As part of its move to continue growing and evolving as a global lifestyle company, CJ CheilJedang has made significant efforts to revamp and expand its internal employee opportunities, aiming to both help its employees and the overall company grow with a new worldwide talent development program CJ&me.
To discuss the company’s latest talent development program, CJ Newsroom sat down with the Chief People Officer at CJ CheilJedang to learn more about how the company is working to launch its employees’ global careers.
Q: The Covid pandemic provided employees with an opportunity to reconsider their personal and professional lives. From your perspective, what steps should our organization take to improve our approach to employee management?
A: We understand that people have varying career motivations, but what they have in common is the desire to learn, grow and find purpose in work. As an organization, we need to take a step back, evaluate what drives our employees and ensure that we’re meeting their needs.
For the main factor that brings career motivations, it’s all about an individual’s values. Employees are looking for meaningful work that goes beyond just a paycheck. They want to continuously develop their skills and become experts in their field. Looking at the ‘Voice On’ survey results for this year, 16% of employees stated that they felt there were limited growth opportunities within the company. Although the survey was conducted among CJ Korea based employees, this is a trend that is applicable globally.
In fact, a lack of career advancement was identified as one of the top reasons why people leave their jobs in a McKinsey survey. This is an area where we can make a difference as an organization. By creating internal mobility, our employees will have more chances to grow.
Q: Could you tell us more about the new global talent development program ‘CJ&me: Create your Journey’?
A: The business and its people function like an ecosystem. The company offers employees diverse career opportunities, whereby self-driven individuals pursue growth opportunities in CJ. This contributes to the company’s growth and sustainability, which in turn creates more opportunities for the employees.
CJ&me program is about mutual growth between the company and the employee. This mutual growth philosophy will shape the way we approach our people strategy. Our new strategy is focused on growing people from within and recognizing the value of each individual who are the driving force behind our company’s growth and success.
Q: How applicable is ‘CJ&me’ for the employees?
A: Lot of companies begin with a linear and upward growth model as they primarily focus on their local market. However, employees under this growth model hit a point where they feel limited in their growth and contribution, which prompts them to leave the company.
For businesses to remain sustainable, they must continue expanding and exploring new opportunities worldwide. This leads to greater chances for employees to grow within the company.
When employees make a lateral move, they learn new skills, gain knowledge and experience new challenges. In fact, many people find such lateral moves to be rewarding and beneficial for their personal growth. Our growth model is going to take a multi-dimensional approach, where employees are given more choices.
Q: It seems like we will be seeing more movement across the world, not just from Korea to other countries.
A: Absolutely, going forward, we will see movement from country to country and it will not just be limited to traditional expat assignments. We are also creating a program for high-potential employees to gain global experience through development assignments. For instance, the R&D team has initiated a talent exchange program to expose employees to cutting-edge technology abroad. We’re also exploring opportunities for employees to gain international exposure through cross-country projects. Additionally, those eager to gain such experience can actively seek out opportunities through our global internal job posting platform, Global Career Market.
