The Global Contribution of the Steel Industry

Did you know that steel is making the world a better place every day? The amount of daily steel production is enough to build 548 Eiffel towers. Also, steel companies provided 7.8 days of training to each employee in 2013 and 8 million people which is about the same as the population of Switzerland, is working in the steel industry. Moreover, the $100 billion paid in tax is equivalent to putting 10 million students through school each year or building 5,000 new hospitals!

Watch this interesting video created by worldsteel to learn about steel’s global contribution!

Can You Imagine Your Day without Steel?

As mentioned above, steel is enriching the world every day. And, this marvelous material accompanies us through the day: in the bedroom, at work and every where we go. Did you know that steel is indispensable to our daily lives? If you are doubtful, just check the infographic below!

Even More Steel?

Have you ever imagined how pervasive steel is? Can you think of more steel use in our everyday life? Check out our previous postings to learn about the material’s ubiquitous presence in our life and share with us if you can think of anything more!

• What are Automobiles Made of?
  

The automobile is an important part of our daily lives. And steel is a crucial requirement to build this important part. POSCO’s light, but also very durable automotive steel sheets are advancing the global auto industry.

• What is Steel Used For?
  Steel brings amusement and vibrancy to our lives by bringing musical tunes to our ears. Find out more about what steel is used for and how steel is dissolved into our daily lives.

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Worldsteel’s #lovesteel Campaign

In September 2013, the worldsteel launched its #lovesteel campaign for social media and worldsteel website. The #lovesteel campaign is a series of short videos that highlight working experiences in the steel industry. The series consists of interviews of people of worldsteel member companies, and their insights on exciting world of the steel industry to inspire young people who are interested in steel career.

POSCO Also Participated!

In fact, as a member company of worldsteel, POSCO was one of the participants of the campaign. The 14^th video of the series features Yerim Kim who is working in Investor Relations at POSCO. Let’s find out what inspires Yerim to work in the steel industry by watching the video below.

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Ba Ria Hospital Charity Kitchen

POSCO Vietnam’s volunteer campaign, which took place in 3 areas of the Ba Ria-Vung Tau province, was carried out under the theme “Protect the Environment and Aid the Disheartened.” To this end, POSCO Vietnam employees visited Ba Ria Hospital on June 10 to congratulate its 30^th anniversary and serve food to its patients. Ba Ria Hospital has only 300 beds, but POSCO Vietnam prepared food for 700 people in order to serve not only the patients but also their relatives.

“This is the first time I’ve taken part in volunteer work in Vietnam,” said Mr. Yun Yang Su, a newly appointed general director of POSCO Vietnam. “It makes me happy to see the patients’ faces when they’re enjoying their food. I think they haven’t had anything to eat for hours,” he added.

“This is the most delicious food I’ve ever had since I was at this hospital. Thank you POSCO Vietnam so much for my full meal,” said Mrs. Tran Thi Tam, 69, a patient who lives 40km away from the hospital. Despite her old age, Mrs. Tam lives in a tattered home and labors day after day to make a living. Much of her hard-earned money goes into the treatment and medicine for her heart disease. The rest is spent on bare necessities. Because she does not have enough money, she eats much less than she should, and her health condition is getting worse day by day. Mrs. Tam was not the only one in such a plight, and POSCO Vietnam employees felt mixed emotions of joy and sadness while aiding the patients and their relatives at Ba Ria Hospital.

Community Repair Services at Chau Pha Commune

POSCO Vietnam also visited Chau Pha commune of the Tan Thanh district. The destitute commune was facing three problems: First, there weren’t any handrails in the neighborhood’s two bridges which made it dangerous for the locals to cross. Second, the rainy season was expected to arrive in the end of the month, but most houses in the neighborhood had leaky roofs. Last, several houses lacked sufficient lighting for daily activities and for the children to study.

Repairing the community was a challenge, but POSCO Vietnam faced it with unparalleled enthusiasm: In just one day, the volunteer team finished installing handrails for the two bridges, fixed the roofs of 5 houses, and installed lights in 10 houses.

