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By Do Je-hae
Staff Reporter
Korea will utilize its IT expertise to establish 22 telecommuting work centers, or "Smart Work Offices" (SWO), primarily for officials in the public sector by 2013.
Under the plan, officials can perform their duties from the nearest telecommuting office to their homes, enjoying more flexibility in working locations and hours.
The Ministry of Public Administration and Security projected that as many as 20 percent of the nation's civil servants are likely to work under such arrangements by 2015.
This would mean that government officials residing in Incheon or Gyeonggi Province, for example, could work at the nearest SWO, instead of commuting to the Central Government Complex in Gwanghwamun, central Seoul.
Currently, around 4 percent of public officials are involved in a telecommuting arrangement.
The government will spend 1.4 billion won to build two SWO centers this year in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province, after selecting the locations by the end of February.
"The two initial SWOs will open for not only public officials but also for private sector employees," Park Sung-ho, head of the information planning bureau at the ministry, said Wednesday.
"The early applications of telecommuting centers will hopefully influence the private sector to expand their SWO networks."
The new facilities include offices and conference rooms as well as childcare centers, targeting working parents in particular.
The benefits of working from SWOs are manifold, as the arrangement saves commuting time, reduces rush hour traffic and assists the balance between work and personal life. Telecommuting has been gaining more ground in light of its environmental benefits.
For employers, telecommuting reduces costs and energy usage, while increasing productivity.
Telecommuting management has been gaining ground in many countries, particularly in the United States, Japan and the Netherlands.
The U.S. established the National Telecommuting Initiative in 1996 for federal government employees and has been operating an associated Web portal at www.telework.gov.
Owing to a lack of awareness, Korea has not been as eager, despite its status as one of the most wired countries in the world.
According to a ministry survey of 37,000 public offices at central and local levels, 3.6 percent of them, or 1,300, have been operating telecommuting systems.
The ministry aims to bring this figure up to 20 percent by 2015.
"There have been concerns from employees that such working methods may lead to disadvantages in promotion. We will seek to revise personnel and performance regulations, as part of efforts to raise awareness of the SWO system," the ministry said in a statement.
jhdo@koreatimes.co.kr
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