Controversy is growing that the Samsung Electronics business support TF, the successor to Samsung Group's Future Strategy Office, intervened in personnel evaluations at affiliate Samsung Biologics. The claim is that a plan to expand lower-tier evaluations for employees and manage underperformers separately was reported at the group level.
According to the business community on the 11th, the Samsung Group supra-enterprise labor union posted a piece the previous day titled "Summary of the outrages by Samsung Group's business support TF and People team," disclosing a conversation between the business support TF and a Samsung Biologics HR team official.
On the 6th, a work folder of the People team, the HR organization, was made accessible to employees without permission. It contained resident registration numbers, educational background, salaries, and personnel evaluations of 5,000 employees.
The union said it secured indications of personnel interference in the process. According to the conversation, a Samsung Biologics HR team official reported to the business support TF, "The president has been continuously pushing a performance management policy to strengthen rewards for top talent this year and to boldly expand lower-tier evaluations for underperformers."
The Samsung Biologics Win-Win Chapter of the supra-enterprise union said, "They are pushing to expand the percentage of lower-tier evaluations for employees," adding, "It is effectively a recommendation to forcibly allocate 10% to the lower tier."
The union also revealed that Samsung Biologics in 2015 reviewed a personnel system overhaul to simplify the existing seven-grade rank structure to three to four grades.
It is known that internal materials at the time stated, "If the existing system is maintained, the ratio of managers will rise from 21% in 2015 to 59% in 2025, but if the new system is introduced, it can be contained at around 19%." The union noted, "This was a system aimed more at cutting labor costs than at performance-based personnel management."
The Samsung Biologics Win-Win Chapter also said, "It was revealed that underperformers were managed separately," adding, "By contrast, HR and those in charge of management control were assigned abnormally high ratios of top grades compared with other organizations."
The Samsung Electronics business support TF is the successor to the Future Strategy Office, the control tower that led Samsung Group. The Future Strategy Office began in 1959 as the Secretariat under founder Lee Byung-chul and changed its name over time to the Restructuring Headquarters and the Corporate Strategy Office. The Future Strategy Office was dismantled in 2017 over the state capture scandal, and the Samsung Electronics business support TF was created.
On the 7th, Samsung Group reorganized the Samsung Electronics business support TF into a standing organization called the Business Support Office. Chung Hyun-ho (65), a Samsung Electronics vice chairman regarded as Samsung's No. 2 who headed the business support TF, moved to a role as an adviser to the Samsung Electronics chairman. The union argues it was "cutting off the tail," saying the title changed the day after the data leak. The new head of the office is President Park Hark-kyu (61), who had been in charge of the TF.
Regarding this, a Samsung Biologics official countered, "You should not infer from just a folder name and interpret it as if there was improper personnel interference," adding, "From the standpoint of Samsung Group's personnel systems, there are aspects we can consult with the group on, and given the bioindustry's characteristic of severe talent outflows, there are aspects where performance management is necessary."