Colorado Technical University

Korea s untapped pool of willing global talent

Summary: Meet the CEO The biggest problem is that Koreans have little experience in dealing with or working side by side with people who are different from them A growing number of Korean companies are now on a lookout for talent from China India Vietnam and elsewhere to help in their ever expanding efforts to explore overseas markets And many of them after experiments with foreign workers imported directly from overseas failed due to cultural differences and language barriers are now more willing to hire talented foreign students fresh from Korean colleges said Gene Choi chief executive of HRKorea a local head hunting company Yet Choi warned that local firms still have a long way to go before they acquire the right mind set and corporate culture to take full advantage of non Korean workers The company recently opened a Web site www hrkorea co kr gtc for non Koreans looking for jobs here and Korean companies hoping to hire them The former SK Group executive who has led HRKorea for the past seven years sat down with the JoongAng Daily this week Q Do you see more Korean companies willing to hire international workers than before A There are about 38 900 non Koreans living here who have advanced degrees or other professional expertise and 59 000 foreigners are studying in Korean schools meaning there is already quite a large number of talented foreigners working or hoping to work here Nearly 80 percent of the foreign students here we recently surveyed said they want to get jobs in Korea and stay here after graduation Also the number of resumes foreign job seekers send to us has consistently grown from 251 in 2005 to 430 in 2008 and 892 last year Unfortunately the number of foreigners hoping to work for Korean companies has outpaced the number of such jobs available here But demand has been steadily rising especially since the mid 2000s and big conglomerates like Samsung and LG are no exception Samsung even announced it would hire up to 2 000 foreign students here by 2020 Companies hoping to learn about management practices and strategies in advanced countries usually look for executive level talent from Europe or North America Manufacturers hoping to explore overseas markets are looking for young junior level workers from China Vietnam India and other Southeast Asian countries for their marketing departments IT companies and those looking for research and development employees prefer Indians What s the biggest challenge in getting these workers jobs The problem is that many CEOs and senior managers at Korean companies don t even know that there is this great pool of talent here willing to work for them Whenever I meet with local CEOs I tell them there is a great number of foreign students from China Vietnam and other countries who are smart enough to get advanced degrees at Seoul National University Yonsei University and other prestigious colleges here and speak at least two or three languages their own mother language Korean and English Then nearly all of them CEOs get really excited saying Oh I d love to hire them Where the hell have they been But apart from the CEOs most managers at the working level show lukewarm responses at best Probably only half of local human resources managers we survey say they may consider hiring foreigners I guess that CEOs and top management see things in a far broader perspective thinking about the companies futures long term growth and international strategies while human resources managers who actually matter most in the everyday hiring process rarely share such grandiose visions So the companies really need to think outside their tiny boxes and give more job opportunities to the international workers A lot of companies have difficulty keeping global workers in the long term What should they do I ve already seen a lot of such cases For instance about five or 10 years ago we brought quite a few IT professionals with doctoral degrees over from India at the request of local companies But few of them stayed longer than a year afterward because few of their employers actually had systems where these foreign workers could perform to their full potential These workers need support from management help from co workers and access to relevant data and resources to work to their full potential but these conditions were hardly provided The biggest problem is that Koreans have little experience in dealing with or working side by side with people who are different from them like foreigners Easy acceptance of different cultures and lifestyles has not been ingrained in Korean society just yet so they keep a distance from people they think are different and refuse to accept them as one of us Think about what these foreigners will tell their friends and co workers when they go back to their home countries Managing these foreign workers well and give them proper opportunities also affects the international reputation of Korea s society and companies Any sign of improvement Things are getting better as companies like Mirae Asset and Posco have created their own programs help foreign workers understand the corporate atmosphere history vision and even culture of Korea Conglomerates like Samsung and LG also have their own internal manuals and systems dealing with foreign workers But the problem is more of an issue of software and the mind set of senior management not hardware Meanwhile foreign workers also need to adjust well to Korean culture and language and the best candidates to do that are foreign students studying in Korea They are smart enough to excel at prestigious colleges in this foreign country speak several languages and have global perspectives Most Korean companies have not yet fully realized how useful these students can be so our company is working hard to promote this little known workforce to the more than 5 000 client companies of ours That is why we created the online Global Talent Center to match such demand and supply By Jung Ha won hawon joongang co kr Copyrights ⓒ JoongangIlbo Joins com All