Workers of Hyundai Securities are experiencing job stress from labor intensity, lack of organizational justice, etc. The labor union needs to listen to union members, and intervene in the company policy to lower the job stress of workers.

1. Findings

A.
Increased labor intensity is caused by pressure for performance

Labor intensity in Hyundai Securities is
higher than that of production workers in car factories. Workers responded that
they would not feel as tired if labor intensity was reduced by 40%. About half
of the respondents (47%) said they were always mentally exhausted after work.

The reasons pointed out for this strenuous
labor intensity were forced sales performance and excessive campaign
promotions. In particular, excessive campaigns and promotions were pointed out
not only by the sales force, but also by all union members as causes of
increased labor intensity. In this way, the company is passing current
difficulties caused by macroeconomic problems and the stock market recession to
its workers. The pressures on performance that sales workers have to endure
affects investment advice and professional satisfaction. It is necessary to
raise a voice about this problem and to help resolve it.

B. 
Lack of compensatory and procedural justice

In terms of organizational justice, there
was high dissatisfaction with compensatory and procedural justice. This shows
that the decision-making process, including opinion gathering and feedback, is
insufficient. Although there were not many direct complaints about salary, this
study found that workers did not believe they were properly compensated for
their responsibilities, experience, efforts, successes, and especially
endurance of job stress.

Hyundai Securities workers pointed out the
opaqueness of the evaluation system including the lack of fair evaluation
criteria and a one-person-centered evaluation system within the department.
This resulted in an opaque organizational system that is intensifying problems
in distribution of performance output which affects compensation, the setting
of business goals and major decisions, and communication between departments.
Therefore, the vertical, hierarchical work culture is widespread and workers
believe it is important for preserving their employment. In the end, this
repressed organizational culture harms business and leads to avoidance of
responsible decisions, making the static and repressed organizational culture
and system more intact.

 

C.
Effects of employment anxiety

For both men and women, job instability was
the biggest factor contributing to job stress. The experience of restructuring
in 2014 confirmed that employment anxiety due to performance and evaluation can
happen to any individual worker at any time, and the merger with KB Investment
& Securities further exacerbated this anxiety. After the merger, there was
a lot of fear about changes at work and the opaque organizational system and
the unilateral top-down communication structure increased these fears and
anxieties. Workers of Hyundai Securities might have endured job stress
because there was better economic compensation or welfare than other securities
companies. However, the company is about to be merged with KB Financial Group,
and workers think that it is fortunate just to maintain their current
compensation level because they are not sure if the compensation will be enough
after the merger. If the members of Hyundai Securities have endured job stress
for better economic compensation or welfare than other securities companies,
there is an idea that Hyundai Securities, with a merger with KB Financial
ahead, would be fortunate just to maintain its previous level. Therefore, fear
and anxiety about a situation that can change rapidly at any time exacerbates
the job stress that Hyundai Securities workers have to endure.

 

D.
Emotional labor without organizational support

Emotional labor also had a large number of
high-risk workers. A lot of workers are at high-risk in emotional labor level. In
terms of ‘diversity of emotional control’ or ‘organizational support and
protection system,’ almost half of the workers were classified in the high-risk
group for ‘emotional labor.’ Even in customer service, which requires a lot of
emotional labor, there is a lack of company-level countermeasures to protect
workers. Therefore, this study indicates that there is an urgent need for
company-level countermeasures to alleviate this problem.

 

E.
Poor health-related quality of life

Workers had severe fatigue and high
depression. The depression levels among these workers were higher than that of
the general population, and urgent measures need to be taken. In particular,
women are generally at a higher risk of depression compared to men, but in this
survey, men showed a higher rate of depression than women, showing that the
level of mental health among male union members, particularly male workers in
branch offices, is of concern. As a result, the health-related quality of life
was found to be very low. Especially, the quality of life related to mental
health appeared to be even lower than that of families of stroke patients,
showing that the quality of life related to mental health is significantly threatened.
The prevalence of chronic diseases was lower than that of the general
population, but the treatment rate is also lower than that of the general
population, indicating that education and management are needed for health
problems overall.

