Epochal Change
in Personnel Policies
- The utility giant names managers to positions in other divisions

The Korea Electric Power Corp.(KEPCO), the largest public company in the country, rewrote its personnel manual for the first time it became a public firm in 1982, a feat very hard to be achieved by a company with over 20,000 payrolls.
The giant utility firm, in an unprecedented personnel policy move, transferred 65 first-grade managers out of 103 to other divisions. By tradition, employees can only be promoted to positions in the same division they were assigned when they first join the company. There are clerical, power distribution and power transfer divisions.
In the current large-scale personnel move, Kim Mun-dok, head of the Busan Power Management Office, was reassigned to take over the Power Distribution Office in an out-of-tradition move. Kwon Oh-hyung, head of the East Daegu Power Distribution Office, has been named to head the Power Transfer Management Office in a cross-divisional personnel reshuffle. The unprecedented move involved 8 divisional managers out of 14 in the power transfer management offices.
The one that draws a special attention is the fact that every detailed personnel paper was made public through in-house computer network, against the tradition that they have been kept in the dark.
On the Intranet, one can see performance evaluations on each involved manager, their ranks for promotion and pertinent personnel regulations and procedures. Any employee can also find out about his or her performance reports, the results of evaluation recommendation and other matters in detail through the Intranet. They can also find out the list of members of the Personnel Promotion Committee, which deals with the promotion of the second-grade managers. The list has never been revealed before by company policies.
KEPCO President Han Joon-ho said the personnel reform was the first step toward making an organization that is hard working and live.
The personnel test system also has been changed, In the past, managers who got a grade promotion received position assignments immediately, but now they have to wait for about 10 days until they receive position assignments. During the 10-day waiting period, work will be done to confirm individuals' hopes and identification including their relations with fellow employees by management. The company also did away with the practice of assignment change in every two years so that any one fully meeting requirements may be reassigned any time, making personnel regulations flexible. The right to appoint grade-three managers belonged to management has now been delegated to work-site managers(grade-one). More than 82 percent of those that have been promoted this time were based on decisions made by worksite managers.
To realize customer satisfaction, KEPCO's top priority goal, top management and all employees innovate service systems into customer-oriented ways, improve corporate competitiveness by actively coping with changing business environment, and enhance corporate brand value by acquiring core technologies ahead of others and exploring overseas power markets.
In the marketplace of competitive power generation, KEPCO endeavors to realize its vision of Obecoming a globally superior electric power company thriving with its customers' and the core values of 'valuing customers, daring changes, and emphasizing profitability.'
To meet the public's expectations, KEPCO will become a clean and active enterprise. As the largest government-invested public company, KEPCO employees keep ethical and social responsibilities in mind, and launched corporate-wide initiatives to reinforce morality and business ethics. In addition, KEPCO practices management of sharing to emphasize relationship with interested parties and help neighbors in need. nw