LG Grouop: A Rush to Recruit Overseas Talent

LG Group announced on Thursday that it has undertaken extensive recruiting activities in order to secure core manpower home and abroad, starting with LG Electronics holding recruiting sessions at prestigious universities in North America.

LG Electronics sent a recruitment team consisting of 20 R&D senior researchers and human resources managers to the U.S. on Thursday.

The team will visit 13 leading universities, including Stanford University and the California Institute of Technology, until February 25 to scout talents holding a master’s or doctoral degree. They will work in core businesses, such as display and digital TV, and new business areas.

LG President and CEO Roh Gi-ho and CTO Yeo Jong-gi will go an overseas recruitment trip more than once in every quarter.

LG Group plans to attract more than 600 overseas talents with a master’s or doctor’s degree in science and technology by holding more than 30 recruitment sessions headed by CEOs and CTOs of LG affiliates.

Domestically, the Group will strive to secure talents tailor-made for the firm through campus recruiting, industry and academic cooperation, and recommendations by its executives and employees.

LG Electronics forged an industry and academic cooperation system with Seoul National University, the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), and Pohang University of Science and Technology to secure expert manpower in the areas of digital displays and next-generation mobile phones.

“We have implemented a recommendation system by executives and employees under the motto of all employees becoming headhunters,” said LG Group Vice President Jeong Sang-guk. “We expect a good result since people in charge of businesses are involved in scouting.”

Meanwhile, LG Electronics announced that it would build a factory for electric home appliances in Russia, which is a first for a Korean company, and have the ground-breading ceremony in the first half of this year.

The factory is scheduled to be completed in the first half of next year in Luza, 70 kilometers west of Moscow, and it will produce TVs, refrigerators, washing machines and stereos.

Keuk-In Bae Do-Young Kim bae2150@donga.com nirvana1@donga.com