The most affected by the COVID-19 issue regarding employment would be the youth. Though being the most productive age group, the youth are faced with a high unemployment rate, and this is expected to continue for the present as the COVID-19 pandemic hasn’t subsided yet. The issue isn’t confined to the labor market alone. As youth unemployment intensifies, it triggers a chain reaction. Young people put off and delay getting married and having children, which is more likely to accelerate population ageing — another severe issue in Korean society.

According to a survey conducted in May by the Korean Statistical Information Service (KOSIS), the unemployment rate of youth (ages 15 to 29) recorded 10.2 percent, and the number of unemployed youth reached 426,000, the highest among all age groups. The Economically Active Population Survey of Statistics Korea stated that as of May 2020, youth unemployment rate* was the highest among the record of each May since 1982.

^*Youth Unemployment Rate: The proportion of unemployed persons among the economically active population of ages 15 to 29.

The unemployment rate in the first half of 2020 recorded 7.7 percent, with 320,000 unemployed persons. Compared with these figures, the number of unemployed youth has increased by more than 100,000, and the unemployment rate a sharp increase of nearly 3 percent. For the many youth job seekers, this 10 percent figure is bound to seem much more enormous.

The best solution for companies to resolve youth unemployment would be to expand the company’s employment through growth. However, with the global economy facing an economic slowdown, and the recent COVID-19 issue, the limits of this method for the company has become apparent.

SOLUTION 1. POSCO’s Practical Support: POSCO Youth Dream

POSCO customized training programs for job seekers. The objective was to provide real-life business knowledge and practical experience that could be of practical help in the workplace. POSCO also paid careful attention to help youth explore their careers and realize their dreams.

POSCO’s ‘AI & Big Data Academy,’ and the ‘Incubating School for Startups’ are all results of POSCO’s endeavor. The ‘POSCO Employment Academy’ enables trainees to enhance both basic and problem-solving skills, while the ‘AI & Big Data Academy’ cultivates expert professionals in engineering and technologies. The ‘Incubating School for Startups’ supports entrepreneurs towards establishing successful start-ups. POSCO has integrated the three training programs into a single name, POSCO Youth Dream, and has successfully branded the program as its own. The program, completed with POSCO’s existing resources — including POSTECH and POSCO Group University — is already making huge strides. As of 2019, a total of 1,108 job seekers have received training through the program, and 302 trainees (27%) succeeded in finding a job or starting a business. POSCO intends to train 5,500 job seekers over the next five years by 2023.

Young people who want to get a job or want to get help from POSCO as a prospective entrepreneur can take a closer look at the program chart below and apply now. Applications can be made through the website.

SOLUTION 2. Youth Hope Sharing — A Program That Benefits Both Job Seekers and Partner Companies

POSCO has been running the ‘Youth Hope Sharing’ program for 15 years. The program provides systematic training from basic and practical skills that are needed in the workplace to the mindset required for engineers. Since the training program is field-oriented, trainees learn directly from experts who have worked in the field for a long time, thus growing familiar with field terms and know-hows.

On completing the program, trainees are credited with job matching opportunities at POSCO partner companies, and the employment rate of trainees since 2005 stands at 95 percent. In 2019, out of 207 trainees, 167 (81%) succeeded in getting jobs at SMEs and partner companies.

As trainees enhance their skills within the two months training period and succeed in obtaining a job, it leads to the growth in the partner companies’ capabilities as well, thus creating a circulation structure.

l POSCO youth dream support continues in 2020

In response to the voices of the youth, POSCO promises to provide programs that will enable youth job seekers and prospective entrepreneurs to advance towards their dreams. POSCO believes that its endeavor to help resolve problems facing society will serve as a foundation for its role as a Corporate Citizen.

For outstanding participants of the ‘AI Big Data Academy,’ POSCO is offering an employment opportunity at POSCO and POSCO ICT. From the second half of the year, POSCO plans to provide job matching programs for those trainees who have completed the ‘Practical Corporate Employment Education’ and are interested in POSCO partner companies and suppliers. POSCO is supporting the many different dreams and visions of the youth through its various programs.

POSCO’s training program for youth job seekers and entrepreneurs was postponed earlier this year due to the COVID-19 issue, but starting from May, they have been resumed gradually. More details can be found on related websites.