“Today, the POSCO Vietnam volunteers worked over noon to finish these bridges,” said Mr. Tran Van Lam, a resident living near the bridge. “When it rains heavily, the bridges often get flooded and people can’t see anything. Now with the handrails installed, my children aren’t in danger anymore when traveling to school crossing this bridge. I thank the volunteers so much,” he said.

Apart from performing general repair work, POSCO Vietnam volunteers visited the family of Mr. Nguyen Van Phong, who suffered brain and leg injury while working in a factory. Though Mr. Phong labored all his life, his earnings were meager. After becoming disabled, he stays in bed and depends on his wife for survival. POSCO Vietnam employees promptly visited the Phong residence after hearing about Mr. Phong’s plight. They fixed the leaky roofs and concreted the walls with thick nylon in case of heavy rain. They left with promises to come back in the near future to build an adequate home for Mr. Phong and his family.

Cleaning Up Long Hai Beach – the newly discovered beach of Vung Tau City

Long Hai is a newly discovered beach at Ba Ria-Vung Tau province with beautiful transparent water which attracts thousands of tourists who come and enjoy every weekend. It would have been nice if these tourists enjoyed the beach without any environmental consequences, but the truth is that they leave a lot of garbage and waste such as plastic cans, nylon bags, and paper.

Although Long Hai is 50km away from the POSCO Vietnam office, it did not stop the enthusiastic volunteer team from jumping in to pick up the waste and garbage along the beach.

“It was so hot today, so we arrived early to collect the waste and garbage,” said Mr. Huy, POSCO-Vietnam’s manager of Training and Education Team. “Our goal was to raise awareness of protecting the environment to the local people and the tourists,” he said.

Moving Forward For a Better World

POSCO Vietnam aims to build a “POSCO Village” this year at the at the resettlement area of Tan Hoa commune in Ba Ria-Vung Tau province. Beginning in September 2014, the planned project consists of 85 houses for people in need to be built within the next two years.

For POSCO Vietnam, doing business does not simply mean generating profit. Quoting general director Yun Yang Su’s comments on corporate citizenship: Cultivating ties with the local community via practical CSR activities is equally important, making the company mature with stable growth.

POSCO’s commitment to building its brand is paying off. POSCO, which increased its brand value by 5%p compared to last year, placed 5^th on the 2014 Best Korea Brands list for the second consecutive year. Based on its TV-CM and Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives, as well as its internal branding activities, POSCO was evaluated as a brand with an asset value of about 3 trillion won. POSCO ranked 5^th after other Korean powerhouses that topped the list including Samsung, Hyundai, Kia Motors and SK Telecom.

Here are some of the factors that contributed to POSCO making it into the top 5 brands for this year’s list.

1)      A Game Changing Ad Campaign

Last year, POSCO launched its advertising campaign centered around “Becoming the Base of the World”, meant to imply that POSCO will be the foundation for the world. Although POSCO is a B2B company, it successfully showed a softer side to touch the general public and its internal employees.

In the ad shot in the Rocky Mountains, POSCO acts as the compass to guide where to go and the map to show how to go forth to take on a new challenges.

Pictured here: Still shots from 2^nd ad campaign – Where is your base camp?

Another ad captured the precious moments in our life juxtaposed to how POSCO acts as the base for everyone. The overall concept was designed to show POSCO’s vision of creating the foundations for the future through its steel, materials and energy business.

Pictured here: Still shots from 1^st ad campaign – Where is your base camp?

  2)      Commitment to CSR initiatives

POSCO strengthened its overall corporate reputation through various CSR activities. POSCO established its social enterprise ‘POSCO Humans’ in January 2013, aimed at contributing to job creation for socially underprivileged through eco-friendly steel construction projects.

In addition, POSCO established its ‘1% Sharing Foundation’ to promote ‘Sharing 1% for a better world’. The 1% Sharing Foundation raises funds through employee donations from POSCO and investment companies along with matching grants from the company itself.

