Eliminating Team and Department Heads to Managers... Hyundai Card Simplifies Job Title System

Associate, Manager, Senior Manager 3 Levels
Efforts to Flexibilize Organizational Culture in the Digital Era

Chung Tae-young, Vice Chairman of Hyundai Card

[Asia Economy Reporter Ki Ha-young] Jung Tae-young, Vice Chairman of Hyundai Card, has reorganized the rank system to create a swift and flexible organizational culture. This move is interpreted as an effort to simplify the reporting structure according to ranks in response to rapidly changing internal and external market environments, thereby improving work efficiency and discovering creative ideas through horizontal communication.

According to Hyundai Card on the 3rd, Vice Chairman Jung changed the rank system to three levels this year: Senior Manager, Manager, and Associate. Previously, there was a five-level rank system including 'Department Head - Deputy General Manager - Manager - Assistant Manager - Staff.' To foster a horizontal culture, the ranks from Staff to Assistant Manager were simplified to Associate, Manager for Manager, and Senior Manager for Deputy General Manager to Department Head.

Earlier, in November last year, Vice Chairman Jung shared on his Facebook account that "the work to horizontalize the company's five-level rank system into three levels is in the stage of gathering employee opinions and notification after half a year of research and revisions," adding that "there were several repeated discussions at the final stage due to the titles of the ranks."

Hyundai Card has completed the rank system change, which had been promoted since last year, by revising HR regulations and correcting internal systems. This change is applied equally not only domestically but also to overseas subsidiaries.

The simplification of the rank system is analyzed as a measure to flexibly change organizational culture and improve work efficiency in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. This is because the environment surrounding the financial industry, such as fintech and big data, is rapidly changing due to digitalization. Financial companies are also striving to create corporate cultures based on autonomy and flexibility to foster creative thinking and innovation. The intention is to reorganize the personnel system centered on work expertise and spread a horizontal and autonomous culture.

Hyundai Card is taking the lead in creating such a working environment to advance as a digital financial company. Starting with the introduction of the 'New Office Look,' a flexible dress code regulation, in 2016, it abolished fixed lunch hours and introduced 'Flex Lunch,' allowing employees to set one hour themselves. Since August 2017, it has been implementing 'Flex Time,' a flexible working hours system where employees can freely decide their start and end times. Instead of focusing on report formats, the company emphasizes content and has banned the use of PowerPoint (PPT) to reduce unnecessary time spent on report writing.

A Hyundai Card official said, "We have continuously made efforts to create a flexible organizational culture to enhance creativity and work concentration in the digital age," adding, "The change in the rank system is also part of these efforts."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.