Report on the comparison of Korea. US. Japan. and Germany’s corporate recruitment

The Korean enterprises recruit individuals having average knowledge and skills through open recruitment periods, but this makes it difficult to hire those with creativity and professionalism. This system’s demerit is that it creates competition in accumulating specifications required for employment, and therefore many have voiced their opinion that a recruitment system such as that in the United States or in Germany should be established. 

The Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Chairman Sohn, Kyung-shik) presented its ‘report on the comparison of Korea, US, Japan, and Germany’s corporate recruitment systems and the implications of the differences’ on May 21st. The KCCI states through this report that among the developed nations, only Korea and Japan has a specified period for open recruitment, which “is appropriate in hiring general individuals that have potential rather than individuals who have the capabilities in specific duties.” Such a system “is advantageous because it facilitates the flexible usage of the employees, such as circulation of positions, and the employees are loyal to the organization, but it is also disadvantageous because the employees’ professionalism is relatively lower to certain duties and their salary is set according to seniority.” 

The report continued to say that “the American and German enterprises do not have a specified period of recruitment, as their recruitment system is a nonscheduled recruitment, where they recruit when they need to,” and further explained that “when they post a job opening, they specifically state the work and lay out the detailed abilities and qualifications the work requires. Then they carry out in-depth interviews regarding job ability with those who meet the requirements.” 

Such a system “has its disadvantages, such as limitations in changing assignments or an individualistic culture within the organization, but it is greatly advantageous in that the companies are able to secure individuals with clear professionalism, the individuals get paid according to the value of their work, and the gap in productivity is minimal.”

The KCCI stated in the report that “the current unnecessary competition for specifications among the hopeful job hunters, and the dissatisfaction of the companies towards the work capabilities of the newly recruited are closely related to the current specified period of large open recruitments.” It also pointed out that a change is needed in recruitment style because currently “the enterprises can only evaluate an individual with impartiality through the individual’s specifications shown on paper, such as education, foreign language abilities, and grades. Meanwhile, because the job hunters know the process, they would rather focus on building their specifications and studying for enterprise entrance exams than strengthening their practical hands-on job capabilities.”

The report continued to state that “such a large-scale open recruitment period system was appropriate during the rapid growth period, when it was important to recruit many sincere employees,” but “as it is now more important to compete with top-notch enterprises, it is necessary to recruit individuals according to their capability of job performance, like the US and Germany, in order to secure employees with professionalism and creativity.”

The KCCI stated that “although some of large enterprises have taken some measures to recruit individuals with executive abilities, such as not limiting the prerequisites for those who may apply or holding a more relaxed ‘recruiting system’.” The KCCI proposed “in order for the job-oriented recruitment system to be rooted in place, the enterprises must △closely analyze and evaluate the job △implement job-based salary according to the value of the job △provide higher salaries and rank opportunities to enhance the employees’ experience △reduce the circulation of positions and improve job professionalism △create policies based on job-oriented human resource and cooperate with labor forces to implement job-based salary.”

The KCCI executive director Park, Jong-gap said that “considering that job evaluation or job-based salary system is not implemented and that Korea is more accustomed to a life-long workplace rather than a life-long career, the transformation of the current open recruitment practice into a job-oriented recruitment practice will not be easy.” However, “the recruitment practice should be changed in order for the employers as well as the job hunters to reach a win-win situation, where reducing a social cost not to build unnecessary specifications and improving executive ability of the new recruits.”