The ‘1% Sharing Foundation’ launched in October 2011 starting with POSCO officers and senior managers donating 1% of their wages. This then led to voluntary participation of all POSCO Family company employees. As of November 2013, POSCO and 26 family companies have participated in the 1% sharing campaign. The foundation embodies the strengthening of local community capabilities in Korea and globally through service projects for unprivileged citizens and the protection of Korean cultural heritage properties at risk of loss.

 Pictured here: Relief project in the Philippines funded by the 1% Sharing Foundation

3)      Establishing Brand Ambassadors

POSCO created its Brand Ambassador program which includes a group of 36 POSCO employees that come together to share the company’s mission and vision. Together they work to find ways to enhance the POSCO brand through training workshops, special outings and discussion forums.

Pictured here: Brand Ambassdors sharing insights on brand value

Managing Director at Interbrand Korea, Jihun Moon, mentioned in his overall evaluation that POSCO’s “Brand Ambassador program was a successful example of brand internalization” as it contributed towards revitalizing a brand within an organization and emphasized creating support between employees through brand philosophy. 

Pictured here: Brand Ambassadors visiting other companies to gain insight on other brands

Methodology

The Best Korea Brands list is published annually by the global brand consulting group, Interbrand, which also publishes the ‘World Top 100 Brands’. The list is made up of the top 50 brands that represent Korea and is based on the same rigorous evaluation as the ‘World Top 100 Brands’ list. Under the belief that a strong brand, regardless of the market in which it operates, drives improved business performance , the three key components in all valuations include analyses of the competitive strength of the brand, the role the brand plays in the purchase decision, and the financial performance of the branded products or services. For further information on methodology, visit the official Interbrand site.

The full 2014 list is available in the 2014 March issue of Fortune Magazine Korea.

Click here for the full 2013 Best Korea Brands list.

POSCO crèche in Zimbabwe celebrated its 3rd Entrance Ceremony! The crèche started this year with 30 new kids between 3 and 4 years old, and includes 80 kids in total.

More than 100 children applied to enter the POSCO Children Development Center in Zimbabwe this year, which reflects the changes of thought and lifestyle in Zimbabwe, especially regarding education and common health. The 30 new students were selected by interview with parents and kids and took into account home environment and location.

The children receive free lunch meals and snacks. They follow the fundamental course on numbers and letters, as well as various activities such as presentation and sports games. POSCO crèche in Zimbabwe was founded in January 2012, fully supported by POSCO family. By now, they have 612 general patrons and 229 temporary ones. Donations are used for kids who have limited access to education and also for the overall improvement of common health in the country.

In celebration of the second year of POSCO’s efforts in Zimbabwe, POSCO Family with KFHI (Korea Food for the Hunger International) plan to distribute ‘The Warm Postcard’ in Korea. To send a message to contribute to this campaign, you can send a text message to 070-7790-9003.

Check out the video below of our students in Zimbabwe singing ‘We shall never forget Beautiful POSCO’.

The ‘1% Sharing Foundation’ launched this day starting with POSCO officers and senior managers donating 1% of their wages in October of 2011. This then led to voluntary participation of all family company employees, spreading quickly throughout the POSCO Family.

As of November, POSCO and 26 family companies have participated in the 1% sharing campaign. Accordingly, POSCO reviewed establishment of the 1% Sharing Foundation to more effectively operate the funds formed from the donations of more than 90% of the family company employees.

The Board of Directors consists of 6 members including Foundation Chairman CEO Chung Joon-yang, Korea Soongsil Cyber University Vice President Jeong Mu-seong, Community Chest of Korea Division Head Jeong Jin-ok, Global Village Love-Sharing President Kim Hae-seong, SESNet Executive Director Jeong Seon-hee, and Pohang External Partner Company Association Chairman Kim Byeong-pil. In addition to the directors, Labor-Management Council Labor Committee Head Lee Ju-hyeong and Samil PricewaterhouseCoopers Executive Director Kim Jae-yun also attended the founding ceremony.

