Hanwha Ocean's hiring shows shipbuilding's competition for talent

South Korea's Hanwha Ocean Co., formerly Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. (DSME), is showing the intense hiring battle in shipbuilding through its first unlimited recruiting of experienced personnel.

Companies in the sector are rushing to secure enough staff to meet order delivery dates and advance technological development in an industry that has over three years' worth of orders.

Hanwha Ocean through year's end is conducting large-scale recruiting for all departments like sales and management, finance, strategy and human resources as well as production, R&D and design. In an unusual move, it set no upper limit on the number of hires, though indicating its intent to hire up to up 100 staff in each job category.

"It's practically unlimited hiring," a company source said. "We will aggressively promote future vessel development by preemptively securing talented personnel."

As of March, Hanwha Ocean had 8,206 staff, down from 8,300 late last year and lower than HD Hyundai Heavy Industries' 12,048 and Samsung Heavy Industries' 8,582.

What stands out in Hanwha Ocean's latest recruitment is eased requirements such as removing language proficiency as criteria. In the past, applicants to the company's open recruiting, even for experienced positions, needed high scores on language tests like the Test of English for International Communication to have a chance.

In addition, design and R&D jobs are now open to all engineering majors instead of just to those who majored in specific subjects like shipbuilding and marine and electrical.

"We plan to hire anyone who can do the job regardless of English proficiency or major," a Hanwha Ocean source said.

The company on Friday also announced raising annual salaries by an average of 11 million won.

HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering is also striving to get an early jump on hiring, adding about 800 employees through two rounds of recruiting in the first half alone. Recruitment plans for the second half are under review.

For the first time, HD Hyundai Group is offering a referral bonus of 1 million won ($779) to an employee who recommends an experienced candidate who gets hired.

The Korea Offshore and Shipbuilding Association said domestic shipbuilding in the third quarter will suffer a shortage of 13,000 workers, up from 10,000 in the second half of last year.

Write to Hyung-Kyu Kim at khk@hankyung.com