Automotive & MobilityHyundai Mobis

A Beautiful Companion: Hyundai MOBIS CSR Engagement Platform

Bi-Modal UX
CSR Platform
Employee Experience
UX Writing

Pain Points

Without a systematic way to join and manage social contribution, it was hard to broaden participation.

Beyond Corporate Responsibility: The Importance and Impact of Social Contribution

As the importance of environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors grows, awareness of corporate social responsibility (CSR) is increasing.

CSR is a strategy of pursuing economic performance while carefully considering a company’s impact on society and the environment. It is implemented through various policies and systems that may provide incentives to companies or take the form of regulation as needed. CSR is also used by investors as an important criterion for evaluating companies.

Although awareness and norms around CSR differ by country, it is generally recognized as an essential business strategy. Social contribution activities in particular are a core element of CSR and an important part of CSR evaluation. Beyond personal fulfillment and social value, they act as a link between a company’s employees, customers and brand, as shown by various studies and statistics*.

Table — the corporate value of CSR activities (Nielsen, Cone Communications, Forbes)

Table: The corporate value of social contribution activities

* Nielsen “Global Survey on Corporate Social Responsibility,” Cone Communications “Social Impact Study,” Forbes “Corporate Philanthropy The New Paradigm: Volunteerism. Competence”

Hyundai Mobis has some 12,000 employees at 82 sites across Korea and operations in about 20 countries worldwide. With such a broad scope of activity, it pays special attention to community-centered social contribution.

However, without a systematic work system for efficiently joining and managing social contribution activities, Hyundai Mobis struggled to expand employee participation and create a virtuous cycle through rewards. To solve this, it considered developing an online platform where employees could voluntarily take part in, creatively plan and carry out social contribution activities.

Strategic Lens

We defined seven key elements of a successful social contribution platform.

Strategy and Implementation of the CSR Platform

Analyzing the social contribution platforms of companies at home and abroad, Saltcake’s UX/UI consultants found two main approaches: companies building their own platforms, and companies using existing solution services. According to the analysis, overseas companies more actively use solution services, while Korean companies tend to provide these activities mainly through portals or public services.

CSR platforms in Korea and abroad, with best practices marked (Saltcake, 2023)

Social contribution platforms at home and abroad (“•” = best practice)

*Saltcake, 2023

Cases from global IT companies also stand out, as they achieve notable results by combining social contribution strategy with corporate culture. For example, Microsoft runs a separate platform for donations and skill-based volunteering and offers volunteer leave to encourage employees to share their skills. Samsung provides a range of rewards including certificates, awards, training opportunities and grants, and Google actively connects with nations and local communities.

Drawing also on other case studies and research papers, Saltcake summarized seven key elements for a successful employee-participation social contribution platform.

Hyundai Mobis CSR Platform — Collection of CSR core value icons

• Reflect the company’s interests and values

• Disclose results and processes transparently

• Consider individuals’ time and resources

• Offer many ways to participate

• Align with corporate culture and organizational goals

• Present a clear vision and goals

• Motivate through rewards and recognition

Creative Approach

We designed a bi-modal cyclical UX that connects participants and administrators in one cycle.

A Social Contribution Journey Unfolding through User-Centered Design

Hyundai Mobis’s social contribution platform project focused on the seven elements for a successful platform. At its core was designing the user experience journey, considering in depth how to shape the experience at each stage of the journey to realize these seven success factors.

User experience journeys tend to be designed around the front end, but because Hyundai Mobis values employees’ voluntary participation, careful design for administrators was included as well, since their role in discovering and leading social contribution activities is crucial. To this end, we introduced a “bi-modal cyclical UX design” so participants and administrators, though in different systems, stay connected and organically pursue one goal.

Bi-Modal Cyclical UX Design (Saltcake, 2023)

Bi-modal cyclical UX design

*Saltcake, 2023

We also analyzed actions and services, pain points, needs and expectations at each stage of the user experience, and created a User Activity Matrix from them to identify users’ main behavior patterns. This analysis greatly helped the design of the UI flow and information architecture and contributed to a richer, more differentiated user experience.

Hyundai Mobis CSR Platform — Platform service structure diagram

User Activity Matrix

*Saltcake, 2023

Delivered Experience

We designed a platform where employees create, join and share activities themselves.

The Three Pillars: Participate, Innovate, Communicate

Through three UX/UI strategies, participation and leadership, a user-friendly approach, and communication and engagement, the Hyundai Mobis social contribution platform encourages employees to take part in social contribution and pursues positive experiences on the platform and the growth of corporate culture.

01. Participation and Leadership

This part focuses on creating an environment where employees voluntarily participate and play an active role.

Unlike approaches such as Google’s, where social contribution activities are created directly on the front end, Hyundai Mobis gives employees limited access to the admin system to create and manage activities. To make the admin system easy to use, we provided a UI similar to the front end and consistent UX writing, making participation in social contribution an easy and enjoyable experience.

