"The reason why BI is the ‘Crown Jewel’ among all MNCs"

[Interview] Bom-Mai Park, VP of Boehringer Ingelheim Korea

Provides the ‘opportunity for mistakes’ to its employees and executives… forgivability is important for company growth’

“Implemented the ‘Future of Work’ system to fit the new normal era… we pursue talents that do not fear learning”

Bom-Mai Park, Head of HR/HRBP at Boehringer Ingelheim Korea

Multinational pharmaceutical companies are a dream job for many workers in the industry.

 

With its high salary, good welfare, and smart business system, many multinational pharmaceutical companies have all the requirements that office workers desire.

 

Even among these multinational pharmaceutical companies, Boehringer Ingelheim is considered to be top tier.

 

Headquartered in Ingelheim, Germany, the company has maintained its ‘family-operated system' for over 100 years.

 

Since its establishment in 1976, its Korean subsidiary, Boehringer Ingelheim Korea, has also been known as an ‘employee-oriented company that you can work for until retirement.’ Like other companies, Boehringer Ingelheim Korea had also implemented the Early Retirement Program (ERP) in 2014 and 2018 and made reductions in its workforce.

 

However, its downsizing scale and frequency were much smaller and less than other subsidiaries in Korea.

 

The company also showed an encouraging response to the current situation where COVID-19 had swept the world, changing everyone’s daily lives.

 

Boehringer Ingelheim Korea took 'Our FOCUS' and 'Future of Work' as their key message to drive change to fit the new era with their employees.

 

DailyPharm met with Bom-Mui Park (52), VP of Boehringer Ingelheim Korea who heads Human Resources (HR), to hear about the company’s vision and strengths.

 

-What are Boehringer Ingelheim Korea’s strengths in HR? There are official strengths, and those I personally consider as strengths.

 

Officially, the company considers the employee-company relationship in the long term.

 

The policies HQ took during the COVID-19 crisis that broke out last year are a good example.

 

The company made policies to preserve the level of income for employees in sales, such as MRs, who had suffered economic damage due to reduced incentives, etc.

 

from COVID-19.

 

Also, the company provided paid leave for employees who went to do volunteer activities related to COVId-19.

 

I was moved by the immediate response to crisis and rewards provided for employees by the company.

 

Personally, I believe the strength of Boehringer Ingelheim Korea lies in the provision of an ‘environment that allows learning from mistakes.’ Our company has a forgiving nature that allows employees to grow with feedback rather than being punished for a single mistake.

 

Also, as Boehringer Ingelheim is a limited liability company that pursues long-term performance and value creation, it is relatively more stable than the other companies that I have previously worked for.

 

-On the other hand, the company’s ‘forgiving’ culture could be abused and be considered an ‘easy company’ to work for, allowing employees to become lax in their work. I disagree.

 

Those who make mistakes are those who made attempts.

 

Employees who do nothing are the bigger threat to a company.

 

Boehringer Ingelheim has a well-established organizational culture that silently pressures those who do nothing.

 

In other words, our organizational culture is established so that everyone must do their part.

 

The roles and responsibilities of each employee are clearly set, and the evaluation standards for assessing each employee’s performance are also set quite high.

 

In these aspects, Boehringer Ingelheim is not an easy company to work for.

 

Also, our system is constantly evolving to fit the changes, and our employees grow in line with the changes.

 

-What is the ‘Future of Work’ that the company has newly implemented? The Future of Work was implemented in our headquarters to establish a flexible work culture and create a good environment for employees to work for which actively embraces the internal and external changes seen in the current era of change.

 

We worked hard to change the role of the office, which was just a mandatory space for work, into a space for cooperation and innovation.

 

In line with the efforts, Boehringer Ingelheim Korea also opened a smart office on April 5th.

 

The newly transformed office was designed to maximize collaboration, work efficiency, creativity, and employee’s health and well-being based on the company’s vision of ‘creating value through innovation.’ The office is no longer a mandatory workspace, but rather a place of collaboration and innovation which may be selected according to an employee’s nature of work and personal preferences.

 

Our new space has various kinds of meeting rooms and an Innovation Zone, as well as a Quite Zone where employees could focus on their work.

 

We also offer telecommuting, so employees may work at the office or from home.

 

The new office was designed so that all employees and executives may work efficiently and creatively without spatial constraints.

 

- What kind of talents do Boehringer Ingelheim Korea seek for its employees? We have a very specific type of talent we desire in our employees.

 

We want responsible individuals that are alert to change and have entrepreneurship, and not fear innovation or taking risks.

 

This is not limited to Boehringer Ingelheim Korea; it is what Boehringer Ingelheim wants for all its employees and is what we strive to become.

 

With work these days being conducted non-face-to-face and a leaner culture being set within the organization, the work culture in Korea as well has well moved away from the apprenticeship method.

 

In other words, employees nowadays need to lead their own work independently as soon as they enter the company.

 

Of course, feedback is provided; however, the learning curve has also become shorter than in the past, and employees must become on-set quickly.

 

So, we need people who do not feel burdened by learning.

 

We need learners with positive minds that say, ‘I will learn if I don’t know,’ that can strictly manage themselves.

 

-What kind of organization does Boehringer Ingelheim Korea wish to become in the future? Much has changed with COVID-19.

 

The biggest change that occurred is the non-face-to-face work through digital.

 

At first, I had my concerns.

 

But in fact, the flow now is better than expected.

 

We had experienced changes every year, but after COVID-19, we started to consider how to engage and immerse employees in the non-face-to-face environment.

 

In the past, I believed team-building was only possible face-to-face.

 

But I changed my mind after working non-face-to-face.

 

I now believe it is more about the vision set by the company.

 

The vision itself should make the employee's heart beat faster, and a goal needs to be set so the employees can bond over and take pride in its achievement.