Innovation #1 A company with a bucket list

A quirky tent meeting room at the Woowa Brothers headquarters. / Courtesy of Woowa Brothers

7 things that make Woowa Bros' work culture special

This is first in a series of articles on companies with innovative work cultures ― ED.

By Yun Suh-young

Visitors are greeted by a large signboard depicting Ryu Seung-ryong, the model for Baedal Minjok, the company’s delivery brand, in Woowa Brothers’ lobby. / Korea Times photo by Yun Suh-young

People have heard a lot about innovative work cultures where companies implement "smart office" systems eliminating cubicles and partitions, and creating a “mobile” working environment or companies creating state of the art welfare facilities for their employees as is done by several well-known global startups.

But just because a company is innovative hardware-wise, doesn't necessarily mean that the staff is happy. Real innovation stems from the software ― the company's internal culture. Companies that have a unique and benevolent philosophy not only strive to provide happiness for their customers but also for their employees.

Woowa Brothers, a food service company best known for its delivery app "Baedal Minjok," or "Baemin" for short, is a pioneer in striving to change the internal work culture. It aims to create a company where employees are proud to work there and is a place employees' children would want to grow up and work at.

Established in 2010 as a startup of five people, the company grew to accommodate around 500 staff in just six years. Its delivery application "Baemin" launched in 2010 and has been a market disruptor in the delivery industry. Now the company created an affiliate organization delivering fresh cooked dishes, "Baemin Fresh" which has around 150 employees.

Woowa Brothers was recognized for its outstanding work culture, twice receiving the "50 best companies to work in Korea" award by Job Planet and Fortune Korea in 2014. In fact, when the reporter was looking around the company for a few hours, she noticed that the staffers were all friendly with each other, always smiling and greeting and making a lot of jokes. That sense of unity like a collective family seems to stem from its work culture.

Based on her firsthand observation and interviews of employees at the company, The Korea Times narrowed its policies down to seven factors that make Woowa Brothers' work culture special.

Employees work in a freestyle space at Woowa Brothers. / Korea Times photo by Yun Suh-young

1. Keeping promises

Woowa Brothers tries to make its employees happy by keeping promises. Its CEO Kim Bong-jin created a bucket list for employees when the company had only a few dozen in 2011, asking them to jot down what they wanted from the company or what they expected the company to become. The bucket list of 31 things employees wished for from their company was created as a poster and still hangs on the wall of Woowa Brother's office in Jamsil, south eastern Seoul. The bucket list was set for Dec., 2014, and about two thirds of the wishes on the list have been successfully met, including those such as "a company with limitless food and snacks," "with a terrace," "with books everywhere," "located in a quiet neighborhood," "without bugs," "with fresh air," "with a cafe," "with social clubs," and "registers their employees for matchmaking services." In fact, the company is located in Jamsil facing the Lotte World entertainment park because it was the best location to meet many of the wishes of its employees.

An upgraded "Bucket List 2.0" due for 2045 is to build the company's own building with facilities such as a helicopter landing zone, tennis court, swimming pool, childcare service, hospital, bowling and rock climbing centers, and sauna, to name a few. Although the list is more witty than realistic, the company says it will try to make those wishes come true.

"A good company is one that meets each member's expectation of a good company," said Kim in a previous interview.

2. Cleaning time

Every Friday morning, every single member of Woowa Brothers, including the CEO and the executive board members, participate in a 10 to 15 minute cleaning of the office.

"We clean wherever we feel like cleaning that day. It's kind of symbolic. We now have a cleaning lady but when the company first started small, it didn't have a cleaning lady and the members cleaned the office themselves. That culture remains and our CEO feels a sense of duty in keeping that culture throughout the generations," said Sung.

"It's part of the work culture. We're not just here to work. The act of cleaning together makes employees feel like we're living in this space together. When we're cleaning, everyone is equal. The barriers between the hierarchies of the CEO or the board members all drop when we're cleaning and that's a peculiar feeling."

3. Cooking task force

Unlike other companies which usually have an outsourced team of kitchen staff at their cafeteria or restaurant, Woowa Brothers has a task force of internal members developing menus for the kitchen.