 

F.
Distrust of the company and the challenges against the union

This study found that the perception of
labor-management relations was very negative. Union members reported that the
company was not performing well on the matters agreed to with the union, and in
many cases, labor-management relations were found to be confrontational. The
perception of the union was more positive than that of the company, but the
relationship between the union and its members is also undergoing changes, so
it is necessary to devise a plan to increase the interest and participation of
members. Efforts such as strengthening daily communication, expanding the labor
union’s structure, and supporting various communities are essential.

 

2.
Recommendations

A.
There is a desire that cannot be solved by salary and welfare 

The most notable thing in the job stress
research study was the finding that among workers there was a desire for better
working conditions despite relatively high salaries and a slightly better level
of welfare and working conditions than other occupations. In fact, Hyundai
Securities workers displayed only small differences in job satisfaction
compared to poorer workers in the same industry or in Korean society as a
whole. There were many interviewers who started out by saying, “I know it’s
talking high and mighty but…” and “I’m satisfied with my pay, but…” while
talking about their hardships related to work. The job stress due to insecurity
surrounding the sell-off and merger was significant. As a result, union members
complained about the same labor intensity as workers in automobile production,
and showed very high levels of fatigue and depression.

The starting point of all improvement
measures is to reveal this reality, these desires, and dissatisfactions. From
the results of this survey, follow-up measures are needed, such as sharing through
training of all members and actively organizing discussions about alternative.
It is necessary to use the Occupational Safety and Health Committee established
since 2016, or actively utilize member surveys (such as this study) to reveal
complaints and issues that have been hidden beneath a veil of relatively high
wages.

 

B.
Ways to strengthen organizational justice 

According to this study, an opaque
organizational system is one cause of serious job stress. Structural problems
such as opacity of the evaluation system, lack of a specific evaluation
criteria, and evaluation by only one-person were pointed out. This makes the
organization stiffen so that that workers who are evaluated would not feel free
to raise their voice or try to change their company. As a result, this
spawns an organizational culture in which workers follow someone who has
political power within the company, and act according to company politics. It
is essential to improve the evaluation process, personnel system, and
performance principles in order to address one of the most important causes of
stress and reduce factors that hinder vitality across the organization. 

This approach to strengthening
organizational justice is also closely linked to the process of alleviating
performance pressure. One of the reasons that performance pressure has been
excessively affecting unemployed workers over the past few years is the current
evaluation system, in which the method of evaluation is unknown. 

Hyundai Securities workers had another job
stress factor from the company merger as KB Financial Group took over Hyundai
Securities As KB Financial Group recently emphasized and promoted high
performance among its workers more severely than other financial companies, the
organizational justice issue is likely to remain a problem. Moreover, since the
process of integrating workers from Hyundai Securities and KB Securities will
continue for some time, complaints and suspicions about evaluation and
personnel practices may continue. It is difficult for the union to directly
intervene in the personnel system, and the fact that the management persists in
expanding and reinforcing the annual salary system makes this issue difficult
to resolve. It is time for labor and management to fully review various measures,
such as strengthening multi-faceted evaluation, evaluating, and disclosing work
performance evaluation and multi-faceted evaluation ratio, and organizing and
operating a promotion recommendation committee. 

Intervention is also required to change the
organizational culture but the culture cannot be completely changed at
once. However, workplace culture cannot change in a year or two. Starting a
change by securing a transparent and fair evaluation system will be effective
in that it provides a foundation for changing the organizational culture.

 

C.
Results, evaluation, and diagnosis of employment anxiety

The study was conducted before the sale of
Hyundai Securities to KB was confirmed and the merger proceeded. It was no
wonder that the stress of employment anxiety was the most serious among the
eight sub-categories of job stress. The merger was in progress and the anxiety
and concern over a future that seemed distant suddenly became close. It has
become important for the union to make an effort to listen to members’ opinions
fully and their various perspectives about how members’ concerns were evaluated
after the change, what the current problems are, how the individual responds,
and what role the union should play. 

Although efforts have already been made, it
is likely necessary to interview union members from various job groups,
genders, positions, regions, and former companies. This will provide an
opportunity to create and collect basic information by analyzing personnel
movement data, and to check and assemble members’ responses, evaluations, and
demands in a variety of ways, such as surveys and interviews, and meetings with
the trade unions. In the process, problem recognition and improvement measures
that are close to the site will be drawn up.

