Hanwha Ocean ignites talent competition among Korea’s top shipbuilders

[Courtesy of Hanwha Ocean]

A race is on to secure talent among South Korea’s three major shipbuilders as Hanwha Ocean Co., formerly Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co., has announced that the company will keep its recruitment process open throughout the year, according to the company on Monday, as part of its first large-scale recruitment drive after adding 200 new employees last year.

Industry insiders estimate a 10 percent increase in the company’s employment numbers, a three- to four-fold expansion in recruitment compared with previous years.

Hanwha Ocean’s recruitment this year is across all sections, from the production line, design and research and development, all the way to sales and business management, finance, strategy and human resources, the company said.

“The recruitment will be on a large scale, focusing on the production and design segments, where there has been a lot of staff loss, to normalize our strength in production and design,” said an official from the company.

Hanwha Group Vice Chairman Kim Dong-kwan has also highlighted talent recruitment. “We don’t have any plan to restructure. We’ll bring back those former employees who had to leave, as well as hire new talent,” said Kim last week during a visit to the International Maritime Defense Industry Exhibition that took place in Busan June 7 to 9.

Hanwha Ocean also plans to reorganize its wage system for its office staff, while introducing allowances for workers on the production lines for the first time in the shipbuilding industry. It is also considering providing position-based financial perks and fuel expenses.

Following these moves, the other two major shipbuilders, HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering Co. and Samsung Heavy Industries Co., are also speeding up their steps to acquire good talent.

[Courtesy of HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering]

HD Korea Shipbuilding has already held two open recruitment processes in the first half of the year. Estimates are that the shipbuilder will hire 400 to 500 new employees this year, including 200 new R&D staff, which is more than double the number compared with a year before. Previously, the vice chairman at Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., Han Young-seuk, said that the company would hire 200 to 300 new staff this year.

HD Korea Shipbuilding is also being proactive in its hiring of talent straight out of university. “By the end of this month, all affiliates of HD Hyundai Group will hire more than 100 university student interns for potential employment in the second half of this year in departments like design, production management, sales and management support,” said an official from the company.

As part of the company’s human resources policy, President Chung Ki-sun made a visit to Korea University and Yeonsei University to sign a memorandum of understanding to help the company foster future talent.

HD Hyundai group is also hiring experienced employees as part of a group-wide policy. Recently, the group introduced a recommendation system where an incentive of 1 million won ($775) is provided to existing employees when recommending a person and is later hired.

Samsung Heavy Industries is also speeding up its efforts to secure talent at its factories. Last year, the company hired about 200 new employees at its Geoje shipyard and it has already hired 170 new staff through to June this year. In addition to these new hires, the company aims to expand its recruitment scale to hire an additional 250 or more new employees.

Meanwhile, the big shipbuilders are still planning to hire more non-Korean workers to work in Korea on their production lines, with a plan to bring in a combined 1,000 new foreign employees this year alone. For now, HD Korea Shipbuilding has about 5,700 foreign workers at its shipyards. Hanwha Ocean employs about 1,600 and Samsung Heavy Industries about 1,500 foreign workers. It is estimated that there will be a shortage of about 13,000 production line workers in the shipbuilding industry by the third quarter.