[2020 Women Index] Shinsegae, 'W Mentoring' Female Manager Development

At the 5th Asia Women Index Awards Ceremony, Shinsegae received the Minister of Gender Equality and Family Award. Lee Ui-cheol, CEO of Asia Economy (left), presented the award on their behalf.

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunju Lee] At the 5th Asia Women’s Index Awards ceremony, Shinsegae, which received the Minister of Gender Equality and Family Award, achieved excellent results in all categories.

Shinsegae does not set separate employment ratios by gender in open recruitment to promote female employment. To foster female managers, it operates evaluation and promotion systems based on established regulations and processes without gender discrimination. Additionally, it runs the 'W Mentoring' program, pairing female managers with new female employees to help female workers continue their careers as managers after joining. W Mentoring is an educational program that matches female new hires with female managers to facilitate early adaptation to work and develop managerial skills.

There is no gender-based job classification, and efforts are made to prevent the occurrence of female-concentrated or underrepresented jobs by deploying male personnel in jobs traditionally staffed mainly by women. Women are also involved as recruiters and interviewers.

Female workers can participate in promotion evaluations as long as they meet the required length of service in their rank, regardless of whether they take parental leave or not, to prevent unequal treatment. When returning to work, priority is given to their previous performance by reflecting it as much as possible in their job location or job assignment.

For workers under special protection, a 5-hour workday is the standard. Although not a mandatory workplace, some sites operate daycare centers that are expanded to be available not only to directly employed staff but also to children of cooperative and subcontracted employees working in stores. Maternity packages are provided not only to pregnant employees expecting childbirth but also to their spouses. Male employees are encouraged to freely use parental leave, and spousal childbirth leave is operated as paid leave in accordance with legal standards. For workers under special protection, regulations prohibit giving lower performance evaluations without justifiable reasons such as decreased productivity. In particular, if a worker under special protection receives a low evaluation, the responsible executive must submit a disqualification statement before the evaluation can be assigned.

A 35-hour workweek system has been introduced. In addition to statutory parental leave, a 'desired parental leave' option is available to help achieve work-life balance.