SK Innovation, the energy holding company of SK Group, has nosedived into 13th place on a 2015 list of the ‘Best Companies to Work For in S. Korea’ after it topped the list last year.
According to Job Planet (a Korean user-generated company review and assessment website) on Monday, the nation’s leading energy and petrochemical company had swung to a loss last year for the first time in 37 years. It posted KRW 65.9 trillion in sales and the worst-ever operating loss of KRW 224.1 billion.
Since May, SK Innovation has carried out a voluntary early retirement incentive program, which is deemed to have considerably dented employee satisfaction. Its management team scored 2.75 points, a sharp drop from last year’s 4.11.
SK Innovation is unlikely to redeem itself in the near future. The Korea Investor Services (KIS), a local credit rating agency, has maintained its credit rating of SK Innovation’s non guaranteed bonds at “AA+” and left its negative outlook on SK Innovation’s credit rating “unchanged.” The KIS said that uncertainties over an improvement in SK Innovation’s low profit margins grew due to its weakening earning power, oil price volatility and worries over an unbalanced demand-supply situation. In addition, growth in loans as a result of expanding investment was also factored in, the KIS explained.
To top it off, SK Innovation executives have been embroiled in a series of corruption scandals, consequently dampening employee morale. Last month, Jeong Cheol-gil, CEO of SK Innovation, was questioned by police over defense industry corruption allegations levelled at Lee Kyu-tae, chairman of Ilgwang Gongyeong, who is facing charges of inflating the price of the Electronic Warfare Training System (EWTS) for the Air Force and creating a slush fund in 2012. Jeong Cheol-gil, then CEO of SK C&C, was questioned as a material witness to the case.
Meanwhile, Hyundai Engineering & Construction came out on top of the 'Best Companies to Work For' list. It did best in employee welfare and pay satisfaction, scoring 4.1 points on a scale of 1-5.
Daum Kakao finished second with 3.8 points in work–life balance and 3.9 points in corporate culture. Nice Information Service and Daewoo Engineering & Construction came in third and fourth respectively.
Amongst SMEs, Ace Project, a Seoul-based mobile game developer, ranked first, followed by Alticast, a Korean developer of digital TV solutions, and Baedal Minjok (S. Korea’s No. 1 mobile food delivery app).