ISSUE The Unbearable ‘Hyperconnectivity’ of Being

With the COVID-19 crisis, a close connection was observed among all the existing components in our lives including the state, society, economy, and industry.

“Hyper-Connected Society,” is not just a term describing phenomena in the cyber world. It is applied to the actual reality we live in, which in turn makes us realize that it takes more than a single person to make a safer and better world.

The defense strategy to fight against the virus in the hyperconnected era is “Untact” and “Social Distancing” that have to do with cutting up the existing connection. Ironically, the power to overcome this situation is ‘staying together.’ How do the two go together? The trick lies here — social solidarity. It’s about the members of society, including the state and local government, quarantine task force, medical professionals, as well as citizens and corporations, to work together in their respective roles and join forces.

At present, Korean society has witnessed multiple cases of this social solidarity: Medical volunteers; Corporates, and citizens donating relief goods or funds for medical staff and quarantine task force; Volunteers making face masks; And companies providing staff training facilities for patient treatment.

Although COVID-19 is all over the news and the media, the virus isn’t the only concern confronting our society today. Youth unemployment, economic inequality, and problems associated with socially vulnerable groups including the elderly, disabled, and multicultural families are some of the many long-standing issues.

Corporates are indeed playing their parts respectively, facing these challenges. By utilizing accumulated assets, capabilities, and their businesses, they help in resolving social problems and overcoming crises. In turn, society acknowledges and credits these companies. This exchange creates a solid ring that enables both corporates and society to coexist in harmony.

The true value of business activity is mainly presented in two ways: 1) Meeting the needs of society businesswise, and 2) Demonstrating its ability to cope with the challenges of given times. In fact, these are apparent in numerous cases with leading companies around the world.

What about POSCO? POSCO had announced itself as “Corporate Citizen,” and committed to participate in solving social problems and contribute to creating a better world. So what actions have POSCO taken?

Solution POSCO 1% Sharing: 99% POSCO Employees Donating 1% of Monthly Pay

Empathy and sympathy. These two qualities would be the first thing that comes to mind when confronting the weak sides of society. To help someone going through a difficult time, one must be able to step into the shoes of that person and truly relate to the problems.

POSCO has been striving hard to resolve social issues for a long time. Currently, the company has taken up the slogan ‘With POSCO,’ which exhibits its empathy and sympathy towards society. Along with several other programs, POSCO is implementing a unique program to put this mission into practice — 1% Sharing.

POSCO’s 1% Sharing is aided by funds donated — 1% of the monthly pay — by employees and is used for the benefits of society. The donation is voluntary and automatically deducted from the salary. 98.5% of POSCO employees are taking part willingly, with pride that they are contributing to making a difference in society. 1% is a small amount, but when it adds up, it becomes huge. In 2019, the annual donation collected reached approximately 9 billion KRW.

Giving Activities: Started by General Managers & Executives and Continued by the Labor-Management Committee

In 2011, POSCO’s 1% Sharing commenced with general managers and executives donating 1% of their salaries. Two years later, as of February 2013, the Labor-Management Committee (LMC) took over and actively launched the 1% Love Campaign. As more and more employees sympathized with the purpose, they began to participate which led to an expansion in the scale of the fund. In November 2013, POSCO established the ‘POSCO 1% Foundation’ as a measure to manage the fund in a more meaningful way. Adding on to support the 1% Sharing, the company went on to match employee donations with a one-to-one matching grant.

In its first year, the 1% Foundation raised 4 billion KRW in donations and since then, it has been focusing on activities to support the underprivileged groups of the community. As the end of 2019, the foundation has grown into a representative foundation with 98.5% POSCO employees participating and funds reaching 9.3 billion KRW.

The case of the 1% Foundation is the first and only example in Korea. There’s no other corporate that runs a social-giving foundation and supports it with matching donations of employees — reaching up to 98.5% of total employees. In fact, it seems like a rare case globally as well.

The 1% Foundation is growing even larger as 26 group companies and 88 partner companies joined in. At the end of last year, the number of donors reported a record-high 34,000.

Trust Issues? No problem. Real Employee Donors in Charge of Program Suggestion And Execution!

Statistics show that Korea isn’t a forerunner when it comes to donations. According to the 2018 World Giving Index published by the CAF, Korea ranked 60 among 146 survey countries — the 21st among the 36 OECD countries. This ranking is considerably low compared to the level of Korea’s GDP.

