How to open a headhunting company in Korea

Sometimes I receive questions that are not about labor laws but somewhat related to labor-related laws. Yesterday, a potential investor from Hong Kong asked me a question on how to establish a headhunting company in Korea.

After spending a couple of hours on the web searching, I only found a vague answer that registration is required based on employment security act. I had to read and translate a part of the act to get better answers. The following is a loose excerpt translation of the parts of the act that cover requirements for registration to open a headhunting company in Korea.

According the the act, headhunters or recruiting agencies fall under the category of fee charging placement service and a person who wants to establish a recruitment or headhunting company should register to city mayors, county chiefs or head of Ku (district) administrative offices. If the business is overseas recruitment, the registration should be made with the Minister of Labor. (article 19, the employment security act)

Requirements for registration are as follows (article 21, the enforcement decree of the employment security act)

1. If an applicant is a natural person, he/she should have one of the following qualifications.

2. If an applicant is a legal person, the entitiy should be a company with a paid-in capital of not less than 50 million KRW and at least two of its executives should have one of the following qualifications.

a. one with a national license of job consultant (grade 1 or 2) based on “national license act”

b. one with two or more years of experience of working in the fields of job counseling, job guidance, vocational training, and other couseling related to job placement in job placement offices, vocational ability development centers, schools, and youth organizations.

c. one with the license of certified labor affairs consultant based on the certified labor affairs consultant act

d. one with two or more years of experience of working as a full-time union official in a company-based labor union with 100 or more members or a federation or a confederation of labor unions.

e. one with two or more years of experience of working for labor management in workplaces with 300 or more regular workers

f. one who worked for two or more years as a government official in the central or local governments.

g. one with two or more years of teaching experience with a licence of teacher based on the elementary and secondary education act.

3. Applicants should have an office of at least 33 square meters (legal person) or 20 square meters (natural person) (article 18, enforcement decree of the employment security act).