Jobplanet HR specialist stresses data in managing employees

By Nam Hyun-woo

Eun Jin-ki, a human resources (HR) management specialist at Jobplanet, said Korean firms should rely more on objective data in managing their employees and recruiting new talents.

Earlier this week, Jobplanet, one of the largest job information providers in Korea, said it has set up a bid data analytics center, dubbed HR LABS, and got Eun to lead it. LABS stands for live analytics and branding solution.

Eun has an MBA from the University of Southern California in human resources management and is a former Samsung Fire HR specialist. Currently, he is providing consulting and education to companies and individuals in 30 countries on career development and corporate culture.

“When I returned to Korea, I found Korean firms were doing the exact opposite of best practices pursued by foreign firms in terms of human resources management,” Eun said. “They have been relying on customs or intuitive factors for HR management because they lacked resources, data and capacity to analyze it to quantify HR matters,”

“For example, their HR management was far from an analytical approach and was more dependent on seniors' preference. In most of cases, their HR practices lacked understanding on each employee's career development plan. It was as if they were putting pieces of a puzzle into empty spaces regardless of their shape.”

According to Jobplanet, HR LABS was established to provide counseling and services on managing human resources for companies and more reliable corporate data for jobseekers, through analyzing big data on corporate culture, job interviews, recruitment process, salary and other factors held by Jobplanet.

Eun said HR LABS will tap into Jobplanet's vast data on 1.5 million companies and more than 3 million monthly visitors to its website which has been accumulated since 2014. With the big data, HR LABS will analyze clients' corporate culture, competitiveness in the recruiting market, level of salaries and welfare and risks so they can make HR decisions based on data.

“For a company to change, it needs an objective views on it and there are many indexes and barometers that can help the company to appraise their HR practices. We will provide them so more companies can change,” he said.

Also, HR LABS will release reports on companies' hiring practices, corporate culture and employee welfare to not only help jobseekers find good companies but also for corporate clients to compare themselves with their rivals.

One of the first batches of HR LABS' reports will be which company is the most popular in this summer recruiting season.

“Through analyzing activities of the Jobplanet website visitors, we can find out which company draws the most attention in the recruiting season from jobseekers and why. It will help not only jobseekers but also companies to know which factors jobseekers care about the most and change their corporate culture,” Eun said.

“Jobseekers want not only information of companies or potential employees but also want to know what the information means,” Eun said. “We believe HR LABS can show the naked face of companies to jobseekers and provide proper references for companies in HR management.”