Promoting HR based on field voices through surveys, etc.
Reasonable profit sharing... Sustainable corporate goals.
[News Today = Reporter Im Seong-ji] “When employees take pride in their work, the likelihood of achieving meaningful results increases. Furthermore, if the company shares its achievements with its members rather than monopolizing them, it can create a virtuous cycle that realizes sustainable corporate growth.”
Park Eun-hong, CEO of Youngchang Silicon, drew on his own experience to suggest ways to enhance the sustainable growth potential of domestic manufacturing companies.
Korea pursued a government-led industrial development policy through the Five-Year Economic Development Plan implemented in 1962, with manufacturing at its center.
According to data from Statistics Korea, the proportion of the manufacturing sector relative to gross domestic product was low, around 10%, before the 1960s, but increased from 11.8% (1961) to 17.2% (1970) in the 1960s.
Subsequently, the manufacturing sector maintained a share of over 20% in the 1970s and recorded an average share of 24.3% in the 1980s, driving Korea's economic growth.
The manufacturing sector saw its share decrease slightly from 27.2% (1988) to 23.9% (1992) between the late 1980s and early 1990s, but it has since risen gradually and has maintained 27–28% since 2010.
The real growth rate of the manufacturing sector grew rapidly at 16.8% in the 1960s, 15.8% in the 1970s, and 12.2% in the 1980s, but slowed sharply to 6.5% in the 1990s and 4% in the 2000s.
Since the 1980s, the centers of manufacturing have also begun to disperse from Seoul to nearby suburbs or outside the metropolitan area, or move out to China and Southeast Asia to reduce production costs.
As a result, in 2013, the proportion of manufacturing shipments by metropolitan city and province was in the order of Gyeonggi-do (22.3%), Ulsan Metropolitan City (14.5%), Chungnam (11.8%), Gyeongbuk (10.7%), and Gyeongnam (9.7%), while Seoul was only 2.2% (11th in the nation).
Above all, the manufacturing sector is currently falling behind China in every aspect, including volume, price, and quality.
In response to this, an official from the manufacturing industry stated, “Ten years ago, there was a perception that Korea’s quality was still better, but now we are falling behind in technological competitiveness as well,” adding, “If the manufacturing industry collapses, it will have a negative impact on corporate exports, employment, and the overall regional economy.”
In fact, in 2023 alone, 12,000 manufacturing companies and 56,000 small businesses with fewer than five employees closed down.
While the manufacturing sector, which has sustained the nation as a key national industry, is facing difficulties, Youngchang Silicon, a domestic manufacturing-based company, is taking the helm of ‘sustainable growth’ to find a new breakthrough.
Established in 1986, Youngchang Silicon produces a variety of high-quality products in the field of special wires and cables for IT, ships, automobiles, plants, etc.
Specifically, the company exports products such as electric vehicle battery cables, heat-resistant wires, temperature-compensating wires, heating cables, and heat-resistant tubes not only domestically but also overseas, and last year it obtained certification as a specialized company in materials, parts, and equipment.
Among the various reasons why Youngchang Silicon was able to achieve significant growth even amidst the difficulties faced by the domestic manufacturing industry was CEO Park Eun-hong's management judgment.
The following is a Q&A with CEO Park Eun-hong.
Q. What kind of company is Youngchang Silicone?
Established in 1986, Youngchang Silicon is a specialized manufacturer of special wires and cables that is now in its 39th year. Youngchang Silicon has grown in line with the development trends of domestic industries such as shipbuilding, construction, and automobiles, and has expanded into the electric vehicle sector since 2020. In addition, the company is also pursuing expansion into the U.S. and Russia with heating cables and "halogen-free" wires, which are eco-friendly flame-retardant materials.
Q. I understand that you inherited the family business as a second-generation entrepreneur.
After working in the financial sector, he joined Youngchang Silicon in 2008. He succeeded to management in 2019 and currently serves as the CEO. Since taking office, he has launched new businesses in response to demand from the electric vehicle industry and is generating significant revenue.
Q. While small but strong domestic manufacturing companies are making great strides, many companies are facing difficulties on average.
For domestic manufacturing companies, facilities and human resources are the most important factors of production. While aging facilities can be improved by investing capital, the supply and demand for human resources are highly unstable. For instance, even if 10 people are hired, it takes an average of three years to reach a certain level of performance, but after three years, only one or two remain. In other words, hiring eight or nine people amounts to an investment cost. Furthermore, recently, even when companies try to hire, few people come for interviews. Even Youngchang Silicon struggled with recruitment despite having a business site in Seoul.
Q. In that case, what did you do to recruit talent?
We have made various attempts to recruit talent and are currently devising new ideas. Specifically, we actively utilized content such as animations to help job seekers easily understand the company. We also standardized technical terms to enhance their understanding of the work.
Q. For manufacturing companies, recruitment is important, but HR is also expected to be necessary.
While serving as CEO, I realized that HR is more important than recruitment. Currently, there is a severe brain drain in the industry. In particular, the difficulties caused by the negative perception of the manufacturing sector and the aging workforce are a reality. One might think that increasing employee satisfaction would solve the problem, but that is not easy either. This is because management must maintain a standardized salary cap and a hierarchical job classification system.
