Carmaker turns to regional talent pool, though expertise gaps cloud outlook

Workers at Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America in Ellabell, Georgia (Hyundai Motor Group)
Workers at Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America in Ellabell, Georgia (Hyundai Motor Group)

Hyundai Motor is stepping up efforts to recruit local talent at its recently opened Georgia plant in the aftermath of a massive immigration raid at the construction site of the joint battery plant between Hyundai Motor and LG Energy Solution in the state earlier this month.

According to the career website of Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America, there were 33 job openings as of Thursday. Of them, 28 were uploaded after the US immigration and law enforcement authorities carried out the large-scale search and arrest operation at the HL-GA Battery Co. construction site on Sept. 4.

A total of 475 people were detained, including 316 Koreans who were employees of LG Energy Solution and Hyundai Engineering and their partners. The detainees were released and returned to Korea a week later, following all-out efforts by Seoul to resolve the matter.

The job openings at HMGMA included a legal senior counsel of labor and employment, who is expected to support the plant’s legal matters with a focus on labor, employment, benefits, immigration and workplace safety laws. HMGMA will also hold a job fair Tuesday on the Savannah Technical College Crossroads campus.

Although no personnel directly hired by Hyundai Motor were impacted in the immigration raid, the career posting for a legal senior counsel of labor and employment appears to indicate the automaker’s push to refine the employment process and leave no room for similar incidents in the future.

“Hyundai has operated in Georgia for more than 15 years, and our commitment to American manufacturing remains strong,” said Hyundai Motor Company CEO Jose Munoz in a letter to employees, as he expressed empathy for the affected workers from the automaker’s supplier partner firms.

“The partnership between our Korean operations and our international facilities, particularly in the United States, remains essential to Hyundai's global success.”

Munoz announced an additional $2.7 billion investment for HMGMA during the company’s annual investor day event, which was held outside Korea for the first time in New York on Sept. 18. He pledged to create 3,000 direct and indirect jobs in Georgia as the plant will be expanded to reach a production capacity of 500,000 hybrid and vehicle vehicles per year by 2028.

According to WSAV News 3, citing an HMGMA spokesperson, the Korean automaker’s Georgia site has nearly 1,400 employees, with 73.2 percent of them coming from the Greater Savannah area where HMGMA is located.

In the wake of the immigration crackdown, stakeholders are keeping a wary eye on the outlook of sourcing the right talent from the local pool.

“Where Hyundai Motor has built its plant is not a big, major city and it does not have enough merits for people who live in a different region to move there,” said Lee Ho-geun, an automotive engineering professor at Daeduk University.

"Regarding key operations and technologies at the plant (HMGMA), skilled Korean workers are needed. However, the current deadlock is likely to delay the beginning of normal operation at the plant, and this will inevitably postpone local employment. Even if Hyundai hurries up the recruitment process, there are clear limitations in selecting enough people who meet the level of technological expertise that is expected from Hyundai.”

An industry official noted that although no direct employees of Hyundai Motor were arrested, entering the US and working there is likely to remain uneasy for the time being.

“There are certain tasks that must be conducted or supervised by professionals with years of experience, or they need to get their hands on at least during their initial phases,” said the official.

“Where will (Hyundai Motor) find qualified candidates for such assignments?”


hwkan@heraldcorp.com