In November 2019, Statistics Korea released a survey result that shows a decrease in the proportion of those who have donated in the past year or are willing to donate in the future. The percentage of respondents who have donated in the past year was 25.6% — down 10.8 percentage point from 2011 (36.4%). When asked for the reason of not donating, “Not enough financial resources” recorded 51.9%, lower than 2017 (57.3%). However, “Lack of trust in charity organizations” indicated an increase of 6 percentage point compared to 2017 (8.9% → 14.9%). This shows that the credibility and transparency of charity organizations do affect donations.

The main driving force of the POSCO 1% Foundation is the donors. The donors actively participate in the planning, executing, and evaluation of the entire giving programs. The Fund Management Committee, consisting of donor and staff representatives, evaluates each program implemented by the Foundation. The execution of actual programs is carried on by the Foundation Bureau, which is composed of 150 employee donors of Pohang, Gwangyang, and Seoul. The Foundation Bureau is in charge of the following: selecting beneficiaries, monitoring each project, and reporting on the 1% Sharing to employee donors.

The project areas of POSCO 1% Foundation are determined according to the results of employee surveys. Since most employees have donated in the hope of supporting those in difficult situations, all projects of the POSCO 1% Foundation aim to educate the underprivileged and help build their self-sufficiency.

Many donors also participate in the operating process of the projects. POSCO 1% Foundation has succeeded in narrowing the gap with donors by promoting projects that encourage the self-directed contribution of employees. ‘Change My Town’ — a project that was proposed and directly executed by donors — is a good example with completed tasks reaching up to 49 as of last year. The following are some of the main programs of the project: 1) Ideas to eliminate blind spots in neighborhoods, 2) Funding a special summer vacation for those unable to afford a vacation, 3) Providing books, and 4) Relief activities at typhoon struck areas.

The projects are mainly focused on resolving issues of the communities directly related to the donors. The reason for this is based on POSCO’s idea: Help and support must start from its local community, expand into other regions, and at last further advance into other countries as well.

While supplying funds to beneficiaries, POSCO employee donors provide mentoring and encouragement throughout the program as well. The beneficiaries of the foundation say that they truly appreciate the warmth of the 35,000 employees — more than the donated fund itself. The key point of the 1% Foundation could be considered this: the sincerity of the participating employee donors.

Transparent Management — Not Even a Penny into ‘Company PR’

One of the distinguishable features of POSCO 1% Foundation is its transparent management. Each quarter, a report of each project — including every detail of how the fund was used — is published through EP(Enterprise Portal). The foundation operates its website and runs a separate online system integrated with EP where POSCO employees can participate in donations or apply other changes in real-time. The transparent management cultivated credibility in the foundation and was followed by special donations, that include employees’ prize bonuses and other external profits. In 2019, the number of special donations totaled 512 cases.

POSCO CEO Jeong-Woo, Choi, also contributed to the 98.5% of employee participation. He clearly stated that although POSCO 1% Foundation is operated with donations from POSCO employees, it is to be run as a separate non-profit foundation. Choi made sure that none of the funds at POSCO 1% Foundation was used for corporate PR activities.

The participants of the 1% Sharing testify how happy they are to be a part. Though 1% might be a small amount, the expectations are very high as it may shine a light in the shadows of many. It is said that dewdrops gathered together can form a great ocean. POSCO Newsroom believes that the 1% Sharing of POSCO will continue to flow into the lives of people in need.

Last month, POSCO America received a phone call from the Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center (Fisher House) located in Augusta, Georgia.

On hearing this unfortunate news, POSCO America proposed an ‘Untact Solution’ — a support system that enables elderly patients to connect and communicate with their families via video. On March 26, The company visited the Fisher House and donated eight devices for the purpose.

▲ A veteran at the VA Medical Center in Georgia, is on a video call with his family.

“It was really emotional to watch the veterans and their families well up in tears as they saw each other on the video calling device. We truly wish that these difficult times end soon,” said a POSCO America official.

An official at the Fisher House expressed thanks to POSCO America for implementing the ‘With POSCO’ spirit and presenting the veterans and their families with an irreplaceable gift — true happiness.

