[Start人] Hwang Heeseung, CEO of Job Planet: "Fair Evaluation, Compensation, and Communication Make a Good Workplace"

Predictability Needed for High Ratings
IT Startups Lunit and Salda Rank 1st and 2nd
Receive Better Evaluations Than Public Enterprises

Hwang Hee-seung, CEO of Job Planet.

[Asia Economy Reporter Donghyun Choi] Hwang Heeseung, CEO of JobPlanet (age 39), said the biggest difference between companies with high ratings and those without is "whether they have a predictable system in place." He explained, "Companies with fair and well-structured evaluation, compensation, and communication systems tend to have higher ratings," adding, "On the other hand, companies where the system fluctuates depending on the CEO's mood remain at the bottom rankings."

Founded in 2013, JobPlanet is a platform that provides company information and recruitment details. Just as people check seller ratings and reviews when ordering food or shopping, job seekers nowadays use JobPlanet to gather information about companies they want to join. It offers company ratings and review information filled with vivid work experiences from current and former employees, making it popular among workers preparing to change jobs as well. Last year, the platform recorded an average of 2.25 million unique monthly visitors and 175 million monthly page views.

JobPlanet is frequently visited not only by job seekers but also by company CEOs. CEO Hwang said, "Many managers check how their companies are being evaluated and collect complaints to improve internal systems," and added, "I myself check the evaluations on JobPlanet every day."

After reading a review stating "there is no internal system" about JobPlanet in the past, CEO Hwang reflected on himself. Subsequently, he overhauled the personnel evaluation system. He specified expected performance standards required by the company according to job roles and years of experience. He explained, "We made it predictable for employees to understand what tasks they need to excel at to be positively evaluated by the company, categorized by experience levels such as 1-3 years, 3-6 years, and 6-9 years," and added, "We increased the annual personnel evaluations from once to four times a year and restructured the system to emphasize the process over the results." After CEO Hwang changed the company system based on the reviews, JobPlanet's rating rose to 3.8 out of 5, placing it among the top ranks.

Job Planet holds a "Bansanghoe" every two weeks on the metaverse platform "Gather Town."

CEO Hwang noted that there were many changes in company ratings during the COVID-19 pandemic. He said, "Companies that quickly adapted by actively adopting remote work or workations (work + vacation) received positive feedback from employees," and added, "Companies whose performance improved due to COVID-19 generally saw their ratings increase."

With the recent lifting of social distancing measures, hybrid working?combining remote work and office attendance?is becoming the norm. CEO Hwang predicted, "Hybrid work will be one of the key variables in future recruitment markets and corporate reputations," and said, "Since companies have sufficiently learned the positive effects of remote work, they are unlikely to revert to full in-office attendance." JobPlanet is currently implementing a hybrid work system as well.

Recently, JobPlanet added five categories?welfare and salary, promotion opportunities, work-life balance (Wolabal), corporate culture, and management evaluation?to company ratings, scoring out of 10 points, and selected 20 companies to watch this year. The top overall company was Lunit with a score of 9.12. Second place was Salda with 9.07, and third was Korea Midland Power with 9. CEO Hwang said, "IT startups received better evaluations than famous large corporations or public enterprises known as 'God’s workplaces,'" explaining, "This clearly shows what modern workers value most: a free work environment, horizontal communication, and future growth potential." He added, "I hope job seekers do not focus too much on company name value," and said, "There are quite a few good companies where you can develop your career even if they are not well-known."

JobPlanet has completed investments up to Series C and is preparing for an IPO. CEO Hwang stated, "Due to interest rate hikes and unfavorable domestic and international investment markets, we plan to adjust the IPO schedule based on the situation," and revealed, "Our future goals include expanding domestic recruitment business revenue and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) related to recruitment companies in Southeast Asia."

'2022 Notable Companies' Selected by JobPlanet

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