H-Story

[Inside & Human Stories]

 

Hyundai Corporation Group Chairman Chung Mong-hyuk speaking at the 2023 Walkonnect Challenge < Hyundai Corporation>

 
 

“At Hyundai Corporation, ‘people’ are everything. Your health is closely connected to the health of Hyundai Corporation as a whole as well as the wellbeing of your families.”

 
 

This is what Hyundai Corporation Group Chairman Chung Mong-hyuk says time and again when he meets with employees. He is a self-proclaimed and widely-acknowledged “health evangelist” in the business world. He has stressed the importance of employee health management, saying, “Trading firms do not run by physical resources such as manufacturing facilities; they run relying only on human resources. Therefore, each and every one of you should do your utmost to maintain healthy lifestyles in a responsible manner.” Hyundai Corporation (HC) has also been trying to offer a range of programs to help employees maintain healthy lifestyles with less effort but more fun.

 

Chairman Chung particularly emphasizes walking as daily exercise. He is known for giving high-quality walking shoes as gifts or handing out books on good walking to HC employees to encourage walking. In the same vein, a walking challenge or trekking competition has been held every year to commemorate HC’s founding anniversary.

 

Chairman Chung’s love for walking has manifested as the “Walkonnect Challenge.” Last year, HC held its first Walkonnect Challenge in celebration of its 47th anniversary. Using a mobile app, HC employees recorded the number of steps that they took every day for 47 days from May 17 last year. The Challenge assigned three missions – competition by team, competition by generation (individual), and sustainable walking (10,000 steps or more every day for 47 days) – to motivate participation. To induce competition in good faith, participants were allowed to check each other’s records. As a result, 337 people walked an average of 12,973 steps per day for 47 days, achieving a gross total of 83,525,965 steps. The company responded by offering a reward of 50 million won. It was a two-birds-with-one-stone event for employees as they gained both health and monetary benefits.

 

Chairman Chung also participated in the Walkonnect Challenge. In the morning of one challenge day, Chairman Chung topped the list of step count, which became a hot topic among the employees. However, his record did not last even half a day because the challenge was so hot among the employees that they were enthusiastically participating.

 

The Walkonnect Challenge was initially planned as a one-time event, but Hyundai Corporation decided to hold the program again this year. It runs for six months from May 1 to October 31. The start time is earlier than last year, with a longer duration. HC also developed a mobile app (Walkonnect App) for the challenge, enabling overseas employees to participate. The app used last year (developed by an external firm) could not provide services overseas, making it impossible for overseas employees to participate in the challenge.

 

Specific missions offering health and monetary rewards have been increased to four: Step Points (reward in points for the cumulative count of steps taken by an individual for six months), Healthy Week (reward for those who rank 48th in step count in the second and fourth weeks of every month), Lucky Box (lot drawing among employees who achieve a monthly cumulative count of “300,000 to 400,000 steps”), and Testimonial Contest. There is also a monthly mission. Ahead of this year’s challenge, Chairman Chung once again emphasized that “human resources are the single most significant asset for our company,” adding that “this year’s challenge is also intended to help employees make healthy walking habits part of their life.”

 

Chairman Chung’s enthusiasm as a health evangelist is not limited to “walking.” Hyundai Corporation has been offering CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) training to its employees every year since 2011 and has also been making it available for the family members of employees since 2022. HC also implements an anti-smoking campaign and a weight loss project and invites external lecturers for special lectures on health management topics such as aging and diabetes. It also created easy workout moves for employees with the help of experts. During traditional holidays, the company gives employees products with probiotics as gifts.

 

May 25, 2024
MoneyToday