A part of the 1% Sharing* Fund — a fund voluntarily participated by employees — was used in the donation of the devices. This year marks the 70th anniversary of the Korean War and POSCO America plans to continue its support for veterans of the Korean War, including the presentation of appreciation plaques.

*1% Sharing: POSCO employees voluntarily donate 1% of their salary for social contribution activities. As of present, 99% of POSCO employees are participating.

On January 31, POSCO (CEO Jeong-Woo Choi) announced its plan to deliver relief goods worth 6 million CNY (1 billion KRW) to Wuhan, China. These goods are expected to alleviate the novel coronavirus situation and help protect the health of local residents.

In consideration of the harsh local conditions in China, POSCO is to secure relief goods, such as face masks and hand sanitizers, within Korea and provide them to the affected area.

“POSCO and its overseas subsidiaries in China have decided to come together and put into practice POSCO’s management philosophy ‘Corporate Citizenship.’ POSCO will always spearhead in resolving the challenges of our society and take part as a global citizen,” said a POSCO Group official.

① BUSINESS   #WTPProducts #CI2020 #Lighthouse #ClientCompanies #BenefitSharing #INNOVILT #PosART #AffiliatesBusiness

■ POSCO’s Competitiveness — Shining Brighter in the Dark
2019 was a cruel year for steel companies around the globe. POSCO was also under pressure of Roll Margin too. However, POSCO saw a smaller profit decline compared to its major global competitors, thanks to its high value-added World Top Premium (WTP) products. Sales of WTP products increased from 9.61 million tons last year to 10.19 million tons this year, protecting profitability.

Another factor that helped POSCO overcome crisis was cost reduction activities. POSCO has been intensively implementing the Cost Innovation 2020 (CI2020) program — a cost reduction program — across the whole company since January. This resulted in saving 240 billion KRW in the third quarter, exceeding this year’s target of 230 billion KRW. POSCO expects to save more than 300 billion KRW by the end of this year through verification of quarterly results in five areas — Raw materials, Facilities, Processing, Budget, and Smart. This enables cost reduction without compromising employee welfare benefits.

It is estimated that the ‘100 Reform Tasks’, which was launched on the 100th day of POSCO CEO Jeong-Woo Choi’s appointment in November last year, generated a financial value of 1.24 trillion KRW. This achievement is significant in that, other than the 240 billion KRW saved via CI2020, it includes 800 billion KRW obtained from restructuring major businesses like LNG and E&C and the readjustment of long-term underperforming businesses.

With its increased premium product sales and cost reduction efforts, POSCO topped the WSD (World Steel Dynamics) competitiveness ranking for 10 consecutive years. Especially this year, POSCO made it on the ‘Lighthouse Factory’ list, which is announced by the World Economic Forum (WEF). POSCO is the first Korean company to be listed here, recognized for its accomplishment in applying artificial intelligence technology at its Steel Works to improve steel productivity and quality. Among the applied technology is the automatic coating weight control of CGL (Continuous Galvanizing Line) and the Smart Blast Furnace. POSCO has been credited as a pioneer of the manufacturing industry — leading the Fourth Industrial Revolution. (See more about the Lighthouse Factory)

■ POSCO’s Strength for 51 Years — Client Companies ‘With POSCO’
In these dark times, client companies mean a lot more to POSCO. POSCO, celebrating its 51 years in the industry, has broken the one-billion record in crude steel production. Working on strengthening shared growth and win-win cooperation with client companies, POSCO has gone beyond just supplying steel products. POSCO has been devising and providing technical solutions to its client companies as well. This technical solution providing service is called ‘solution marketing’. The number of solution marketing tasks for clients this year is estimated to be 260. Among them, 60 cases of solution marketing tasks were for SME clients, showing a 60% increase compared to 38 cases of last year. To drive the growth of not only large clients, — such as shipbuilding, automobiles, and home appliances — but also of SMEs, POSCO catches the VOCs and needs of clients and then supports in developing products and technology accordingly.

■ Benefit Sharing — Reducing Burden And Enhancing Benefits
There is a saying, “If you want to go far, go together.” To put these words into practice, POSCO introduced ‘Benefit Sharing’ in 2004 for the first time in Korea, and is pursuing shared growth with business suppliers. ‘Benefit Sharing(BS)’ is a win-win system where improvement tasks — such as cost reduction and quality improvement — are performed with suppliers, and the resulting benefits are shared as agreed in advance. This year, POSCO and its suppliers have conducted 175 BS tasks, and the resulting benefits are estimated to be 30 billion KRW. This significant number is due to several measures taken, such as expanding task types and rewarding 50% for tasks that failed as well. These measures helped facilitate the participation of suppliers. The number of days required for administrative processing was reduced from 600 days to 190 days.

