Samsung takes step toward workforce diversity

Firm recruits more women, disabled people, high school graduates


Samsung Electronics has upped its efforts to diversify its workforce, from those with physical disabilities to women and high school graduates to create a company open to various environmental spectrums.

The country’s IT behemoth, which is famous for recruiting workers from top universities, recently announced that it picked two female commissioned officers as part of the firm’s special recruitment program.

“In the case of female officers, they not only have a flexible mind but also delicacy as well as leadership and the ability to easily adapt to different environments, which are acquired through military training,” said Kevin Won, executive vice president of the corporate human resources team at Samsung.

Choi Ga-young, who is the first commissioned officer employed at the company, is expected to work in the overseas marketing department at one of Samsung’s core project groups ― the visual display business unit. The other female officer will join the firm later in January, Samsung officials said.

In line with its move to embrace a larger group, Samsung Group also said last month that it will hire 600 more disabled people this year, adding to its group of 3,300.

As part of the conglomerate’s efforts to expand the employment of people with disabilities from 2006, this is the second consecutive year for Samsung to openly recruit the particular group.

The conglomerate has also employed an expert in the hiring of the disabled and it is in the process of devising policies related to transforming the working environment for the disabled, its officials said.

Since employing 600 workers with disabilities in 2005, Samsung has gradually increased the figure to 1,500 in 2007, 1,700 in 2009 and 2,600 in 2010.

The group’s flagship electronics unit, in particular, said it has introduced a system which recruits all graduates with disabilities that have completed the job learning sessions given by the Korea Employment Agency for the Disabled.

With it also going ahead with regular hiring of disabled workers beginning last year, the company was able to recruit up to 300 people in the group during the term.

Samsung is also taking the lead in improving the facilities for the group such as reserving more parking spaces, offering transportation assistance at its manufacturing plants and giving them a priority for the lowest floor when taking applications for company housing, according to company officials.

“An authorization program called Samsung Barrier Free, which is a system built to make sure the building is designed to meet the needs of those with disabilities, has also been set up to minimize the inconvenience of the group,” said Samsung officials, adding that 10 buildings have been given the top rating. The system rates the company’s facilities in three different levels.

“The management and employees are working together at Samsung to form a culture within the company that thinks about our disabled colleagues who are jointly running the firm,” company officials said.

The flagship unit also hired a total of 185 high school graduates during the group’s regular employment term earlier this year.

“About 20 percent of the hired high school graduates in the field of software are capable of developing their own smartphone applications, which means they could start their jobs right away,” Won told reporters after announcing its final list of new hires.

“We learned through the amount of that there was a great portion talented workforce in this specific group that many easily ignored in the past because they were high school graduates. It was a time when we regretted such past deeds.”

The event took place as Samsung Group increased its number of high school graduates to 600, from the previous 500. It was the first time that the conglomerate selected high school graduates in its regular recruitment session.

About 20,000 high school graduates applied for a position at the group and 600 were picked through the screening process.

On a related effort, Samsung Electronics is also diversifying its hiring methods, picking its employees through special recruitment sessions.

With the two female officers a part of the employment process, the company also provides advantages in employment to those involved in the Samsung software membership program. The program is a support fund designed by the firm that enables university students with computing talents to construct their own computer research teams to go ahead with their studies in sectors of software and hardware.

By Cho Ji-hyun (sharon@heraldcorp.com)