‘Do you keep or take it?’… Semiconductor battery, life and death to catch employees

Input 2021.03.07 06:00

Active recruitment of experienced workers in the semiconductor and battery industry
Firms are struggling to prevent the outflow of manpower
Manpower demand and supply imbalances intensify over the years
“The number of cases such as LG·SK dispute will increase”

Domestic semiconductor and battery companies are struggling to secure human resources to secure future growth engines. With the trend of increasing recruitment of careers that can be put into work immediately rather than new recruits, there is a struggle to bring in people who are trying to protect the workforce. Amid the prospect that this trend will continue in the future, there are concerns that cases such as disputes between LG Energy Solution (formerly LG Chem’s battery division) and SK Innovation may increase.

According to the industry on the 7th Samsung SDI (006400)Recently interviewed college graduates who joined the company in 2018-2020. The interview was conducted by talking about the status of work. On the surface, the purpose was to listen to employees’ job satisfaction and help with difficulties, but internally, the purpose was to identify the trends of low-year employees early to prevent churn.

Including Samsung SDI in February, SK innovation (096770)Received applications for battery research and technical careers. It is expected that they will immediately begin full-fledged procedures for hiring such as interviews.

Starting with Samsung Electronics, the semiconductor industry such as SK Hynix is ​​also starting to hire experienced workers in February. Samsung Electronics has received applications in a total of 42 categories, from designing DRAM and NAND flash, which are memory semiconductors, to communication chip development, foundry (consignment production), and next-generation semiconductors. There is also a prospect that the size of hiring will reach three digits. SK Hynix is ​​also in the process of hiring careers in key areas such as DRAM development, semiconductor fab (factory) process, and data analysis.

Separately, SK Hynix, which posted a job posting for careers later than Samsung Electronics, plans to recruit new employees from mid-February in order to secure excellent talents in advance through 12 fields such as design and devices. An official from a large domestic company said, “Recently, it is not in the same industry, but in consideration of the applicability of work in existing companies, there are cases where low-annual employees are on the job front even in the form of’employees’.” “If a large company publishes a hiring announcement at any time, we have no choice but to be conscious.”

In particular, semiconductor and battery companies must maintain a’super gap’ in technology in order to gain an advantage over their competitors. This must be supported by abundant research and development (R&D) personnel. However, it is observed that the supply will be insufficient compared to the demand for manpower. According to a recent survey of industrial technical manpower released by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, by 2029, the number of manpower required in the five promising new industries such as next-generation semiconductors is 155,000. As of the end of 2019, the number of shortage workers was 2845, and the shortage rate was 2.5%. The shortage rate of master’s and doctoral level manpower was high at 4.2%.

Ahn Ki-Hyun, executive director of the Korea Semiconductor Industry Association, said, “As there is no semiconductor department in a domestic university, the burden of recruiting and training new personnel has led companies to actively recruit their careers, and the phenomenon of personnel is turning around.” He said, “It is not easy in reality because we are promoting the establishment of related departments, but the backlash is severe due to the problem of university quotas.

For companies, it is a burden not only at domestic but also for foreign competitors to’retract manpower’. In the case of China, it is embarked on recruiting key talents with enormous funding power, including not only a 2-3 times higher annual salary, but also a company house.

Given this situation, it is argued that some companies are using irrational numbers to keep internal employees. An employee of a semiconductor company in Korea said, “The personnel manager has put a stern that it will give’disadvantages’ to employees who are considering changing jobs.”

There are also concerns that cases such as disputes between LG Energy Solution and SK Innovation may increase as the manpower battle between companies intensifies. The initiation of the dispute between the two sides began in 2017 when employees who were in charge of battery-related research and development at LG Chem moved to SK Innovation. Although it is free for individual employees to move the company in consideration of salary and treatment, LG Chem suspected that the displaced personnel had leaked the company’s core documents. In the wake of the continued resignation, LG Chem also filed a lawsuit in the court for a temporary injunction banning the transfer of five key personnel.

Professor Seong Tae-yoon of the Yonsei University Department of Economics said, “Considering uncertainty, companies are continuing to increase their career hiring rather than hiring large-scale new employees.” It is necessary to consider ways to give compensation,” he said. Dankook University economics professor Kim Tae-gi said, “Because the domestic manpower is insufficient, competition between companies to secure limited personnel is fierce. It’s a situation that has emerged,” he said.