Additionally, a new “e-catalog system” was launched, allowing suppliers to promote their products freely. In the past, suppliers had to visit POSCO in-person to promote their products. But now, anyone can register product information on the system for promotion — anytime, anywhere. For those suppliers who want to start their first deal with POSCO, there couldn’t be a better way. POSCO received around 4,600 new product information from 850 suppliers through this e-catalog system and signed with 1,020 of them. Also, thanks to regular supplier sourcing, the number of days required for registering was shortened from 144 days to 23 days.

POSCO’s “Business with POSCO” isn’t just about POSCO thriving alone. Instead, POSCO aims to create value together with its business partners and become a corporate citizen, laying the foundation of each business.

■ “Premium Brand” of Steel Products
An interesting story first! A few weeks ago, POSCO built a house using INNOVILT for Korean YouTube star Pengsoo. INNOVILT is POSCO’s premium brand of construction materials launched this year. Using the best technology and know-how accumulated from other businesses like automotive steel and home appliance steel, POSCO has created a construction material brand that is credible to ordinary consumers. INNOVILT acts as a ‘certificate’ — given only to materials made with 100% high-quality POSCO Steel. (See more about Pengsoo House and INNOVILT)

PosMAC and PosART, used in Pengsoo House, are awaiting evaluation to become INNOVILT products. PosART was awarded ‘Innovation of the year’ from World Steel Association (worldsteel) in October, thus proving its value as a premium material. PosART is a high-resolution inkjet print steel sheet, which is a result of POSCO C&C’s inkjet printing technology combined with POSCO’s steel. PosART is capable of printing full-color images of desired images in desired sizes. Since its commercialization last year, sales have increased 37 times in just one year. (See more about PosART)

■ Rapid Strides in Global Infra and New Growth Businesses
In 2019, the steel business struggled, while other POSCO affiliates — including the Global Infra business — were quite successful. In addition to direct involvement in food production, POSCO INTERNATIONAL established a global grain value chain ranging from processing, storage, transportation, to terminal operations. POSCO INTERNATIONAL holds the largest agricultural trade volume in Korea with grain trading volume expected to reach 5 million tons this year — an increase from last year’s 4.37 million tons. POSCO also completed The Ukraine grain export terminal in September before any other Korean company. The annual capacity of the terminal is 2.5 million tons, which accounts for about 21% of Korean grain demand. Another core business of POSCO INTERNATIONAL, the Myanmar gas field, has increased its production from 144.4 billion ft³ last year to 149.2 billion ft³ Q3 this year, after China’s gas pipeline recovery in November last year.

POSCO CHEMICAL has shown tremendous progress this year. POSCO CHEMICAL was created with the merge of POSCO ESM and POSCO ChemTech originally in charge of cathode and anode businesses. POSCO CHEMICAL is strengthening its competitiveness by improving productivity, reducing costs, and increasing sales. This year, POSCO CHEMICAL cathode production capacity expanded to 15,000 tons, an additional 6,000 tons from last year. The anode production capacity expanded to 44,000 tons and added 20,000 tons to last year’s figure. In addition to the existing Gumi plant, Gwangyang and China plants were established to enable growth in the cathode business. While for the anode business, the first phase of the Sejong’s 2nd plant was completed soon after the 1st plant, driving the secondary battery business.

② SOCIETY   #POSCO1% #Volunteer #POSCOConcert #Venture #YouthEmployment

■ 2019 — A Year ‘Filled’ With ‘Sharing’
POSCO’s 2019 in terms of society could be put into these phrases, “practicing sharing” and “cultivating dreams of the youth”. In 2019, POSCO 1% Foundation was active more than ever. 98% of POSCO executives and employees participated in the POSCO 1% Foundation donation — 44% p higher than last year — and it is expected to raise 9.3 billion won by the end of this year. Founded in 2013, the POSCO 1% Foundation has become a representative employee-participating foundation in Korea. POSCO 1% Foundation is contributing to creating a better world, and this year, it has focused on supporting future generations, multicultural families, and the disabled. Some of the programs that have been under progress are as follows — a participatory art program, ‘1% Art School’ ; A science class with experiments, ‘Science Beyond Imagination’ ; Support for immigrants to visit homelands ; Remodelling of welfare facilities for the disabled, ’Space of Hope’ ; and assist devices support for the disabled, ‘Wings of Hope’.

