Shinsegae Group plans time-selective hiring

Shinsegae Group has announced a plan to create 1,000 time-selective jobs that provide the same benefits as full-time regular position by the end of this year.

According to Shinsegae Group yesterday, the time-selective jobs will give workers a chance to choose full-time or part-time hours.

The jobs will be guaranteed until retirement age and bonuses and incentives to part-time employees will be offered based on performance.

The major retailer conglomerate next month will test the time-selective job model by hiring mothers at Starbucks Korea, a joint venture of Starbucks Coffee International and Shinsegae Group.

The plan is to rehire 100 women who were managers and assistant managers when they left Starbucks after becoming mothers. It will start accepting applications next month.

Rehired mothers will be able to choose working hours and be provided with the same benefits as regular employees. They will be paid based on the number of hours worked.

Starbucks Korea will also recruit about 800 time-selective baristas at its new stores.

In the future, it plans to create more time selective jobs.

As a heavy workload is concentrated at certain times at coffee franchise stores, the time-selective system can be utilized by deploying more employees in the busiest times.

The discount store chain arm of Shinsegae Group, E-Mart, has re-employed retired cashiers who wished to continue work. It suggested time-selective jobs to 12 applicants among the 20 retired cashiers.

As job proficiency is important for cashiers, the occupation requires high capacity and quality of service from retirees. Considering the skilled work ability of retirees, E-Mart decided to expand the size of re-employment further.

Approximately 1,500 cashiers are working on the time-selective system at E-Mart.

“We are seeking measures to constantly broaden the range of benefits for time-selective jobs. We especially plan to make efforts to support employment of women, youth and the elderly,” said a spokesman for Shinsegae Group. “Eventually, the socially underprivileged people who seek jobs will be able to work confidently.”

The group earlier this month came up with plans to invest a record 2.5 trillion won ($2.2 billion) and hire 7,000 full-time and part-time regular employees during the second half of the year.

Shinsegae, run by Samsung founding family’s siblings, spent 1.5 trillion won on investments in the first half of the year and had a work force of 17,000.

BY KIM JUNG-YOON [kjy@joongang.co.kr]