UX writing sample — input guide and email top message (Saltcake, 2023)

UX writing sample: input guide and email top message

*Saltcake, 2023

02. A User-Friendly Approach

A “user-friendly approach” that values usability and user benefit is one of the core elements of the Hyundai Mobis social contribution system. In contrast to corporate systems that followed developer-centered functional design, it starts from a UX/UI perspective that puts the user experience first, focusing on making the system more convenient and enjoyable to use.

The Hyundai Mobis social contribution system was designed as follows to give users a convenient and enjoyable experience.

• Home screen composition

It was designed with users in many different situations in mind. An interface that is easy to understand and access helps users find information about social contribution activities and take part easily.

Table — user case and contents (Saltcake, 2023)

Table: User cases and content

*Saltcake, 2023

• Information on social contribution activities

Key information is summarized so users can quickly consider their time and resources, with a UI planned to help stories resonate rather than simply provide information.

• Task notification emails

Designed to provide information to users proactively, these emails go beyond feedback on tasks to give notice of upcoming tasks, helping users manage and prepare their work more effectively.

03. Communication and Participation

CSR managers think hard about how to embed social contribution activities effectively in corporate culture. In response, Saltcake designed a UI where participants actively share activity reviews and communicate with other participants, and built an admin system to manage and coordinate participants’ ideas, focusing on strengthening long-term participation and communication.

Saltcake, Leading Sustainable Change

Through our collaboration with Hyundai Mobis, Saltcake proved that a sustainable CSR strategy can move beyond theory into real action. In this project, we went beyond building an efficient system to focus on creating a virtuous cycle where employees participate voluntarily and their participation turns into social value.

By building the Hyundai Mobis social contribution platform, we showed how corporate social responsibility can be realized in the real world. This was not simply an expansion of social contribution activities, but a change with a deep impact on corporate culture and how employees work.

Saltcake will continue to work with companies that share a vision like Hyundai Mobis’s to find and lead sustainable ways for business and society to thrive together. We are confident these efforts are an important step toward a better future, beyond business results.

Volunteer activity photos displayed across a glass building facade

Client

Helping 12,000 employees start, join and share volunteering on one platform.

Project Information

Industry: Automotive & Mobility
Project Type: New Build
Role: UX Research, UX Strategy, UX/UI Design, UX Writing

Client: Hyundai Mobis
Client Introduction: Hyundai Mobis is a global auto parts company leading the smart mobility era with a focus on autonomous driving, connectivity and electrification. Its three core modules (chassis, cockpit and front-end) create safe and convenient driving environments, it leads global mass production of key hydrogen fuel cell vehicle components, and it delivers differentiated mobility solutions by combining software and hardware.

Companies introduce many systems to improve efficiency and respond to market change, and among them, sustainable management has emerged as an essential strategy. Through Saltcake’s Hyundai Mobis social contribution platform project, we show why this strategy matters and how it is applied in practice.

Case Intelligence Summary

Pain Points

Without a systematic way to join and manage social contribution, it was hard to broaden participation.

As ESG gained weight, CSR became a key criterion for how investors judge companies, and employee giving — its core — links employees, customers and the brand. With 12,000 employees at 82 sites in Korea and bases in some 20 countries, Hyundai Mobis cared especially about community-based giving. But without a systematic system for joining and managing activities, it was hard to widen employee participation. Nor could it build a virtuous cycle that turns participation into recognition and reward. It needed an online platform where employees take part voluntarily and plan and run activities themselves.

Strategic Lens

We defined seven key elements of a successful social contribution platform.

Analyzing CSR platforms at home and abroad, we found two approaches — building your own or using an existing solution — with overseas companies favoring solutions and Korean companies mostly using portals or public services. IT companies that fused giving strategy with corporate culture stood out: Microsoft runs a platform for donations and skills-based volunteering plus volunteer leave, Samsung offers rewards like certificates, awards, training and grants, and Google works closely with national and local communities. Drawing on these cases and research papers, we defined seven keys to a successful employee-giving platform: reflecting company values, transparent results and process, respect for personal time and resources, varied ways to take part, alignment with organizational goals, a clear vision, and motivation through recognition and reward.

Creative Approach

We designed a bi-modal cyclical UX that connects participants and administrators in one cycle.

We designed the user journey around how each of the seven success factors would come to life at every stage. User journeys are usually drawn front-end first, but at Hyundai Mobis, where voluntary participation matters, the administrators who discover and lead activities play a crucial role. So we introduced a bi-modal cyclical UX design in which participants and administrators work in different systems yet stay connected toward one goal. A User Activity Matrix analyzing actions and services, pain points, needs and expectations at each stage revealed key behavior patterns and shaped the UI flow and information structure.

Delivered Experience

We designed a platform where employees create, join and share activities themselves.

We shaped the platform through three strategies: participation and leadership, a user-friendly approach, and communication and engagement. Rather than creating activities on the front end as Google does, employees get limited access to the admin system to create and manage activities, made easy by UI that feels like the front end and consistent UX writing. We designed a home screen for different situations, activity summaries that help people judge time and resources quickly, and proactive notification emails that even flag upcoming tasks. UI for sharing activity reviews and talking with other participants, plus an admin system for managing ideas, sustains long-term engagement. As a result, CSR moved beyond a statement into a virtuous cycle where employees' participation becomes social value.

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