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Despite slow business in its key business area of shipbuilding and marine transport, the STX Group has hired 1,250 new staff, including 750 university graduates and 500 experienced workers. That's up 70 percent from the second half of last year, when it hired 730 people. LG Electronics, which hired 1,000 new staff last year, increased the number this year to 1,500, 1,000 of them in the second half of this year, when the economic crisis was already in full swing. The company says the new recruitment focused on research and development staff it needs to bolster its new growth businesses -- mobile phones, air conditioning systems and other areas. CJ Group also increased new staff from 248 last year to 420 this year. SK Telecom boosted hiring by 20 percent this year, while Hanhwa Group increased it by 50 percent.
When economic conditions worsen, the first thing businesses tend to do is to cut back on hiring. The average operating profit rate of listed Korean companies this year dropped from 8.79 percent in the first quarter to 8.97 percent in the second quarter and 6.2 percent in the third. But companies like STX Group and LG Electronics are looking to the future and putting all their efforts into securing talented workers. When some executives opposed more hiring, STX Group CEO Kang Duk-soo is said to have insisted, saying this was time to find more talented staff.
Ernest Gundling, co-founder of Aperian Global, a company that specializes in employee training who visiting Seoul, said companies need to focus strategic investments on key business areas, especially during tough economic times, stressing the need to nurture new global talent.
Chinese financial institutions are scouring Wall Street following the financial crisis looking for the best talent. Smart businesses use crises like this one as an opportunity to find the best workers at the best prices, rather than battening down the hatches to wait for better days.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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