THE outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic has forced the government to announce the Movement Control Order (MCO) in March 2020. The move took a toll on numerous businesses including Maysky (M) Sdn Bhd (Maysky), which is involved in debt management and recovery.

Despite having been around for 15 years, Maysky was not spared from the Covid-19 effects which impeded the firm’s daily operations. Maysky CEO, Encik Izz Al- Din Maslan, shares the company’s struggles during this challenging period.

Tell us how you started?
Maysky was founded by my father in 2005 with Telekom Malaysia (TM) being one of our earliest clients. Our role was basically to recover money owed to TM by its customers. Today, the number of Maysky’s clients has increased manyfold with industries ranging from financial institutions to utilities and education.

My professional background comprises banking, stockbroking and even education. In 2015, I was prompted to take over this business (from my parents). Since then, Maysky has expanded its presence in the country through several branches in Selangor and Sabah.

As of February 2021, Maysky has a total of 110 staff from credit recovery officers or telemarketers, debt collectors and administrative officers.

What was your experience in facing the Covid-19 crisis?
March 2020 was a bitter episode for both employees and business owners alike no thanks to the MCO, which caught everyone by surprise. Since debt management and recovery is not an essential business, we were forced to ask our staff to take temporary unpaid leave from March until June 2020 to comply with the partial lockdown measure. This was not an easy decision to make.

	Maysky provides ongoing training and courses for employees to increase their added value and skills

As the captain of the company, I felt deeply sorry for our affected staff who had lost their main income due to this unexpected turn of events.

Fortunately, I’m very grateful that the government was swift in rolling out the wage subsidy programme which benefited our staff and many others who faced this similar situation.

By mid-June 2020, we finally resumed our operations.

One of the challenges we faced at this point was that some of our employees left Maysky for other companies and opportunities, which, in turn, left us quite understaffed.

While things had slowly improved during the Recovery MCO period, we realised that many debtors remained unable to service their debts. Even though it is our business to recover loans, we certainly can feel their pain due to the impact of the pandemic to their financial status.

What are the strengths of your business?
The key to Maysky’s success is having committed employees and they are an asset to the company.

That said, it is very crucial to ensure that these employees are well trained and well compensated to keep the turnover rate low.

I am also of the view that it is the duty of the employers to provide ongoing training and courses for employees to increase their added value and skills.

What are Maysky's future plans?
To ensure Maysky remains sustainable in the digital age, we are digitising our business processes. For instance, we are now fully operational using the latest Debt Management System. The software is user friendly and has enabled our collectors to perform daily follow-up actions on debtors. We are very grateful because the government provides a lot of assistance and incentives such as the government guarantee scheme managed by SJPP.

Going forward, we also plan to open more branches nationwide. Currently, we have about 15 key clients from various industries.