The 1% Sharing Foundation will start carrying out sharing projects with the 4 billion KRW of funds consisting of POSCO Family company employee donations and the company’s matching grants. Starting in 2014, donations from external partner companies will also be included, with the annual funds expected to reach 7 billion KRW.

CEO Chung Joon-yang said, “Sharing activities carried out consistently since the founding of POSCO with a dream of shared growth with the local community has bloomed into a flower of all employees sharing 1% of their wages. I find it deeply meaningful that we are able to provide support to the typhoon victims in the Philippines with the sincere donations of 37,000 POSCO Family members.”

Meanwhile, the Social Contribution Team employees, who will essentially operate the foundation, pledged to carry out various projects such as cultural welfare initiatives for the underprivileged, cultural inheritance protection, and promotion of social welfare both domestically and internationally to spread the culture of sharing all around.

Ms. Võ Thị Hồng Vân is one of the female managers at POSCO Vietnam. She is active and devoted to her work without losing her bright face. Currently, every CSR activities conducted by POSCO Vietnam are managed by her. She restlessly visits many regions where POSCO Vietnam can give a helping hand. Once she finds out where to, and what to, do for socially neglected people, she discusses the matter with local authorities and undertakes surveys to actualize feasible CSR plans for volunteering activities.

How It All Began…

When we asked how she first started working at POSCO Vietnam, Ms. Võ Thị Hồng Vân said it was almost like a destined path. “Working for POSCO Vietnam began as a coincidence and now it has become my destiny. In the beginning of 2008, I was working in Korea and I heard that POSCO Vietnam was recruiting secretaries. I was quite busy then so I couldn’t think of anything else than my tasks.” A year later, she finally joined POSCO Vietnam and started working as General Director’s secretary. “Over the two years I worked at the position, I had opportunities to develop my relationships with decision makers and top-level officers at Ba Ria-Vung Tau province, where POSCO Vietnam is located.”

It was later that she transferred from General Director’s office to Logistics Department as an assistant of General Manager. “I always love to have new experiences and this is why I was transferred. In my opinion, changing work position is a way to have new opportunities and challenges to learn new things and to study new knowledge.”

She added, “I loved the work at Marketing Logistics Department because I learned about trading and business, which I could also leverage with my experience from Korea. It helped my ability to coop with the works I was assigned to.” After a brief period, Ms. Võ Thị Hồng Vân was named as CSR Team Manager and moved to where she belongs now, POSCO Vietnam’s External Relations Department.

Becoming POSCO Vietnam’s CSR Team Manager

‘Hello, POSCO’ asked how working for the company’s CSR activities differs from her past work experiences. She smiled and said, “Regarding CSR activities, it was a big work and a new area to our company. CSR activity is not simply a concept but also needs to be carried out to give positive impacts on our surroundings, customers, partners, employees and communities. Therefore, this work needs specialized knowledge of all fields.”

We asked more questions about the quality one needs to become a professional CSR manager. Ms. Võ Thị Hồng Vân replied, “If you have a narrow set of experiences and knowledge for CSR, this work can be a challenging one. To fulfill all the roles required in this department, you need to study more about CSR, and master the principles and strategies of POSCO. This can help us to brainstorm how to engage the current social demands we face. If you succeed in meeting the demands, the result will naturally lead into building up a good image of POSCO Vietnam amid local communities.”

Awareness and Social Responsibility POSCO Vietnam Holds For Local Community

POSCO Vietnam is keeping its pace up to meet more economically and socially challenged people in local communities. “The principle of POSCO Vietnam is ‘Always Cooperate and Grow with Local Community – Business Go with CSR Activity.’ For the past few years, POSCO Vietnam has actively been implementing a wide range of social activities. This includes granting scholarships to the poor students who cannot afford their school fees and building houses with love for the households who have no shelters.”

“We also collected garbage at the beach to protect the environment and gave supports for the senior citizens, physically challenged people and children without parents. These CSR activities are all undertaken to contribute for the awareness and responsibility POSCO Vietnam conveys in the local community. The ‘POSCO Dream Village’ project is a great illustration of the purpose as well.”