Q. In that case, what measures has Youngchang Silicon devised?
I believed that the most important step was conducting a needs assessment. Since the company has fewer than 100 employees, I thought it would be sufficient to conduct a survey to identify employee complaints and make adjustments. In reality, the company is located near Gasan Digital Complex Station, served by subway lines 1 and 7, which has a high volume of commuters; consequently, there were complaints from employees. To address this, we granted employees the option to choose their start times, allowing them to arrive in 10 or 30-minute intervals. Although we have not yet been able to implement this system across the entire field, 30 to 40 percent of the office staff are currently utilizing it. In this way, we identify actual employee opinions through surveys and find adjustments and solutions.
Q. I heard that you conduct an employee satisfaction survey.
Since taking office as CEO, I have devised various measures to improve employee welfare, but operational efficiency was low. Therefore, starting three years ago, I established 10 evaluation criteria for satisfaction surveys and have been refining some of them by organizing them into specific themes. Through this continuous communication with employees, we are seeing gradual growth. For this reason, I believe that management must question whether a company's external growth is genuine if job satisfaction does not improve. While a company's external growth and employee satisfaction cannot be 100% synchronized, their direction must be the same.
Q. The domestic manufacturing industry is facing difficulties. What improvements do you think are necessary?
While every company faces different circumstances, it is crucial to address on-site issues, even if gradually. Realistically, it is difficult to implement environments like semiconductor cleanrooms in every site. Therefore, it is important to create an environment that evolves just as today is different from yesterday. Rather than adopting a so-called "top-down" approach, inconveniences on the ground should be broken down into smaller details and modified little by little. If complaints are left unaddressed, they turn into criticism and eventually escalate into full-blown criticism. However, if these issues are addressed in an upward-moving direction, negative thinking transforms into positive, and the results of this virtuous cycle become ingrained in the company.
Q. What is Youngchang Silicon's goal?
It is crucial to grow together with employees who possess self-esteem. If a company continues its quantitative growth without sharing reasonable rewards with its employees, its qualitative growth will inevitably be hindered. The vision that Youngchang Silicon pursues is a virtuous cycle where employees demonstrate their capabilities with high self-esteem, and the company grows in proportion to those capabilities. Although the manufacturing industry is facing challenging times, we aim to establish a model company where acceptable compensation is provided.
Copyright ⓒ News Today. Unauthorized reproduction and redistribution prohibited.
https://www.news2day.co.kr/article/20251001500220
Promoting HR based on field voices through surveys, etc.
Reasonable profit sharing... Sustainable corporate goals.
[News Today = Reporter Im Seong-ji] “When employees take pride in their work, the likelihood of achieving meaningful results increases. Furthermore, if the company shares its achievements with its members rather than monopolizing them, it can create a virtuous cycle that realizes sustainable corporate growth.”
Park Eun-hong, CEO of Youngchang Silicon, drew on his own experience to suggest ways to enhance the sustainable growth potential of domestic manufacturing companies.
Korea pursued a government-led industrial development policy through the Five-Year Economic Development Plan implemented in 1962, with manufacturing at its center.
According to data from Statistics Korea, the proportion of the manufacturing sector relative to gross domestic product was low, around 10%, before the 1960s, but increased from 11.8% (1961) to 17.2% (1970) in the 1960s.
Subsequently, the manufacturing sector maintained a share of over 20% in the 1970s and recorded an average share of 24.3% in the 1980s, driving Korea's economic growth.
The manufacturing sector saw its share decrease slightly from 27.2% (1988) to 23.9% (1992) between the late 1980s and early 1990s, but it has since risen gradually and has maintained 27–28% since 2010.
The real growth rate of the manufacturing sector grew rapidly at 16.8% in the 1960s, 15.8% in the 1970s, and 12.2% in the 1980s, but slowed sharply to 6.5% in the 1990s and 4% in the 2000s.
Since the 1980s, the centers of manufacturing have also begun to disperse from Seoul to nearby suburbs or outside the metropolitan area, or move out to China and Southeast Asia to reduce production costs.
As a result, in 2013, the proportion of manufacturing shipments by metropolitan city and province was in the order of Gyeonggi-do (22.3%), Ulsan Metropolitan City (14.5%), Chungnam (11.8%), Gyeongbuk (10.7%), and Gyeongnam (9.7%), while Seoul was only 2.2% (11th in the nation).
Above all, the manufacturing sector is currently falling behind China in every aspect, including volume, price, and quality.
In response to this, an official from the manufacturing industry stated, “Ten years ago, there was a perception that Korea’s quality was still better, but now we are falling behind in technological competitiveness as well,” adding, “If the manufacturing industry collapses, it will have a negative impact on corporate exports, employment, and the overall regional economy.”
In fact, in 2023 alone, 12,000 manufacturing companies and 56,000 small businesses with fewer than five employees closed down.
While the manufacturing sector, which has sustained the nation as a key national industry, is facing difficulties, Youngchang Silicon, a domestic manufacturing-based company, is taking the helm of ‘sustainable growth’ to find a new breakthrough.