The staff restaurant is quite amusing from its appearance with an entire wall covered with pictures of the employees. There, the kitchen task force serves food and cleans the restaurant and all of this is done voluntarily. Every three months, the company receives an application for the task force and there are always a handful of volunteers wanting to join. The task force has operated for nine months so far and is running smoothly.

"It began as a way to prevent people from being bored by the menu. Employees can create their own menu for their colleagues. The task force members all have their own work to do but they dedicate their spare time on developing the menus," said Sung.

The menus developed are cooked by the resident chef and the food is served buffet style. When new employees join the company, the CEO and board members personally cook for the new members as a welcome ceremony.

4. No monetary incentives

What is interesting for a large-scale startup like Woowa Brothers, which heavily depends upon sales, is that the management doesn’t give monetary incentives to the employees. The only incentive is individual motivation which drives the business.

"It may be difficult to understand for people working in corporations but we don't receive any financial incentives. We only receive a letter similar to an essay from our team managers evaluating how we performed that year. Even that is simply to pick the best employee of the year and has no numerical evaluations," said Sung.

"We don't evaluate other colleagues because our CEO believes that it halts individual motivation. The scariest evaluation is peer pressure, he says, which is what everyone can agree with. We don't slack off just because we're not evaluated because we have eyes looking at us. I think our company is experimental in that way because it solely depends on individual motivation. People want to contribute to the growth of the company and want to help others move in the direction of the company's goals. I think our CEO shares his vision very clearly and frequently to get it across to all employees."

5. Communication

The free flow of communication is another Woowa Brothers strength, as employees actively and intimately communicate with each other through various mediums.

When they want to talk about something, they would just hold random meetings on the spot or group talk on chat rooms via mobile messenger services.

"We're one of the companies that utilize the messenger services effectively," said Sung.

In fact, the entire staff is included in one large chat room where they share news, notifications and jokes, even with the CEO.

Yet, just because the company is friendly and open doesn't mean it's all paradise. Work is work and there can even be conflict among individuals.

When employees are stressed about their particular situation, they can engage in a talk session with the CEO called "Bong Time." This means every Wednesday morning at 9 a.m., a group talk is held with the CEO as their mentor. Employees ask questions about the company or share their worries or stresses with the CEO, asking for advice. Founder and CEO Kim Bong-jin, nicknamed "Bong," advises them frankly as a senior colleague mentoring a junior. Employees say the barrier between them and the CEO drastically reduced due to the newly implemented "Bong Time" which has been run for a year now.

6. Study culture

As school-like as Woowa Brothers is, the company offers an after-work "extracurricular" activities clubs where employees can study, do sports or enjoy hobbies together. It's easy to form a "club" or disband a club at the company. When 10 or more employees from at least three departments meet for a certain occasion, the company sponsors 10,000 won per employee for that activity.

There are clubs for running, cycling, board game playing, visiting hamburger places, bowling, watching movies and so on. There's even an open-source blog for engineers to share their knowledge which is also open to other company's employees.

An English class is open to everyone during lunch time with a resident English instructor with whom they can freely schedule to meet up for a tutoring session.

A poster of an employee-made bucket list hangs on the wall of Woowa Brothers’ lobby. / Korea Times photo by Yun Suh-young

7. People care

Lastly, Woowa Brothers takes care of its employees like a mother would. It has an HR-type department called "People Team" which oversees all the employees but not simply for HR-purposes but to really pay attention to them. They more or less create the work culture within the company and help employees adapt to it.

They organize events, take sick employees to hospitals, pick out sneaky employees who aren't cleaning to motivate them to clean, help employees pick gifts for their family members for special occasions and also help them plan those special events as well as help new employees adapt to the company environment by hanging out with them.

"It's important that employees feel that the company is paying attention to them. It's part of the company's effort to show they care about the employees," says Sung. "Some employees complain they aren't getting enough attention."

Because of the team-playing culture of Woowa Brothers, it's important that employees mingle well with each other and the People Team helps facilitate that process.

Kim believes that "ordinary people can together create extraordinary outcomes" and therefore stresses the collective role of a group rather than a high performing individual.

The company prefers individuals who can help others grow rather than grow solely on their own.

"Here, I learned that it's more valuable to become a person who can influence others to do well," said Sung. "Those are the type of people who are respected here."