You used a foreign HR system for about 12 years. Was there a moment on the ground where you felt its limits most acutely?
Payroll closing was the hardest. In that system, editing a single record meant re-running the entire batch for all employees from scratch. One run took several hours, and we had to repeat that every time a change came up. During closing season, staying until dawn wasn't unusual. The UI was a problem too. Excel uploads didn't really work, and configuring it to Korean payroll practices took a lot of separate manual work. Both the staff and the executives watching the system felt its limits.
It sounds like the difficulties of the legacy system shaped the executives' view as well.
HR staff use the system 80 to 90% of the time, but executives clearly felt that "other systems keep evolving, so why is our HR system standing still?" There was demand for data-driven HR Analytics, and a shared perception among both staff and leadership that the UI was poor compared with external systems. Those pressures ultimately drove the decision to redevelop.
You reviewed several HR solutions. What was the decisive reason you ultimately chose hunel?
There were two big reasons. One was the user interface. In the demo, hunel was the most intuitive among the competing solutions. The other was the people. I have PM experience, so I know how much people matter in a project. The more I looked, the more it felt like HCG understands Korea's HR best. They also had rich experience building for the financial sector. The system itself is good, but the people implementing it were trustworthy.
Did the unique nature of the financial sector influence your solution choice?
At the time there was internal discussion once more about adopting a foreign solution, but in terms of compliance with domestic regulations and payroll customization, it was settled toward choosing a domestic solution. Securities firms have a high share of contract workers such as fund managers and traders, and the structures for contract management and personnel assignments differ from typical companies. We needed a partner who could implement these complex structures in line with Korean practices.
How does hunel's framework feel in actual operation?
The scope of what we can handle through configuration changed dramatically. Foundational areas of an HR system, such as permission management, code management, and electronic approval, are structured systematically, so things that used to require separate development can now be solved by configuration. With less reliance on custom development, operational stability improved as well. Using it, you think, "Ah, these people have seen a lot of the field."
| Before | After |
| Editing one record re-ran the entire batch (took hours) | Individual processing possible; batch time cut to tens of minutes |
| No Excel upload/download; manual setup required | Excel upload supported; tailored to Korean payroll practices |
| No external-network access, so filing requests during leave was inconvenient | Mobile e-HR enables filing leave/return requests from outside |
| Hard to change permission/code management without separate development | Configuration-based processing reduces reliance on custom development |
| No HR data dashboard for executives | Org/headcount data viewable instantly on mobile |
We're curious about employees' reactions to the mobile features.
General employees use it a lot, but executives' reactions were especially positive. They use mobile when they want to check employee information quickly. Employees on parental leave also responded strongly. Originally, accessing the internal system from an external network wasn't possible at all, but once filing leave and return requests by mobile became possible, that feature reached exactly the people who needed it.
How was it on the operational support side?
After stabilization, when we made additional requests such as improving the mobile org chart, they were glad to support them. As a result, it keeps getting a little better even after launch. I think that's why hunel has such deep experience in the industry.
If you were to recommend hunel to a financial-sector manager facing a legacy HR system migration, what reasons would you give?
The biggest reason is that the framework is well built. Because the structure comes from long field experience, it has the flexibility to cover even complex areas like attendance and payroll. It's also a solution well proven in environments with strict security requirements, like the financial sector. That said, even a good solution ultimately depends on the people implementing it. You need people who deeply understand the hunel framework while also properly grasping the client's operations, and only then does its value come through fully.
