlimited leaves and meals: Indonesia's Go-Jek woos India talent

Go-Jek said it has also created a blend of an open workspace to foster collaboration as well as a soundproof office area, which offers privacy to help employees focus on their work

Keto meals, personalised workspaces, airport pickups and drops, unlimited sick leaves, and casual leaves that don’t need any approvals — Indonesian ride-hailing company Go-Jek is leaving no stone unturned in wooing talent for its India engineering centre. 

Google and Tencent-backed Go-Jek, whose value was calculated at $10 billion by US research firm CB Insights, placing it in the ranks of start-ups called decacorns, is expecting to hire over 500 people in the next five years for its engineering centre in the country. These mainly include engineers, product managers, designers, researchers and data scientists.

“I jokingly tell my (colleagues) that it needs to be hard to get into this company and hard to leave, because we are hiring the best talent, which is difficult to find,” Sidu Ponnappa, managing director, Go-Jek India, said in an interview. 

“So, when you come to the office, you should find it supportive... I can’t tell you that you have to be in this office from 9 am to 5 pm and be creative. It can’t be forced. If you are unwell (and take leave), we trust you and we are not going to ask you 10 questions. Also, non-sick leaves can be taken without any approval,” said Ponnappa. A motorcycle enthusiast, Ponnappa himself takes breaks a few times a year to bike around various racing tracks.

Go-Jek — whose name is derived from ojek, the Indonesian word for a motorcycle taxi — said it has also created a blend of an open workspace to foster collaboration as well as a soundproof office area, which offers privacy to help employees focus on their work. 

The junior employees go through a 12-week boot camp programme, where they are mentored and exposed to various areas such a design and data sciences. They are also paired with senior engineers to work closely on solving different problems. Go-Jek, which mainly competes with ride-hailing firm Grab, is betting big to capture the Southeast Asia market. India is its largest region for the talent pool, as out of the 300 engineers, over 200 are based in Bengaluru. 

These engineers are also playing a key role for Go-Jek’s transformation into a ‘super app’ that can fulfil a range of personal needs from ordering food, paying bills, finding courier services to searching for house cleaners. 

“You won’t understand Go-Jek until you fly to Jakarta and see green helmets everywhere... Go-Jek is a household name there,” said Ponnappa.

Go-Jek was started by Nadiem Makarim as a call centre and a side project while studying for an MBA at Harvard Business School in 2011. 

Besides Indonesia, the firm operates in Singapore, Vietnam and Thailand. It does not have any immediate plans to enter India. Ponnappa is of the view that India is extremely saturated and fragmented market and there is heavy competition from well-funded players such as Uber, Ola, Swiggy, and Zomato.