Samsung Electronics plans to announce a new structure of employee titles next month that aims to promote talented workers based on performance regardless of age or years of experience.

According to industry sources Sunday, a task force team within the human resource management division has worked on the revision since the company’s announcement of a new corporate vision “Start-up Samsung” in March. 

Samsung has maintained a typical structure of five employee ranks that is common at other Korean conglomerates.

The titles are sawon (four years), daeri (four years), gwajang (five years), chajang (five years), and bujang (four to five years). It usually takes almost 20 years for a new employee to become an executive called sangmu or vice president.

Of the company’s more than 1,000 executives, only three are in their 30s and all of them are researchers with a doctorate degree.

Sources said the number of titles will be reduced to three or four to be more focused on jobs, not years of experience, while new titles are also likely to come about to describe several project team leaders.

“A drastic change will be made in the way we have worked,” a Samsung official said on condition of anonymity, declining to further elaborate.

Some Samsung affiliates have already adopted a new employee title structure. For instance, employees at Cheil Worldwide, an advertising unit, call each other “pro” to create a more flexible and creative working atmosphere.

In March, Samsung announced the “Start-up Samsung” vision with aims to change its rigid, top-down corporate culture, pledging to come up with a new roadmap for its human resource management in June. 

By Lee Ji-yoon (jylee@heraldcorp.com)