Lotte’s Nov. recruitment will be its blindest ever

Lotte Group put up an employment notice for its blind recruit program Tuesday, saying that this year’s recruit process will be more “blind” than ever before.

Lotte was one of the few conglomerates that used blind recruitment even before the Moon Jae-in administration took office. The government is pushing a form of blind recruitment where employers can no longer see a candidate’s photo, graduated school, GPA, status of family members, hometown or certain test certificates.

Since 2015, Lotte had been recruiting around 100 candidates annually through the “Spec-tackle” program. This year, the number accounts for around 7 percent of all new entries Lotte will receive from its second round of recruitment. The academic background and language test results of candidates in the Spec-tackle program are removed from the application form - exactly how the Moon administration wants it to be.

For this year’s second round of recruitment, Lotte has taken the process one step further. Candidates that give away any identifiable information in their application documents will receive a penalty. The only personal information permitted on the form is the applicant’s name and contact information. Instead of a typical motivation letter that asks general questions on the candidates’ past or motivation, candidates for Spec-tackle are asked to create a detailed business plan related to the position they applied for.

The company will suggest detailed themes according to each subsidiary. For example, 7-Eleven’s Spec-tackle candidates will be asked to come up with a branding strategy for the brand’s meal replacement products.

When screening the documents, candidates’ names will be covered and referred to as numbers, ruling out the possibility of the judges identifying them. For interviews, candidates will give presentations and complete projects that are related to the company or position they applied for.

Fifteen subsidiaries including Lotte Chilsung Beverage, Lotte Department Store, Lotte Cinema and Korea Seven will participate.

BY SONG KYOUNG-SON [song.kyoungson@joongang.co.kr]