Volunteer activities, which were like daily routines for employees, were reorganized to become Talent Volunteering, which could be of real help to the community. This action was practiced so that employees could provide more meaningful and rewarding volunteer activities as corporate citizens. In addition to the existing volunteer groups, — such as the Clean Ocean, electric repairing, tutoring, and photo volunteer corps — 25 new talent volunteer groups of various sectors including law, landscaping, cooking, and financial education were established this year. Employees are expected to utilize their talents and job-related knowledge in these groups. There are 23 volunteer groups in Pohang, 19 in Gwangyang, and 12 in Seoul, amounting to a total of 2,762 employees this year, which is an increase of about 1,000 from last year. POSCO’s employees spent about 440,000 hours in volunteer activities this year alone, which equals to 17,000 employees participating more than two hours each month.

Meanwhile, POSCO held free concerts for citizens in Pohang, Gwangyang and Seoul. Under the name of “Corporate Citizen POSCO Culture Concert” this year, diverse music genres such as trot, classical, and opera were selected, and the number of performances increased to once a month. Last October, many popular trot singers — like Ga-In Song and Yeon-Ja Kim — appeared on stage, resulting in intense competition for tickets and huge crowds near the venue. The number of audience at this year’s POSCO concert was 36,114 — recording 10,000 more from last year’s 23,749.

■ Supporting the Dreams of Youths And Ventures
POSCO is also making efforts to realize the dreams of ventures and creating jobs for youths. POSCO established the Industry-Academy-Research Cooperation Office and specified its plan to operate the ‘POSCO Venture Platform’, a large scale investment. Venture Valley, supporting venture development, secures incubation centers in Pohang and Gwangyang based on POSCO’s Industry-Academy-Research infrastructure and helps the start and growth of venture companies. Venture fund supports their growth by investing in the Venture Valley companies and promising ventures.

POSCO’s investment and support for venture companies have been going on for quite a while. In 1997, POSCO established POSTECH Technology Investment (former POSCO Technology Investment) to promote venture companies and has been engaging in mentoring and investment activities through the Idea Marketplace (IMP) since 2011. IMP is a venture development program where POSCO conducts training for startups and venture companies. By 2019, POSCO has fostered 379 venture companies through IMP, including 98 direct investments amounting to 16.9 billion KRW. Some companies that received this direct investment were listed on the KOSDAQ, and some received the Presidential Award at the national startup competition.

Also, POSCO is operating a variety of youth employment programs including the ‘POSCO Youth Dream’, which consists of practical job training, an AI and Big Data academy, and a startup incubating school. The number of participants this year was 1,328, an eight-fold increase from last year. 430 of them were employed, and 39 opened own businesses.

③ PEOPLE   #WorkLifeBalance #8-5 #HarmoniousManagement&Labor #BusinessPartners #Welfare #DayCareCenter

■ Work And Life Balance of POSCO Employees
As “Work and Life Balance” has become a critical condition of a good workplace, POSCO also took an active part in fulfilling employees’ balance. Since November, POSCO has introduced an 8 to 5 work schedule (8-5 system) to allow employees to spend their evenings on self-development or with their families.

The 8-5 system is a result of POSCO’s 2019 wage and group negotiation. In addition, the following measures were carried out as well — Basic wage raise ; Maintenance technology incentive raise to improve the conditions of maintenance workers ; Reorganization of job position ; Extension of infertility treatment leaves from 5 to 10 days per year, and partial cost support for employees who are having difficulty in pregnancy ; and extension of limit in children’s educational expenses to reduce burden of employees with two or more children.

