"Working Smarter: LG Innotek Opens Its First Hub Office"

[Asia Economy Reporter Suyeon Woo] LG Innotek is accelerating the establishment of a smart work environment by opening a hub office and introducing an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot service. This is to quickly adapt to the new normal era triggered by COVID-19 and to leap forward as a global leading company.

LG Innotek announced on the 18th that it recently opened its first hub office in the Yonsei Severance Building in Jung-gu, Seoul. A hub office is a separately operated office where employees can work in addition to the existing workplace. While some telecommunications, distribution, and IT industries operate such offices, it is unusual for a manufacturing-based company to adopt this.

Along with this, LG Innotek has newly launched an in-house AI chatbot system to improve work convenience and processing speed. In addition, it is accelerating the transition to smart work methods by conducting online marketing activities including ontact (online face-to-face) marketing, recruitment, wages, and collective agreements online.

Employees of LG Innotek working at the hub office / Photo by LG Innotek

The hub office was established to reduce commuting and business trip travel time and to increase work concentration and efficiency. The location was selected around Seoul Station, which has excellent transportation accessibility such as KTX, subway, and airport. Since early last year, LG Innotek has expanded remote work by building mobile video conferencing systems like 'Webex,' which allows meetings anytime and anywhere via smartphones or PCs, and 'Teams,' a messenger-based collaborative tool.

Furthermore, it is actively promoting ontact methods for customer meetings, recruitment, internal events, and training. It has introduced video conferences for top executive meetings with domestic customers and global clients, and new employee interviews are also conducted via video. In April last year, the signing ceremony for the labor union’s collective bargaining agreement was conducted via video linking the headquarters and local business sites, and employee job training and internal seminars are also operated in an online conference format.

This smart work environment establishment reflects the strong will of LG Innotek President Cheol-dong Jeong. Since his appointment at the end of 2018, President Jeong has emphasized innovation in work methods through the expansion of flexible working hours and upgrading digital work systems to build a smart work environment.

President Jeong stated, "In the new normal era, employees should be able to work and grow freely in an individually optimized work environment under 'autonomy and responsibility.' We will build a smart and flexible work environment and create a global No.1 materials and components company together with our employees.”