Commercial Banks Lose First Half Hiring Amid COVID-19... National Policy Banks 'Start'

IBK, Written Exam on June 13... KDB to Hire 50, Accepting Applications
Woori & Shinhan Unable to Confirm Recruitment Schedule "Concerns Over COVID-19 Spread"

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Min-young] Banks are facing difficulties in setting their recruitment schedules for the first half of the year. Although a large number of applicants are expected since these are preferred workplaces for job seekers, concerns over the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) have prevented them from even setting announcement dates. Some national policy banks, which cannot delay any longer, have started recruiting new employees, but major commercial banks are waiting for the COVID-19 situation to calm down before finalizing their schedules.

According to the banking sector on the 14th, Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK) was the first among banks to announce its recruitment plan for new employees for the first half of the year after the COVID-19 outbreak. Normally, IBK would begin recruitment procedures in late February or early March, but this year’s schedule has been delayed by about two months. IBK will accept applications from the 27th of this month until June 11, hold the written exam on June 13, and conduct practical exams from late June to early July. The number of recruits planned this year is 250, which is 30 more than in the first half of last year.

KDB Industrial Bank is also accepting applications for 50 positions. The recruitment fields include general banking (management, economics, law) and digital (IT, big data). After document screening, a written exam (in May), and first and second interviews (in June), successful candidates will join the bank in July.

On the other hand, commercial banks have yet to set any concrete open recruitment schedules. Woori Bank announced its recruitment on April 12 last year, and Shinhan Bank on April 25. A Woori Bank official said, “This year’s recruitment plan will be finalized and announced soon.” Shinhan Bank plans to review the timing and scale of new employee recruitment while monitoring the COVID-19 situation.

The biggest reason commercial banks hesitate to start recruitment procedures is the written exam. Since the written exam is part of the hiring process, there is a risk of a COVID-19 cluster infection occurring. Following a recruitment corruption scandal, the banking sector established the “Model Recruitment Procedure for Banks” in 2018, which effectively made written exams mandatory.

The written exam dates for IBK and KDB Industrial Bank are June 13 and May 16, respectively, leaving one to two months during which the COVID-19 situation may improve. Nevertheless, IBK plans to secure as many test centers as possible to maintain wide spacing between examinees during the written exam. IBK expects up to 12,500 candidates, which is 50 times the number of recruits, to take the exam, and KDB Industrial Bank expects about 1,000 candidates.

Earlier this year, NH Nonghyup Bank, which had started recruitment together with the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation, postponed its written exam once. Nonghyup Bank announced recruitment at the end of last year and announced successful applicants for document screening at the end of January, with the written exam scheduled for February 9. At that time, COVID-19 was in its early stages of spread, but Nonghyup Bank postponed the written exam by two weeks. As COVID-19 spread nationwide, the interview process has been postponed indefinitely.

As a last resort, Shinhan Bank decided to conduct rolling recruitment for digital and ICT positions. Shinhan Bank stated, “Despite the impact of COVID-19, we are conducting rolling recruitment to secure excellent personnel in necessary fields,” adding, “This recruitment will be conducted through an untact process to practice ‘social distancing.’” They plan to conduct an AI competency evaluation mission online and hold video interviews with practical staff.

KB Kookmin Bank, Hana Bank, and Export-Import Bank of Korea typically conduct recruitment only in the second half of the year.

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