At the beginning of 2023, SK On Hungary celebrated the anniversary of its oldest employee, as one of our colleagues has been with the company for 5 years, she was already working for the company before its factory was even built. What better example than this of how a company with an excellent human environment and culture always counts on its employees for the long term, and of course employees can count on their employer.
Erzsébet Tóth is a member of the finance department of SK On Hungary Kft., who joined the company before the Hungarian factories were built. She is responsible for the costs of production materials, equipment, and services, as well as accounting. She joined the company in December 2018, when SK On’s parent company SK Innovation purchased the land for its future factory near Komárom in northern Hungary. In other words, she contributed to the funds, having worked for the company before it was even registered in Hungary and while the factory was under construction. “For a year and a half before the temporary container office opened in Komárom, I used to get up early every day and make the 4-hour round trip to the office, which was still in Budapest at the time. I can still feel and remember the excitement when I first entered the complex that was later completed.”
After SK Innovation’s battery division took physical form, SK On Hungary was established in October 2021 as a forerunner to the European EV battery market. In January 2020, production started at the plant in Komárom with an annual production capacity of 7.5 GWh. The production of this amount of battery cells will allow the production of batteries for 120,000 electric cars.
In February this year, Erzsébet was the first in the company to receive a plaque of recognition for five years of service. In an interview with her, she said “Unlike other companies I have worked for, at SK On Hungary, the department managers put a lot of emphasis on creating an atmosphere where all employees feel comfortable at work.” She added that the finance team, where she works, is so close-knit that they sometimes even go on holiday together on weekends.
As a native of Komárom, it was not easy for her at first to work for a Korean company where everything was different, from the language to the food, to the culture. She was unfamiliar with Korean greetings and sometimes found it difficult to pronounce Korean names. “Korean colleagues took on English names to make it easier to pronounce, while we deliberately alternated between Korean and Hungarian restaurants during meals. Also, Eunhee Ryu, the Korean women’s national handball team captain, plays for one of the Hungarian teams, so Korean colleagues and I went to watch a handball match.”
It was only when the workers who would work in the third plant in Iváncsa came to Komárom for the training process that she realised how much the company had grown.
“It made me proud to see the engineers from Komárom sharing with the new colleagues the knowledge and experience they have gained from working in the first and second plants.” The company had just 5 employees when Erzsébet joined the company, but that number has now grown to 3,000. “I watched the first gates being cut during the construction of the factory, as well as the first day of production and the first shipment of our product – I even took a group photo in front of the truck with the colleagues. In fact, I joined the company when it was at zero, and now it has three factories. I would like to share all the great moments in the future that SK On Hungary has to look forward to, thanks to its continuous growth.”