Established in 1986, Youngchang Silicon produces a variety of high-quality products in the field of special wires and cables for IT, ships, automobiles, plants, etc.
Specifically, the company exports products such as electric vehicle battery cables, heat-resistant wires, temperature-compensating wires, heating cables, and heat-resistant tubes not only domestically but also overseas, and last year it obtained certification as a specialized company in materials, parts, and equipment.
Among the various reasons why Youngchang Silicon was able to achieve significant growth even amidst the difficulties faced by the domestic manufacturing industry was CEO Park Eun-hong's management judgment.
The following is a Q&A with CEO Park Eun-hong.
Q. What kind of company is Youngchang Silicone?
Established in 1986, Youngchang Silicon is a specialized manufacturer of special wires and cables that is now in its 39th year. Youngchang Silicon has grown in line with the development trends of domestic industries such as shipbuilding, construction, and automobiles, and has expanded into the electric vehicle sector since 2020. In addition, the company is also pursuing expansion into the U.S. and Russia with heating cables and "halogen-free" wires, which are eco-friendly flame-retardant materials.
Q. I understand that you inherited the family business as a second-generation entrepreneur.
After working in the financial sector, he joined Youngchang Silicon in 2008. He succeeded to management in 2019 and currently serves as the CEO. Since taking office, he has launched new businesses in response to demand from the electric vehicle industry and is generating significant revenue.
Q. While small but strong domestic manufacturing companies are making great strides, many companies are facing difficulties on average.
For domestic manufacturing companies, facilities and human resources are the most important factors of production. While aging facilities can be improved by investing capital, the supply and demand for human resources are highly unstable. For instance, even if 10 people are hired, it takes an average of three years to reach a certain level of performance, but after three years, only one or two remain. In other words, hiring eight or nine people amounts to an investment cost. Furthermore, recently, even when companies try to hire, few people come for interviews. Even Youngchang Silicon struggled with recruitment despite having a business site in Seoul.
Q. In that case, what did you do to recruit talent?
We have made various attempts to recruit talent and are currently devising new ideas. Specifically, we actively utilized content such as animations to help job seekers easily understand the company. We also standardized technical terms to enhance their understanding of the work.
Q. For manufacturing companies, recruitment is important, but HR is also expected to be necessary.
While serving as CEO, I realized that HR is more important than recruitment. Currently, there is a severe brain drain in the industry. In particular, the difficulties caused by the negative perception of the manufacturing sector and the aging workforce are a reality. One might think that increasing employee satisfaction would solve the problem, but that is not easy either. This is because management must maintain a standardized salary cap and a hierarchical job classification system.
Q. In that case, what measures has Youngchang Silicon devised?
I believed that the most important step was conducting a needs assessment. Since the company has fewer than 100 employees, I thought it would be sufficient to conduct a survey to identify employee complaints and make adjustments. In reality, the company is located near Gasan Digital Complex Station, served by subway lines 1 and 7, which has a high volume of commuters; consequently, there were complaints from employees. To address this, we granted employees the option to choose their start times, allowing them to arrive in 10 or 30-minute intervals. Although we have not yet been able to implement this system across the entire field, 30 to 40 percent of the office staff are currently utilizing it. In this way, we identify actual employee opinions through surveys and find adjustments and solutions.
Q. I heard that you conduct an employee satisfaction survey.
Since taking office as CEO, I have devised various measures to improve employee welfare, but operational efficiency was low. Therefore, starting three years ago, I established 10 evaluation criteria for satisfaction surveys and have been refining some of them by organizing them into specific themes. Through this continuous communication with employees, we are seeing gradual growth. For this reason, I believe that management must question whether a company's external growth is genuine if job satisfaction does not improve. While a company's external growth and employee satisfaction cannot be 100% synchronized, their direction must be the same.
Q. The domestic manufacturing industry is facing difficulties. What improvements do you think are necessary?
While every company faces different circumstances, it is crucial to address on-site issues, even if gradually. Realistically, it is difficult to implement environments like semiconductor cleanrooms in every site. Therefore, it is important to create an environment that evolves just as today is different from yesterday. Rather than adopting a so-called "top-down" approach, inconveniences on the ground should be broken down into smaller details and modified little by little. If complaints are left unaddressed, they turn into criticism and eventually escalate into full-blown criticism. However, if these issues are addressed in an upward-moving direction, negative thinking transforms into positive, and the results of this virtuous cycle become ingrained in the company.
Q. What is Youngchang Silicon's goal?
It is crucial to grow together with employees who possess self-esteem. If a company continues its quantitative growth without sharing reasonable rewards with its employees, its qualitative growth will inevitably be hindered. The vision that Youngchang Silicon pursues is a virtuous cycle where employees demonstrate their capabilities with high self-esteem, and the company grows in proportion to those capabilities. Although the manufacturing industry is facing challenging times, we aim to establish a model company where acceptable compensation is provided.
Copyright ⓒ News Today. Unauthorized reproduction and redistribution prohibited.
https://www.news2day.co.kr/article/20251001500220