Shinta W. Kamdani discusses her career as a business leader who initiated a major organizational transformation to encourage workplaces to be more equitable and inclusive for Indonesian women.
Chapter: New ways of working
About: Shinta W. Kamdani is the CEO of Sintesa Group, an Indonesian-based strategic investment holding company that manages diverse business portfolios. Under her leadership, the company has controlled 16 subsidiaries. Apart from her work as a CEO, she has also been a leader in various organizations, including as the chairwoman of APINDO (Indonesian Employers Association), chair of B20 Indonesia, coordinating vice chairwoman III of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KADIN Indonesia), and founder of the Indonesia Business Coalition for Women Empowerment (IBCWE).
What are some of the key differentiators that help your organization attract more diverse talent?
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are the breath of our transformation in Sintesa Group. To drive this transformation, we have developed our very own SDGs road map called Sintesa for the Earth.
We devote our business to sustainable excellence. As a strategic investment holding company, we simultaneously connect the dots between our business expansion, business process, company policies, and business practices to attain this vision. We see sustainability not merely as a corporate responsibility, but as a strategic imperative—shifting the focus from business efficiency toward innovation that creates sustainable value.
“SDG #5 for gender equality has been one of our top priorities since the beginning, and this leads us to continuously build a work culture that is inclusive and gender-friendly.”
We implement inclusivity so that both men and women can participate equally, all while optimizing their skills and potential as empowered individuals. With Sintesa for Women, we have implemented internal engagement strategies in developing women through the context of leadership in preparing them for the future of work through activities such as training, best practices sharing, and focus group discussions. This internal engagement is a collective action, spanning across companies, involving the HR Forum comprising HR divisions from all subsidiary companies. We also created several initiatives to advance gender empowerment in the workplace, such as refining the policy to offer equal opportunities for female employees to be involved in the company’s decision-making as well as building supportive working infrastructure for women, such as lactation rooms and childcare facilities that we’re planning to develop within all subsidiaries.
Furthermore, we encourage our subsidiaries to implement sustainability reporting to establish corporate transparency in advancing gender equality. As a holding company, Sintesa Group has also developed our very own sustainability report as a tangible manifestation of our commitment to transparency and accountability in business practices. The principles of gender equality in this report align with the Women’s Empowerment Principles.
How do you capture these differentiators in the overall employee promise and value proposition?
More than 100 years ago, Sintesa Group started the business as a family business in Indonesia. Our vision of transforming into a sustainable excellence company shows our noble commitment to integrate sustainability into our DNA. Knowing that adopting the SDGs is a relatively new thing globally in this decade, we conduct this transformation gradually yet holistically. This is our differentiation. We have the resources and knowledge to let the SDGs drives our course toward sustainable growth, and this puts us steps ahead of most local companies in Indonesia.
“We are one of the few pioneering Indonesian family businesses– turned–modern companies to implement and integrate SDGs though the company road map. Sintesa for the Earth as the SDGs road map has become our path to transformation. It’s more than just a branding; it’s a revolutionary way of internally evolving toward a more sustainable, resilient organization that contributes to the prosperity of the people and planet.”
How do you make sure there is adequate female representation in your hiring practices?
“We continue to push gender empowerment initiatives, first and foremost through the refinement of the company policy. ”
Our proud achievement is that one of our subsidiaries—PT Tira Austenite Tbk—has attained the EDGE certification, a business standard for gender and intersectional equity. It helps us measure where the organization stands in terms of representation, pay equity, effectiveness of policies, and practices to ensure equitable career flows as well as inclusiveness in the company’s culture.
The certification has led the subsidiary to add the following clauses in their SOP for recruitment and selection: in every recruitment and selection process, the company places men and women on equal basis, and they have the same opportunities to be accepted as prospective employees. The company also gives each candidate the opportunity to be interviewed by an HR/user with the opposite gender in order to maintain an objective interview result (not gender biased).
We are gradually adopting these standards across all of our subsidiaries, starting the end of last year. We redefine our gender equality and gender-equitable policies, committing to implement them across the whole operation.
How is your organization catering to talent diversity and their needs in the new ways of working?
“Diversity in the workplace does not always mean inclusivity in the workplace. Yes, making diversity a priority is important, but so is the next logical step: creating a culture where people from all backgrounds feel included. Inclusivity is the key to maintaining—not just creating— workplace diversity.”
As an integral part of our SDG road map, we are developing a code of conduct that includes human rights, anti-discrimination, and diversity policies that will be applied across all our subsidiaries. This will be the foundation that holds everything up to ensure every part and level—top to bottom—portrays diversity and inclusion.
Another way to raise the bar is to foster a company culture in which every voice is welcome, heard, and respected. Several great ways to do this is to invest in a workforce communication platform and conduct regular town-hall meeting along with a survey to ensure the employee’s voice and input are being heard.
Using independent groups for focus groups is also important. We conduct these regularly with our strategic partners, such as Indonesia Business Coalition for Women Empowerment (IBCWE) and Prospera. Focus groups are a good way to collect qualitative data and gain deeper insights about employees. By using an outside facilitator, employees might be more comfortable speaking freely.
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