Separated by COVID-19... BGF Retail Holds Virtual Farewell Party for New Employees

New Concept Online Communication Program

[Asia Economy Reporter Cha Min-young] Amid the difficulties in meeting due to the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) situation, BGF Retail held a non-face-to-face (untact) gathering for new employees in July.

BGF Retail, which operates CU, announced on the 25th that it held a special ontact gathering called ‘BGF Night of Meeting’ for new employees who found it difficult to meet this year due to COVID-19.

BGF Night of Meeting is a new-concept online communication program prepared for new employees who could not bond with their peers due to the omission of HRD introductory training caused by COVID-19, conducted as a non-face-to-face gathering using a video conferencing system. It was divided into groups of up to six people and held a total of 12 sessions over about two weeks, with around 70 participants in total.

For this online gathering, all new employees were given CU mobile gift certificates to freely prepare their preferred gathering menus. To encourage conversation topics, a CU honey combination mission was held where participants showcased their own snacks using their secret recipes. Examples included Gom-pyo Cheese Nacho Chili, Bbangppare Croffle, Giant Mapdal Rabokki, Cup Fruit Beer Cocktail, and Iberico Green Onion Pork Stir-fry.

The online gathering, initially set for one hour, exceeded an average of two hours, drawing enthusiastic responses from the new employees. After the gathering, over 100 reviews and comments poured in on the company bulletin board, such as “I had a really fun time meeting my peers online and sharing stories about my new employee life (Employee Park Yu-rim),” “I was half worried and half excited about what an online gathering would feel like, but it was a whole new world (Employee Song Yoon-sun),” and “It was a precious time that made me realize once again that peers are the best (Employee Hwang Tae-hyun).”

BGF Group has established the ‘Ontact Cheer up Program’ to regularly promote employee harmony and morale even amid social distancing. A representative example is ‘BGF Cultural Salon,’ which offers various themed online one-day classes such as wine tasting, leather crafts, and book concerts.

Yeom Gyu-yeol, head of BGF’s Organizational Culture Team, said, “Although many corporate activities are restricted this year due to COVID-19, the passion of new employees, who will be the cornerstone of the company, is hotter than ever,” and added, “Building on the positive response to this online gathering and cultural experience event, we plan to continuously introduce differentiated organizational culture programs unique to BGF.”