HR Director Wins ‘Vendor of the Year’ at Own Company’s Annual Awards
HR executive named best-performing vendor during internal ceremony. Legal team says: “We’ll look into it next quarter.”
JAKARTA — In an internal awards ceremony held last Friday at The Ritz-Carlton, an HR Director at one of Indonesia’s largest tech unicorns walked away with Vendor of the Year, Top External Recruitment Partner, Most Strategic Vendor, Best Agency Response Time, and the coveted Collaboration Excellence Award.
All while still technically being employed by the company full-time.
The awards, intended to recognize excellence among third-party recruitment vendors, were apparently restructured this year to be “more inclusive,” according to the event’s MC, who was also coincidentally on retainer from the HR Director’s agency.
“It was a clean sweep,” noted Andi, a junior recruiter who witnessed the ceremony via Zoom. “We all thought it was a little odd when she gave an acceptance speech and thanked herself. But the deck had the company logo, so I guess it was official.”
Sources confirmed that the HR Director, who leads the company’s internal Talent Acquisition team by day, also moonlights as the CEO of a boutique recruitment agency. That agency, which was awarded the majority of hiring mandates in Q1 and Q2, apparently had “phenomenal fill rates,” according to internal benchmarking reports compiled by her own team.
Meanwhile, the procurement team maintained that the HR Director’s agency was selected via a “rigorous competitive bidding process,” although no other agencies submitted proposals. One RFP document reviewed by this reporter included selection criteria such as:
Must respond in less than 2 minutes
Must have founder with direct access to the CHRO’s WhatsApp
Must offer flexible invoicing structures, especially near quarter close
Despite concerns from junior HR staff, leadership doubled down on the legitimacy of the outcome.
“She’s just that good,” said the CFO. “People are always quick to assume corruption when someone is simply efficient. The fact that she can manage internal hiring and externally invoice us for the same role is exactly the kind of agility we need in today’s market.”
News of the achievement spread quickly across LinkedIn, where the HR Director posted a photo of herself holding five trophies with the caption:
“Grateful to be recognized by my own team and my other team. Building bridges, creating futures, and rewriting what’s possible in ethical sourcing.”
The post garnered over 3,000 reactions, including heart emojis from several other HR leaders who quietly own their own agencies.
Others in the industry were less enthused.
“This is everything wrong with Indonesian recruiting,” said an anonymous Talent Manager from a competing firm. “We lose RFPs to people who are the client. How do you even compete with that?”
Meanwhile, internal audit has reportedly launched a “soft” review into the matter, which insiders say involves “reviewing documents but not too hard” and “asking questions that can be answered with vague nods.”
We write the headlines that haven’t happened yet, but probably will. Subscribe to The Rambutan for Southeast Asia’s sharpest fake news.