GS Retail to hire older adults for on-foot delivery
GS Retail will hire people aged 60 or over for its on-foot delivery service, the major retailer said Tuesday.
The company expects it will not only draw a competent workforce but also bring positive health benefits to its employees while reducing carbon emissions by using fewer vehicles.
The GS Group subsidiary signed a partnership Monday with the Seoul Metropolitan Government to create more jobs for the city’s older adults. Company Vice President Oh Jin-seog and Seoul Vice Mayor for Political Affairs Kang Cheol-won signed the deal at City Hall.
Both parties saw that Korea’s growing number of older adults willing to work should be provided with jobs, and a delivery service on foot would be ideal for them.
Hired applicants will begin working as couriers after undergoing training in April and May. The company will use a smartphone app to connect its on-foot couriers with customers. The couriers can select in the app how much they want to work and earn.
Launched in 2020, the app Our Neighborhood Delivery has been encouraging deliverers to walk to their delivery locations to reduce carbon emissions from combustion engines. In the country’s delivery industry, motorcycles have been responsible for a large portion of emissions.
With the city government, the company aims to hire 250 couriers this year and eventually prepare a crew of 1,000 workers for on-foot delivery. It expects the new business will have multi-thronged effects by catering to those 60 and older who want a job, helping them take care of their own health and improving customer satisfaction through its retail brands like GS the Fresh and GS25, a convenience franchise.
“Our new business will help the country’s increasing senior group achieve economic independence and discover new joy in their lives,” Oh said. “Based on our corporate social responsibility, we’ll keep introducing new job opportunities for the socially vulnerable.”
The company, since 2019, has been running Senior Stores, convenience stores that primarily hire older adults, with the Ministry of Health and Welfare. The stores currently number 51 nationwide.