'Hot shot' Audi Volkswagen Korea's staff changing jobs

Audi Volkswagen, which surpassed Mercedes-Benz and stood as the number 2 in the imported car market, is losing its staff.

This brings many questions from the automotive industry, for this is very unusual for a company with good performance.

According to the automotive industry, 11 people involved in the departure from marketing, financing, and repairs left e-mails to their fellow workers and left the company after a major shifting of members among executives in Audi Volkswagen Korea.

These people were 10 percent of the entire 118 crew of Audi Volkswagen Korea, and two thirds of the deserters were under Volkswagen Korea.

An insider at the automotive industry said, “There are rumors of others who have left the company other than those people and there are orders given to headhunting companies (by Audi Volkswagen Korea) to replace these workers, but it has become troublesome for the number of applicants are almost close to nothing.”

Last March, Volkswagen Korea initiated a public recruitment trying to change its public relations agency, receiving a quizzical glance from the automotive industry when the number of applicants halted at only two.

The previous company therefore had to keep the job, for Volkswagen Korea was limited by its internal regulation stating that the selection process can only begin when there are more than three companies applying for the position

Audi Volkswagen Korea is a foreign automotive sales corporation instituted in July 2004, separated into brands Volkswagen Korea, Audi Korea, and Bentley Korea with CEO Johannes Tamers and most of its executives from the main branch in Germany.

Audi Volkswagen Korea scored a 1.54 trillion won in sales last year, a 37.1% increase from the previous year, settling in as the number 1 in the imported car market by making a profit of 522 billion won, surpassing BMW Korea at 354 billion won, and Mercedes-Benz Korea at 413 billion won.

One of the controversial factors in this foreign automotive company includes the dispute over the unjust termination of Lee Yeon-kyoung former Audi Korea’s marketing director. The former director was the youngest director in the foreign automotive industry for the past eight years, and was credited for successfully increasing the brand value of Audi Korea.

However, this became controversial when Audi Korea fired the executive last February for behavioral misconduct and disputed for four months over relief application. Finally, the company took back the termination and relieved the executive in the form of “resignation under instruction.”

The interpretation of Audi Volkswagen Korea’s situation is divergent. The incentives for its staffs decrease in contrary to the increased sales record and the German executives who are unaware of the local finances contribute to the discord inside the company.

It was found that especially in the case for Volkswagen Korea, German marketing executives interfered endlessly with expenses. The industry speculates that new executives who are completely unaware of the actual circumstances within Korea only creates conflicts by working only to show progress to the main branch in Germany.

A well informed personnel of the automotive industry said, “An executive enraged workers by saying, “I know how the Koreans pocket money behind their backs and is quite a racially offensive statement which casts Korean workers as the incriminators.”

An official at Audi Volkswagen Korea said, “The staff’s turnover has been mollified for now and the certain German executives have recently become more reticent in the castigations within and out of the company.”