What led you to decide on a full rebuild of a system you had used for more than 10 years?
Compared with when we first built it in 2012, both the size of the company and our HR systems had completely changed. Job grades and compensation had been fully overhauled, new working arrangements such as staggered hours had been introduced, and the organization itself had grown significantly. The scope the system had to cover went far beyond what it did at the initial build. On top of that, the environmental limits of the ActiveX-based structure added up, and we judged it was time to move up to a system suited to our current scale and systems.
Why did you choose hunel once again?
After deciding on the rebuild, our field managers and IT managers reviewed several solutions together. hunel already had the experience of being configured to Hyundai Department Store's HR structure and ways of working built into the system, and it was proven to require less manual work for company setup and administration than other solutions. It wasn't starting from scratch — it was a step up built on 10 years of operating experience.
How did you prepare for the project internally?
First, we invested a long time in just gathering and analyzing requirements before development. Even though many things were difficult during the COVID period, we interviewed each department and field manager to capture every voice from the field without exception. We then ran integration testing module by module, two weeks each, for over three months. Even after launch, we secured a three-month stabilization period and provided continuous support. Because working arrangements and exceptions differed by store and department, taking enough time over this process is what later led to adoption without resistance.
What change did you feel most in day-to-day work after the build?
Follow-up work after HR appointments improved dramatically. Previously, after an appointment the person in charge had to notify each department individually by phone or message; now an automatic alert is sent the moment the appointment is made, so the follow-up departments recognize it and act immediately. Employees can also receive automatic alerts before their leave expires, so fewer things slip through. It has become even faster as we have kept operating it.
| Before | After |
| Post-appointment follow-up notified individually by phone · message | Immediate follow-up via automatic alert at the moment of appointment |
| Attendance handled only on PC · in the office | Direct requests via mobile app, on-site · in the field |
| Org charts made manually, taking several days | Instant creation and use via the visual org-chart menu |
How did employees who started using the new system respond?
What surprised us after launch was that mobile access was higher than PC access. We had assumed a work system would naturally be PC-centered, but far more employees than expected handled everything on mobile — from clock-in/out records to attendance requests and checking various HR information. Mobile had established itself as an everyday HR channel.
As someone who has been through it, what advice would you give to those about to take on a large-scale HR system project?
As much as the requirements from a manager's perspective, it is important to think ahead about how everyday employees' work will change after launch. You have to reflect the convenience employees will actually feel into the design so the system settles in quickly after go-live. And it is essential that the field managers who know the work best and are familiar with the exceptions — the power users — take part in the project directly. How thoroughly you pin down requirements at the start determines the final quality at the end, and the people closest to the actual work should lead that process. Setting up the organization first so that power users can focus on the project — that, I believe, is the starting point of a successful project.
