“Super” heroes are wanted not only to fight crime, but to raise and maintain profits, according to the Korean Chamber of Commerce on Monday.

Super in this case stands for specialty, unconventionality, pioneer, ethicality and responsibility ― some of the top qualities that companies demand from their employees.

At the top of this wish list was pioneer, the survey conducted by the chamber on the nation’s top 100 companies showed, indicating that firms now wanted their workers to be dedicated to breaking new ground.

Second in line was responsibility, voted by some 78 companies to be the quality they most look for in an employee, followed by specialty and unconventionality.

The results highlight the financial difficulties that firms are faced with, which is forcing them to be constantly up to the challenge,” the chamber said.

Korea, an economy heavily dependent on exports for economic growth, has been grappling with a sluggish global economy that has kept countries from importing Korean-made products.

In a similar survey five years earlier, unconventionality had been the No. 1 quality companies said they looked for, followed by specialty.

“This was when firms were all pursuing breakthrough technologies to help put their names on the global map. Now, things are quite different,” the chamber said.

The industry also defined the ideal employee, with manufacturers and transport companies emphasizing pioneer, while financial companies were more into specialty. Wholesalers, on the other hand, tended to put more weight on responsibility, the surveyed showed.

By Kim Ji-hyun (jemmie@heraldcorp.com)