Something To Be Proud Of And Worthwhile

Now, it was time to listen to her story: what she feels when working as POSCO Vietnam’s CSR Manager. “I have participated in almost all CSR activities at POSCO Vietnam since I joined. Each campaign has its own beautiful meaning, portrayed in different places and different moments. One of the beauties I witnessed was when the board members and POSCO Vietnam’s employees joined hands to collect garbage for drainage of Tan Hoa Commune.”

“It was a really hot summer day, burning everything underneath the Sun. Not to mention the awful smell we had to endure! However, the volunteers from POSCO Vietnam did not turn around. We continued our work there without losing smiles on our faces. The feeling I received at Tan Hoa Commune touched me and it is an unforgettable experience. “

Throughout the interview, we could see Ms.Võ Thị Hồng Vân’s face with full of joy and the sense of accomplishments. She truly believed that what she was doing for the local communities will open up bright future for those who received supports from POSCO Vietnam. We must say, she is not the only one counting for the change, because we all know POSCO’s global CSR activities will deliver a wonderful path for everyone around the world.

Today, as a proud member of POSCO Family and a Global Storyteller, I would like to introduce POSCO Japan’s various activities over the past few months.

Cleaning Up Arakawa Riverside

In line with the POSCO Volunteer Week in May, POSCO Japan participated in the global campaign to make the world a better place to live together. On May 25th, POSCO Japan’s employees and student volunteers visited Arakawa, a town located on the outskirt of Tokyo, to clean up the riverside.

A total of 80 volunteers gathered up from the early Saturday morning. When the roll-call was finished, we were briefed about the safety cautions and how the day’s cleaning session would go ahead, as the site was right next to the river.

Three bin bags in different colors and a list were given to each of us to find out what kind of trashes were collected from the River Arakawa. This would be useful for us and the local community later on to figure out ways to prevent the riverside from further pollution.

It did not take long before we found all sorts of trashes around the River Arakawa. We splited into groups and each group took charge of different sections to clean up the area more efficiently. It was not an easy task at first, but soon, smiles flowed amid the POSCO volunteers’ faces as we realized what we were doing would beautify the environment.

Streets of Ginza Receive Cares From POSCO Japan

POSCO Japan is also engaging with local community to save the environment. On every Thursday, a number of POSCO Japan employees gathered up to take care of the flowerbeds near the POSCO Japan’s office in Ginza, Tokyo.

I also participate in this volunteer work regularly. After planting flowers and cleaning up the street corners, the place looks much livelier than before. After we completed planting the flowers and cleaning up the street corner, the place looked so much livelier than before.

Japanese and Korean Employees Celebrating the Beginning of Hot Summer Together

As the hot summer is starting to set in, POSCO Japan held a small event at our office to celebrate Korea’s ‘Chobok Day’ on July 12th. According to the lunar calendar, Chobok Day indicates the beginning of hot summer and Koreans eat certain cuisine, such as stuffed chicken soup or fresh fruits, which is regarded to be good for health, especially in summer.. We decided to eat the watermelons from Kumamoto area, which is famous for its great taste in Japan.

In Japan, we also have a similar day called ‘Doyo No Ushi No Hi,’ so it was not that unfamiliar concept for us. Also, it was quite amuzing to learn about the similar traditions we shared between Japan and Korea. All the members working at POSCO Japan joined the watermelon party and had a great, fun time together.

As we have both Japanese and Korean employees here in POSCO Japan, we get to experience each other’s culture and share thoughts. For me, it is a precious opportunity to learn more about Korea. POSCO Japan will continue having various activities for the local communities and will keep tightening the bonds amonst coworkers. And I will also update you with more special stories of POSCO Japan, here at Hello, POSCO.

In light of such trends, we would like to introduce one of POSCO’s innovative way of working, ‘Smart Workplace’.

Innovative Working Experience with Cutting-Edge IT System

According to Gartner, a worldwide information technology research and advisory company, the importance of internal/external communication and cooperation is expected to reach up to 90 percent of the entire business operation by 2015. Also, corporates often face management issues involving several interactive factors. Therefore, the need for sharing and blending professional knowledge suggested from the inside of organization is increasingly desired. Moreover, there is a growing number of concerns over the balance between work and personal lives of employees.