■ The “Expert Young Board”
Another new thing at POSCO this year is the ‘Expert Young Board’. The former Young Board was participated by the heads and managers of each department and research lab, but from this year, it has been expanded to employees working in the field — experts who are in charge of operation and maintenance at steel mills. The age limit has also been greatly reduced. In their first meeting with Chairman Jeong-Woo Choi last September, the Young Board freely discussed issues of the steel mill, including solutions for site safety, activating communication between generations, strengthening the motivation of field workers, and so on. POSCO’s first Expert Young Board is expected to be an important communication channel for expanding communication areas and delivering the opinions of the field to the management.

■ The Best Welfare for Business Partners
2019 was also a year that POSCO showed ‘true partnership’ with business partners. POSCO established an integrated operational system to extend the usage of recreation facilities to business partners. As a result, the annual number of days available to business partners increased significantly from 0.4 days last year to 4.8 days this year. To implement this, POSCO secured 350 additional recreational facilities nationwide, including the “With POSCO Residence”, which was used as accommodation for the press at the time of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. POSCO is also working on improving the on-site welfare facilities and office environment of business partners. Following 1,176 locations last year, 786 sites have been further improved this year — all used by POSCO’s business partners.

POSCO is also expanding children’s daycare centers — which is of primary interest for married employees. POSCO plans to build daycare centers that can be used by all employees and business partners from Pohang, Gwangyang, and Seoul. Especially, in 2020, a second daycare center that can accommodate 220 children — 100 more children compared to the first daycare center where 120 children attend — is to be built in Seoul. POSCO has also invested 19 billion KRW in constructing daycare centers in Pohang and Gwangyang for the children of POSCO employees and business partners.

POSCO has also decided to spend 130 billion KRW to renovate dormitories and welfare facilities for employees at the steel mills. It is in consideration that future generations — who will become the main players of the company — must be able to settle more easily. By 2021, the Pohang Works will remodel the welfare center and build a large 700-seat cafeteria. Gwangyang Works plans to build 500 new dormitories and expand the welfare center here. POSCO’s efforts to ensure employees’ work and life balance will continue.

Looking back at 2019, we looked at the achievements that POSCO has made for the year and what meanings these achievements have. POSCO will take strong strides into 2020, creating a better tomorrow and maintaining the harmony of BUSINESS, SOCIETY, and PEOPLE as it always has.

POSCO’s corporate citizen activities received a nod from the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative, the United Nations Global Compact (hereafter UNGC). In its 2019 publication of ‘Sustainable Journey Towards Agenda 2030 – Best Korean Companies Implementing SDGs,’ the UNGC Network Korea introduced POSCO’s various endeavors pertaining to corporate social responsibility.

*SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals), aka the Global Goals, are a universal call to action set by the United Nations General Assembly to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity.

▲POSCO’s corporate citizenship endeavors featured in the UNGC Network Korea’s 2019 publication of the ‘Sustainable Journey Towards Agenda 2030 – Best Korean Companies Implementing SDGs.’ Specifically recognized are POSCO’s various activities in support of corporate social responsibility, environmental sustainability, and sustainable energy for the future, together with the company’s new management principles.

The UNGC Network Korea introduces various collective actions of Korean companies in support of SDGs. The publication will be disseminated across various conferences, both domestic and international, as well as at the UNGC Leadership Summit in New York. This year, altogether 23 Korean companies and institutions with exemplary business practices were cited in the publication.

This year’s publication specifically highlights POSCO’s CSR activities to grow with the communities, along with the company’s corporate citizenship endeavors: from addressing climate change to embracing sustainable energy future. The UNGC Network Korea announced such details at its General Assembly on March 26th.

The UNGC introduces management principles, key strategies and collective actions of companies in support of SDGs – the current publication is available in Korean, and the subsequent English publication is expected in May. The English version will be distributed across several global CSR communities.

POSCO has been a member of the United Nations Global Compact since 2012.

Sustainable Journey Towards Agenda 2030 – Best Korean Companies Implementing SDGs: POSCO (Korean).pdf

Currently at its 12th cycle, the current Beyonders thereby called Beyond 12th, the Beyond is part of POSCO’s endeavor to extend its corporate citizenship by cultivating global talents. Beyond volunteering is not a sporadic event. It’s an 8-month program organized in a way through which participants could truly embody the community service spirits and mutual respect.

To date, over 1,100 students participated in the program working on 270-plus construction projects, teaching activities, and various other programs across India, Thailand, Indonesia, and Vietnam. Beyonders also contributed their talents to various domestic projects in Pohang, Gwangyang, and Incheon.

