South Korea’s conglomerates are turning their attention to “skills” that prove effective on the ground from “qualifications” such as GPA, prestige of universities, as criteria for recruitment

September 12, 2013 Leave a comment

30 conglomerates shift focus from “qualifications” to “skills” for recruitment

Lee Han-na, Seo Dong-chul, Jang Jae-woong

South Korea’s conglomerates are turning their attention to “skills” that prove effective on the ground from “qualifications” such as GPA, prestige of universities, as criteria for recruitment.  Top 30 conglomerates have already radically transformed their recruitment systems. Lotte Group, Daewoo E&C, Woori Bank, CJ Foodville, SeAH Steel, Hanwha S&C, LS Networks, KT Skylife, SKC Solmics, NHN and Orion have initiated such innovative transition in recruitment, said the Ministry of Employment and Labor (MOEL) and Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry Wednesday. The transition is a phenomenon found in not only top 10 conglomerates but also mid-sized conglomerates across the industries, including manufacturing, service, IT and finance and construction. In these circumstances, other large companies are showing signs of putting the skill-based approach on the forefront. Samsung Group has eliminated the step of screening out candidates by assessing their resumes and other paper applications during the recruitment process. Hyundai Motor Group has taken to streets to look for prospective employees. The MOEL plans to require 210 corporations to adopt “key job competency assessment model” by next year to help them properly evaluate candidates’ job performance capacity. The model is expected to become the standard “manual” for facilitating skill-based recruitment to take root. “Meister” high schools, which were established to foster students’ working-level competency needed on the ground, have grown in line with this trend. 2,630 companies have signed academic-industrial partnerships with 35 meister high schools nationwide as of late June, according to the Ministry of Education.

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Kee Koon Boon (“KB”) is the co-founder and director of HERO Investment Management which provides specialized fund management and investment advisory services to the ARCHEA Asia HERO Innovators Fund (www.heroinnovator.com), the only Asian SMID-cap tech-focused fund in the industry. KB is an internationally featured investor rooted in the principles of value investing for over a decade as a fund manager and analyst in the Asian capital markets who started his career at a boutique hedge fund in Singapore where he was with the firm since 2002 and was also part of the core investment committee in significantly outperforming the index in the 10-year-plus-old flagship Asian fund. He was also the portfolio manager for Asia-Pacific equities at Korea’s largest mutual fund company. Prior to setting up the H.E.R.O. Innovators Fund, KB was the Chief Investment Officer & CEO of a Singapore Registered Fund Management Company (RFMC) where he is responsible for listed Asian equity investments. KB had taught accounting at the Singapore Management University (SMU) as a faculty member and also pioneered the 15-week course on Accounting Fraud in Asia as an official module at SMU. KB remains grateful and honored to be invited by Singapore’s financial regulator Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to present to their top management team about implementing a world’s first fact-based forward-looking fraud detection framework to bring about benefits for the capital markets in Singapore and for the public and investment community. KB also served the community in sharing his insights in writing articles about value investing and corporate governance in the media that include Business Times, Straits Times, Jakarta Post, Manual of Ideas, Investopedia, TedXWallStreet. He had also presented in top investment, banking and finance conferences in America, Italy, Sydney, Cape Town, HK, China. He has trained CEOs, entrepreneurs, CFOs, management executives in business strategy & business model innovation in Singapore, HK and China.

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