This HR software startup wants to tackle sungkan culture in Indonesian workplaces

Synergo CEO and co-founder Domenico Tukiman (L) and CTO and co-founder Rhapsody Budiono (R). Photo credit: Synergo.

It’s difficult to translate the Indonesian word sungkan directly into English. A literal reading would be something like “hesitant,” or “shy.”

In the archipelago, the word is often used to describe an aspect of traditional east Asian workplace culture, where managers tend to prefer indirect communication with their team members in the hope of avoiding confrontation or creating feelings of disrespect.

A knock-on effect of this is that employees who perform poorly are less likely to be reproached openly – while employees who do exceptionally well miss out on praise, or appropriate rewards.

See: The struggles in managing human resources in Indonesia

Indonesian returnees Domenico Tukiman and Rhapsody Budiono realized that their home country might benefit from some of the more progressive thinking about HR management they had encountered while working in the US.

Because it is becoming… more expensive to hire new employees, people are really starting to consider: ‘Am I maximizing the resources I have?’

The duo conceived of an HR software platform that could help Indonesian companies track team performance and align business objectives goals with employees’ own goals, increasing the prospects of happier and more productive workplaces.

Named Synergo, the software suite Tukiman and Budiono have built also provides a structure for the appraisals process – something which is often seen as too time-consuming – and enables employers to run analyses on team performance data. It turns the old sungkan way of doing things on its head by giving businesses raw data and tailored tools to evaluate how their workforce is performing – and at a cost that is within reach for typical Indonesian startups and smaller businesses.

The boys are back in town

Tukiman and Budiono – who met and became friends while playing basketball in their down-time – have work experience spanning both Indonesia and the US. Among other roles, Tukiman has served as an investment analyst and financial consultant, and Budiono a software engineer and systems analyst.

Budiono also worked for a time at Cornerstone OnDemand, one of the world’s biggest employee management software producers – giving him invaluable market insight. They experienced the differences in workplace culture, and management of human capital, between the two countries first-hand.

Our biggest reason to leave the US was that we really think we can be a big game-changer for Indonesia.

Convincing traditional companies to change

Beyond Jakarta