rights reserved Meet the CEO The biggest problem is that Koreans have little experience in dealing with or working side by side with people who are different from them A growing number of Korean companies are now on a lookout for talent from China India Vietnam and elsewhere to help in their ever expanding efforts to explore overseas markets And many of them after experiments with foreign workers imported directly from overseas failed due to cultural differences and language barriers are now more willing to hire talented foreign students fresh from Korean colleges said Gene Choi chief executive of HRKorea a local head hunting company Yet Choi warned that local firms still have a long way to go before they acquire the right mind set and corporate culture to take full advantage of non Korean workers The company recently opened a Web site www hrkorea co kr gtc for non Koreans looking for jobs here and Korean companies hoping to hire them The former SK Group executive who has led HRKorea for the past seven years sat down with the JoongAng Daily this week Q Do you see more Korean companies willing to hire international workers than before A There are about 38 900 non Koreans living here who have advanced degrees or other professional expertise and 59 000 foreigners are studying in Korean schools meaning there is already quite a large number of talented foreigners working or hoping to work here Nearly 80 percent of the foreign students here we recently surveyed said they want to get jobs in Korea and stay here after graduation Also the number of resumes foreign job seekers send to us has consistently grown from 251 in 2005 to 430 in 2008 and 892 last year Unfortunately the number of foreigners hoping to work for Korean companies has outpaced the number of such jobs available here But demand has been steadily rising especially since the mid 2000s and big conglomerates like Samsung and LG are no exception Samsung even announced it would hire up to 2 000 foreign students here by 2020 Companies hoping to learn about management practices and strategies in advanced countries usually look for executive level talent from Europe or North America Manufacturers hoping to explore overseas markets are looking for young junior level workers from China Vietnam India and other Southeast Asian countries for their marketing departments IT companies and those looking for research and development employees prefer Indians What s the biggest challenge in getting these workers jobs The problem is that many CEOs and senior managers at Korean companies don t even know that there is this great pool of talent here willing to work for them Whenever I meet with local CEOs I tell them there is a great number of foreign students from China Vietnam and other countries who are smart enough to get advanced degrees at Seoul National University Yonsei University and other prestigious colleges here and speak at least two or three languages their own mother language Korean and English Then nearly all of them CEOs get really excited saying Oh I d love to hire them Where the hell have they been But apart from the CEOs most managers at the working level show lukewarm responses at best Probably only half of local human resources managers we survey say they may consider hiring foreigners I guess that CEOs and top management see things in a far broader perspective thinking about the companies futures long term growth and international strategies while human resources managers who actually matter most in the everyday hiring process rarely share such grandiose visions So the companies really need to think outside their tiny boxes and give more job opportunities to the international workers A lot of companies have difficulty keeping global workers in the long term What should they do I ve already seen a lot of such cases For instance about five or 10 years ago we brought quite a few IT professionals with doctoral degrees over from India at the request of local companies But few of them stayed longer than a year afterward because few of their employers actually had systems where these foreign workers could perform to their full potential These workers need support from management help from co workers and access to relevant data and resources to work to their full potential but these conditions were hardly provided The biggest problem is that Koreans have little experience in dealing with or working side by side with people who are different from them like foreigners Easy acceptance of different cultures and lifestyles has not been ingrained in Korean society just yet so they keep a distance from people they think are different and refuse to accept them as one of us Think about what these foreigners will tell their friends and co workers when they go back to their home countries Managing these foreign workers well and give them proper opportunities also affects the international reputation of Korea s society and companies Any sign of improvement Things are getting better as companies like Mirae Asset and Posco have created their own programs help foreign workers understand the corporate atmosphere history vision and even culture of Korea Conglomerates like Samsung and LG also have their own internal manuals and systems dealing with foreign workers But the problem is more of an issue of software and the mind set of senior management not hardware Meanwhile foreign workers also need to adjust well to Korean culture and language and the best candidates to do that are foreign students studying in Korea They are smart enough to excel at prestigious colleges in this foreign country speak several languages and have global perspectives Most Korean companies have not yet fully realized how useful these students can be so our company is working hard to promote this little known workforce to the more than 5 000 client companies of ours That is why we created the online Global Talent Center to match such demand and supply By Jung Ha won hawon joongang co kr Copyrights ⓒ JoongangIlbo Joins com All rights reserved

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