 

D. A
gender-sensitive approach to all policies is required 

This study revealed large gender
differences in dissatisfaction with the personnel evaluation and promotion
system. Interviews confirmed that experiences such as maternity leave adversely
affected the promotion process resulting in discrimination against women.
Organizational cultures with irregular work hours also have different effects
on men and women. This organizational culture is an important stressor for
women workers, undermines their morale, and does not match the trend of
emphasizing work-family compatibility. 

Overall, there should be a plan to
strengthen organizational justice that takes gender impacts into account. For
example, the impact of personnel systems and organizational cultures on gender
should be evaluated, and when evaluating various changes that have occurred
during the merger process or that will be introduced in the future, it is
important to keep potential differences in impacts on men and women in
mind. 

In order to improve the organizational
culture, mandatory training for all employees should include not only
anti-sexual violence education but also gender equality and gender-related
human rights education. In trade union activities, a gender-sensitive approach
is necessary for all policies, from corporate policies to trade union
activities, such as expanding the women’s committee activities and making
conscious efforts to upgrade roles and status.

 

E.
Emergency protection system for workers in crisis 

Many workers experienced emotional labor
and were at high-risk for depression. Screening showed depression in 18% of the
workers. In addition, almost half of the workers in the high-risk group were
emotionally oriented in terms of “variation of emotional control” or “organizational
support and protection system.” Considering the age group, education and
economic level, the union members’ mental health is very concerning. In order
to promote good mental health among these workers, it is time to develop
measures to resolve underlying issues that undermine mental health. At the same
time, it is necessary to have an emergency system to actively protect workers
who are already in danger of impaired health or in need of intervention. 

For example, there can be a designation support by a labor organization in
the region or an employee assistance program (EAP) are needed to ensure that
workers with severe psychological or psychological distress, such as
depression, receive psychological counseling or treatment before it is too late,
and to be protected from further exacerbation of work-related problems. In this
case, the communication between the agency and the organization operating the
program and the trade union should be close so that the EAP or consultation
support can be effective. The information of workers who use such a program
must be kept strictly confidential by both the company and the union.

However, unions must be able to participate
in the selection and evaluation of the counseling institutions. During
operation, it is necessary to periodically require regular statistics and
analysis of work factors such as user statistics, sharing of key counseling
cases, job stress and emotional labor. This should be done quarterly or
semiannually and include active training for union members.

 

F.
Recommendations for establishing mid- to long-term policies and strategies of
unions 

Major factors contributing to job stress
can be seen in the working environment, including wages, working hours, and
personnel. The union should clarify the factors that determine the working
environment when approaching the serious depression of union members as a
matter of the working environment. There is a strong tendency on the part of
the company to pass damages arising from the provision of labor on to
individual workers (e.g., diseases such as job stress) and solve them through
social insurance (the Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance Act) as a last
resort.

The results of the institutional analysis
and job stress surveys of the working environment of Hyundai Securities can be
summarized as follows:

➀ improvement of individual working
conditions;

➁ improvement of personnel policies that
deteriorate workers’ right to health;

➂ the union’s active involvement to stop
proliferation of financial capital with only short-term profits, and

➃ presenting and practicing policy
alternatives through the union’s labor safety activities.

In the end, these efforts should lead to a
struggle for workers’ interests and rights, which are the essential attributes
of trade unions. 

In other words, the union establishes mid-
to long-term policy tasks re-establishing the operational structure in which
union members’ opinions can participate in this process, and it results in the
question of how much the established policies can be achieved in negotiations
and struggles with the company. (Exercising the bargaining power based on
organizational power and signing an agreement). At this point, we must not
forget that the collective bargaining right of the trade union by legally challenging
the company’s management is a basic constitutional right to improve working
conditions.

If there is not enough individual active
participation of the trade union members, they cannot drive any policy properly,
or even can be led to be fragmented. The union needs to consider the
suggestions resulting from this research and set goals for improvement step by
step. Labor safety is both a right to survival and a basic human right, and in
the process of asking employers for their responsibilities, health and safety
is protected and realized in organized power. In the end, for safe work, it is
not a post-compensation measure, but a process of improving working conditions,
and the result of this research project can be the basis of the fact that the
process is a struggle through organized power.