As Hyundai Motor Ulsan Plant scraps its in-house sports day, 1.2 billion won flows into local commercial districts

【Financial News | Ulsan = Reporter Choi Soo-sang】 Hyundai Motor Ulsan Plant said on the 29th that it had revamped its employee benefits system, scrapping large-scale sports events organized by business division and replacing them with small-scale “teamwork activities” for each team.
The aim is to move away from the previous format, which brought together thousands of people, build a more flexible organizational culture and revitalize neighborhood businesses by keeping spending within the local area.
Starting this year, Hyundai Motor revamped its “Sports Activities Support Program” and renamed the “Sports Activities Support Grant” the “Teamwork Activity Fund.” The grant is 40,000 won per employee, amounting to a total of 2.9 billion won based on a workforce of about 72,000. Of that, about 1.2 billion won was allocated to about 30,000 employees at the Ulsan plant.
Accordingly, instead of sports events that bring together thousands of people from each business division, each team is free to set its own schedule and program for teamwork activities, which will run through the end of November.
Activities have also become more varied as team members decide together what to do. Popular outdoor options include kayaking, an urban water sport on the Taehwa River; a coastal trail trek along the East Sea; and riverside plogging, which combines walking with environmental cleanup.
Activities tailored to each team’s composition and preferences are also underway, including screen baseball and escape-room cafes, popular with younger employees; recreational workshops to build team cohesion; urban camping; and group outings to professional sports events.

Another major change is that spending has been restricted to the area where the workplace is located to prevent activity funds from flowing out of the region. For the Ulsan plant, spending is permitted only in Ulsan, Busan and South Gyeongsang Province.
An analysis of team activity plans compiled by the Ulsan plant found that most of the allocated 1.2 billion won budget is expected to be spent at restaurants, cafes, leisure businesses and other establishments in Ulsan. This system directly channels the company’s employee-welfare budget into revenue for local small businesses.
A Hyundai Motor Ulsan Plant representative said, “We will continue our efforts to grow together, while making our organizational culture more flexible and ensuring that our employee benefits program translates into tangible revenue for local small businesses.”  


[email protected] Choi Soo-sang Reporter