KRAFTON, which said it would temporarily suspend hiring, is carrying out a companywide "voluntary resignation selection program" for the first time since its founding.
According to the industry on the 12th, KRAFTON notified employees that it would implement the "voluntary resignation selection program" that day. The core is to pay up to 36 months of monthly salary to employees who leave KRAFTON to find new work.
KRAFTON stressed that this measure is a system to guarantee members' "voluntary choice," not for workforce reduction, and that it differs from past voluntary retirement in that there are no restrictions on specific groups such as rank or years of service. A KRAFTON official said, "Amid the era-defining shift to artificial intelligence (AI), the intent is to support members in proactively designing their own growth paths inside and outside the company and taking on new challenges."
KRAFTON recently declared a transition to an "AI-first" corporations and announced it would invest 100 billion won to strengthen AI infrastructure and apply AI across the entire decision-making process. Organizational restructuring such as a hiring freeze is also underway as a result.
Bae Dong-geun, KRAFTON chief financial officer (CFO), said on the third-quarter earnings conference call, "The biggest change arising from AI-first will be freezing hiring except for organizations that develop original intellectual property (IP) and Deep Learning-related AI personnel." Bae said, "This does not mean we will reduce expense through AI; rather, because we must raise individual productivity companywide, we will partially freeze hiring from that perspective."
The announcement came right after KRAFTON posted its highest-ever quarterly results in the third quarter this year. KRAFTON said cumulative operating profit for the first three quarters reached 1.0519 trillion won, surpassing 1 trillion won for the first time since its founding.