Take a look at the Beyond volunteer activities during the 12 days in Cilegon, Indonesia with POSCO Newsroom.

House-building project was the very first task the Beyond 12th took on when they arrived in Cilegon. The Beyonders built houses for a total of 10 impoverished households in the vicinity of PT Krakatau POSCO. For each house to be built, around 11 to 12 volunteers were assigned.

The housing project is linked to the Indonesian Steel Village Project, which started in 2018. Each housing unit consisted of two rooms, a living room and a toilet with a total surface area of 30 square meters. During the 12-day construction period, Beyonders proactively reached out to the local community to build meaningful connections and foster mutual understanding. Check out the pictures below:

▲POSCO ASSAN TST’s on-going volunteer activities televised live across the country on Turkish national TV. A local reporter is interviewing the employees volunteering at a local elementary school.

POSCO ASSAN TST is a cold-rolled stainless steel production subsidiary in Turkey with an annual production capacity of 200,000 tons, located in the city of Izmit 100km to the southeast of Istanbul. To contribute to the local communities in Turkey and build long-term mutual trust, POSCO is implementing the company’s ‘With POSCO vision’ through various measures: fostering local talents, creating jobs, supporting underprivileged communities, facilitating cultural exchange between Korea and Turkey as well as supporting Korean War veterans in Turkey.

Since 2016 in particular, POSCO designated the second Saturday of every month as the ‘POSCO ASSAN TST Volunteer Day,’ and employees have been volunteering for low-income families, orphans, and senior citizens living alone. Rather than sporadic financial support, POSCO employees are contributing their time and resources repairing the facilities of different communities.

Broadcasted on that day was POSCO ASSAN TST’s very first volunteer activity of the year –over 40 employees including the company CEO Don-Ho Ban spent the day repairing old classrooms of a local elementary school.

A regular volunteering activity is a rather unusual sight in Turkey, especially from a foreign-invested enterprise, which is why POSCO ASSAN TST’s on-going volunteering piqued TRT’s interest. The TRT news crew was at the site of POSCO’s volunteering and live-broadcasted the event during the main news hour.

What the TRT newscaster specifically highlighted was that the employees are willingly and consistently volunteering their free time even on holidays. One of the volunteers interviewed for the news said, “I would like to express my gratitude for being able to contribute. I am proud to be part of this company.”

‘Practical Corporate Employment Education’ program participants at POSCO Group University in Songdo, Incheon

POSCO is running a vocational curriculum to help boost job seekers’ competency, and it’s receiving positive feedback from the participants.

Last month, POSCO ran the first cycle of ‘Practical Corporate Employment Education’ for 30 candidates at POSCO Group University in Songdo, Incheon. Trainees participated in open conversations with the company’s HR representatives and experienced real-life business management and design thinking methods via simulated game settings. Through the curriculum, the participants had a chance to enhance both basic and practical business skills.

Soo-Jung Lim, one of the program participants, said: “Job hunting was a lonesome battle that seemed endless. POSCO’s training challenged us with real-life business issues and equipped us with practical skills. I’m feeling more encouraged than ever.”

Successful participants were awarded an internship opportunity at the POSCO Group University, and team project winners also received tablet PCs as rewards. All participants received stipends of 500,000 KRW. (approx. 450 USD)

POSCO’s ‘Practical Corporate Employment Education’ program is currently in session for its January cycle. The training will take place at POSCO Group University at its Songdo, Pohang, and Gwangyang locations for three weeks, and those interested in the February cycle can apply via http://youth.posco.com. For the next five years, the Corporate Practical Employment Education will train 800 participants per year. With free room and board, the training is provided at no cost.

In addition to the ‘Practical Corporate Employment Education,’ POSCO is running ‘Incubating School for Business Start-ups’ to support entrepreneurs towards establishing successful start-ups. ‘AI-Big Data Academy’ is also another program POSCO is running to cultivate expert professionals in smart 4IR (The Fourth Industrial Revolution) technologies. Through these programs, POSCO plans to train a total of 5,500 job seekers.

The Incubating School for Business Start-ups is accepting applications for its March education cycle, and the AI-Big Data Academy is currently in session for the January ~ April cycle at Pohang University of Science and Technology.

<POSCO’s Training Program for Job Seekers & Entrepreneurs>