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Youngseop Kim, CEO of KT. (Photo=Yonhap News) |
[Alpha Biz= Reporter Kim Sangjin] KT announced on the 5th that approximately 1,700 employees have applied for transfers to its newly established subsidiaries, set to launch next year. Although the deadline for transfer applications was extended from the original date of October 28 to November 4, there was only a slight increase in the number of applicants.
As of 6 PM on November 4, a total of 1,723 employees expressed interest in transferring to the two new subsidiaries focused on network operations and management. Of these, 1,483 applied to KT Netcore (formerly KT OSP), while 240 applied to KT P&M. The respective personnel committees will evaluate the candidates based on their job expertise and capabilities to select the most suitable employees. Official transfers will take effect on January 1, when the new companies are launched. KT Netcore is expected to require an additional 2,000 new hires, and recruitment announcements for the new subsidiaries are already underway.
The number of applicants falls short of KT's initial expectations, which estimated a need for approximately 3,400 and 380 employees for each subsidiary, respectively. On the final application day, KT CEO Kim Young-seop publicly addressed concerns over employee transfer pressure during an in-house broadcast, apologizing for any misunderstandings and highlighting that over 70% of field personnel, approximately 9,200, are over the age of 50. However, the number of additional transfer applications did not significantly increase.
Additionally, more than 2,800 employees applied for voluntary retirement. KT plans to finalize the number of retired employees through personnel committee evaluations by November 8.
Combining the transfer applicants with those applying for voluntary retirement, KT's total workforce will decrease by approximately 23% to around 15,000 employees. While the transfer applications did not meet the target, the significant number of voluntary retirements means about 4,500 employees will leave KT headquarters. Initially, KT aimed to restructure approximately 5,700 employees, planning to transfer about 3,700 to subsidiaries and reallocate about 2,000 through voluntary retirement or remaining in the regional headquarters. This means KT has achieved around 80% of its targeted workforce reallocation.
Alphabiz Reporter Kim SangJin(letyou@alphabiz.co.kr)