Does it sound too good to be true? Well, for POSCO, this is something not for the future, but for the now.

POSCO’s Innovative ‘Smart Workplace’

POSCO aims to generate smart and creative business operations, hinged on sharing the knowledge of our expert employees without any unheard voices. This innovative platform is afoot to gather various experiences and ideas, freely submitted by POSCO’s employees with no limits of time and space.

POSCO Chairman Chung Joon-yang meets Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman of Google, in November, 2011

Since 2011, POSCO has strategically cooperated with Google and collected various ideas from POSCO’s own employees to materialize a unique way of working. It is labeled ‘Smart Workplace’, combined with social media, mobile devices, cloud computing and numerous state-of-the-art IT technologies. It has been in operation since December, 2012.

Cooperation and Communication Beyond Time and Space

The ‘Smart Workplace’ interconnects and analyzes POSCO employees’ personal profile (department, responsible task, past record), interests and expertise. With this function, the system allows appropriate project partner searching and coordinates effective cooperation. The information is also shared with other organizations for smooth communication and monitoring amid multiple work places. Also, every outcome of the cooperated operation is managed via the category of ‘Essential Achievement’ for the participating personnel and the supervisors, promoting the settlement of employee engagement and transparent evaluation.

Moreover, the participants are able to jointly create an online shared document through E-mail, Messenger, SNS and Video conference. The infrastructure provides an environment for interactive, real-time communication amongst the involved staff cooperating with each other. In doing so, POSCO’s employees, with the expert knowledge are capable of cooperating freely with one another. Their time is also managed more effectively as the system saves a great deal of time consumption, usually taken for meeting, travelling, instruction and briefing.

Online Cooperation utilized by PC video conference

The video conference via PC is noteworthy as there are more than 3,000 on-line meetings held every month. Such active usage of the online communication and cooperation has resulted in a 14 percent decrease in long-distance business trips and reduced about 30 percent of wasted costs for travelling.

The online scheduling is also being actively used. A productive environment has been settled where the supervisors and staff can easily communicate and focus on their tasks by exchanging directions and cooperate online. POSCO says the numbers of document prints are now cut down by 77 percent and the briefings involving printed documents have also been decreased from 71 percent to 20 percent.

The system’s automatic and real-time translator also contributes for sharing information in different languages amidst POSCO’s staff. Any contents in text-format can be translated with the translator’s ability of processing 66 languages. As you might have guessed by now, it also saves time as there’s no need to spend time and costs for translation.

From ‘Smart’ to ‘Speed’ Workplace!

The ‘Smart Workplace’ provides an environment for mobile work and telecommuting, enabling the staff to undertake giving directions, receiving reports and every other task which they are responsible for, from the outside the office.

Working in ‘Smart Office’

After the introduction of ‘Smart Office’, 90 percent of POSCO employees handed in positive reviews. They also stated that the ratio of cooperation enhanced by 81 percent. The time required for approval and authorization by the superior employee has also been reduced by 63 percent. The faster speed of job accomplishments was feasible as supervisors could get on with their assignments while also moving one place to another.

‘Knowledge Share’ is another major feature of ‘Smart Workplace’ we shouldn’t neglect. Every form of the data related to utilization and information sharing amongst employees is stored in the contents storage. The documents created by the Unified Contents Management System are numbered 11,400 daily on average. 85 percent of them are shared for cooperation purposes.

Furthermore, on the basis of ‘one blog by one person’ campaign, working, education and creative activities insights are accessible to all employees whom have registered. The active knowledge spillover and communication is also continued in the SNS environment.

POSCO is planning to extend its unique working style to the firm’s domestic and overseas affiliates and corporations. In terms of communication and cooperation, the participation from POSCO’s subsidiaries and partners will continuously be promoted. On the foundation of ‘Smart Workplace’, a platform for communication and cooperation, POSCO’s innovation for enhancing the ways of everyday work continues.