LOTTE introduced a job-based HR system that fundamentally shifted the entire foundation of HR to focus on job value and employee expertise. Rather than simply imitating Western models, the company built its own job-based HR system tailored to LOTTE's organizational culture and business strategy, creating a fundamental framework that aligns HR with corporate strategy and cultivates experts who can drive business success. As the first major conglomerate in Korea to extend job-based practices to all HR domains—from recruitment, evaluation, and promotion to compensation—LOTTE's internalization strategy is as follows.

1. The company ensured a smooth implementation by first introducing the system in newly established affiliates, where employee resistance to change was relatively low, and then expanding it to larger, more traditional affiliates in a phased manner.

2. To enhance execution capability, each affiliate was granted autonomy to customize and design job-based HR systems suited to its own strategy and characteristics.

3. During the process of detailing job expertise evaluation criteria, subject matter experts (SMEs) from each affiliate and job category participated, while the professional evaluation elements (EPIC) were transparently disclosed to ensure fairness and objectivity.

4. Some affiliates provided training for jobs with high job value and employee demand, offering job transfer opportunities to those who completed the courses, thereby establishing practical career paths and improving employee acceptance of the system.

---

In August 2022, HR executives and personnel heads from all affiliates began gathering one by one at LOTTE Group headquarters. The atmosphere was tense with a sense of crisis. LOTTE was facing a crisis due to years of poor performance by its core affiliates in distribution and chemicals. The HR sector was no exception. As Korea entered a super-aged society, extending the retirement age became inevitable, which intensified the accumulation of older, higher-ranking employees. Coupled with this, labor costs continued to accumulate regardless of productivity. The HR Innovation Integration Task Force, which convened to reverse the declining trend in HR productivity, concluded that "the limitations of the current personnel system can no longer be overlooked" and decided to confront the problem head-on. It resolved not merely to tweak the compensation system but to fundamentally overhaul the HR system itself.

This shift reflected the will of Chairman Shin Dong-bin. Observing the long-term low growth and aging faced by Japanese companies, he repeatedly emphasized the necessity of HR innovation for sustainable corporate development, ordering a fundamental transformation of the group's HR system. In addition, Chairman Shin has consistently emphasized the company's role as a "workplace community" where employees work together, grow individually, and discover the value of life in the process. Park Doo-hwan, head of HR Innovation at LOTTE Corporation, said, "LOTTE founder Shin Kyuk-ho also left words akin to a will, saying, 'Take responsibility for all LOTTE employees.' Given that the company embraces a corporate philosophy of considering continuous innovation to maintain fundamental competitiveness and sustainability as both a social responsibility and a basic duty to its employees, we continuously pondered what role HR should play in line with this philosophy."

As a result of this reflection, the company concluded that the current personnel system could not overcome the present crisis or secure global competitiveness. In a situation where retirement ages and labor costs increased regardless of productivity, the seniority-based HR system had become an obstacle to innovation. Accordingly, in 2022, LOTTE began full-scale consideration of "job-based HR," which fundamentally shifts the foundation of HR to job value and employee expertise, through domestic and international case studies and consulting. Based on this, it formed a job-based HR task force to establish a phased introduction roadmap. In the following year, 2023, the company selected three affiliates—LOTTE BIOLOGICS, LOTTE INNOVATE, and Daehong Communications—as the first adopters, simultaneously designing the system and applying it in the field to create the initial model. Building on this, in 2024, five major affiliates—including LOTTE DEPARTMENT STORE, LOTTE WELLFOOD, and the advanced materials division of LOTTE Chemical—pushed forward with the second wave of adoption, thereby initiating the standardization of the "LOTTE-style job-based HR." According to LOTTE, following the first and second waves of adopters, 28 affiliates are preparing to introduce the job-based HR system this year, with plans to complete implementation by next year and finish the group-wide rollout.

인기기사