Amid pandemic, hybrid work becomes new normal in IT, large firms

An SK Telecom employee works at the company's hub office in Sindorim, southwestern Seoul, April 11. Courtesy of SK Telecom

More firms adopt flexible work to enhance employee welfare, work efficiency

By Baek Byung-yeul

Naver, Line Plus, SK Telecom and many other IT companies here are actively introducing hybrid work models, letting their employees choose among a variety of work models, such as working completely remotely, working at hub offices, or working from home a few days a week while coming to the office on the other days, even now, nearly three years after the COVID-19 outbreak, according to company officials, Tuesday.

In early 2020, the pandemic outbreak first led many companies to introduce work-from-home systems in order to continue operating smoothly while protecting employees from getting infected. But since then, diverse hybrid work systems have taken root in Korea, particularly in IT and large companies, reflecting global trends in other advanced countries.

In particular, IT companies that don't operate manufacturing facilities said they have increasingly adopted a variety of work models because they have found that improving the flexibility of their workplace operations enhances both the welfare of their employees, work efficiency and job satisfaction.

In line with this trend, the newly coined word, "workcation," a portmanteau of "work" and "vacation," has appeared here. Many companies are introducing workcation systems that enable their employees to work remotely from local tourist destinations to overseas vacation spots.

"Since July, we have been operating the Connected Work system, allowing employees to choose either to work remotely for five days a week or come to the office three days while working remotely for two days," a Naver spokeswoman said.

The official from Korea's top big tech company said that Naver also runs a workcation system, in which its employees can work at its training institute in Chuncheon, Gangwon Province for a week.

"The Chuncheon training institute provides one room for each employee. During the workcation period, they can work remotely while enjoying travel in the Gangwon Province area during their free time," the spokeswoman said, adding that its employees will soon be able to take workcations at its Tokyo office.

Lee Min-chul, an employee at SK Telecom, said he works at a company hub office in Sindorim, southwestern Seoul, near his home once a week, rather than commuting all the way to downtown Seoul where the company's headquarters is located.

"It is closer than going to downtown Seoul. The hub office provides a personal workspace so that I can focus more on my job than when working from home or in a coffee shop," Lee said.

As Lee said, SK Telecom has implemented a WFA ("work from anywhere") system through launching four company hub offices spread throughout the capital area ― Ilsan, Sindorim, Bundang and Gwangjin ― since April. The company also has a system in which employees flexibly set their work hours, rather than working a standard fixed schedule of 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

"When I work at the hub office, I don't need to bring my personal computer because the office has a desktop computer that can connect to all company systems," Lee added.

A Line Plus employee works on her laptop in Bali, Indonesia. Courtesy of Line Plus

Line Plus, a Korean subsidiary of IT company Line, likewise operates a hybrid work system and has since seen employee satisfaction with the company increase. The company added that the hybrid working system has become a decisive reason for new employees to choose to work at Line Plus.

"We have adopted a hybrid work system, allowing employees to choose to work either remotely or between the office and remotely. As restrictions on movement between physical locations have been removed after our hybrid work system was implemented, some employees applied to work at our company even though they are currently living overseas. The system is actually helping us expand our recruitment pool," a company spokeswoman said.

Line Plus has also operated a workcation system since July and some of their employees have chosen to work remotely from locations such as Jeju Island, Thailand and Indonesia.

"I worked remotely on Jeju Island as a part of the challenge of living as a digital nomad with my family," a software engineer at Line Plus said. "Because I worked remotely for a long time, my family members and I needed to refresh ourselves. While working on the island, I was able to spend more time with my family such as by taking walks on the beach as well as resting."

Companies operating office-sharing businesses have also seen an increase in the number of clients that have adopted hub office systems.

WeWork Korea said that its All Access service ― through which customers can use any branch of its shared offices around the world by paying a monthly fee of around $200 ― is gaining popularity in line with the recent trend of employees having more flexibility in their working environments. .

"We introduced the All Access service at the end of January. The number of customers using the service in the world in the second quarter increased by 13 percent from the first quarter as the number of users globally grew to over 62,000," a WeWork Korea spokeswoman said.

The official said that many startups, large companies and Korean branches of overseas companies are signing up for the service so that their employees can use its shared offices as hub offices or workspaces during workcations.

"Regardless of the type of company, many of our clients are increasingly using the All Access service because our offices are located in key areas such as Gangnam District or downtown Seoul, making them easy for users to access. Also, our offices in Southeast Asian countries, such as Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand, as well as in European countries that are considered popular tourist destinations, are increasingly used during workcations," the official added.

Samsung Electronics employees work at the company's hub office, d'light, in southern Seoul, Oct. 17. Courtesy of Samsung Electronics

Not only IT companies that are not involved in manufacturing, but also large companies consisting of office workers continue to operate hybrid work systems.

Samsung Electronics operates hub offices called d'light in six places in Seoul, Daegu, Suwon, Gumi and Gwangju.

A spokeswoman for the company said that Samsung launched these flexible working spaces as part of its "Work from Anywhere" policy. "Under the policy, we enable employees to focus on their work, regardless of the time or place," she said.

Game, manufacturing firms left out of hybrid work

Hybrid work has become the new normal for many companies during the pandemic, although not all companies have successfully adapted hybrid systems.

Game companies are a case in point. As the fatality rate of COVID-19 dropped, game companies that require their employees to gather in one space to create a game product began to abolish work from home systems.

"We also partially allow employees to choose to work from home. But the game industry here already experienced severe delays in launching new games within a fixed period of time when they were running a work from home system. So it doesn't seem as easy for the game industry to launch the hybrid work systems that other IT companies are implementing," an official from a local game company said on condition of anonymity.

Kim Dae-jong, a professor in the School of Business at Sejong University, said that traditional manufacturing companies could experience inequities between production workers who have to be on the factory shop floor every day and office workers who work on a hybrid system basis.

"Work from home as a system came to light when the spread of the virus was more severe. Now the system has evolved into hybrid work systems, which give their employees more options in their working environments. In Korea, where young people are still reluctant to use parental leave, hybrid work systems need to be encouraged because such systems can help parents take care of their children efficiently while not taking leave," the professor said.

"However, hybrid work systems could also cause polarization between workers who can work from home and those who cannot. Managers at each company should think more about how to manage their organizations efficiently for those who might not be able to make use of such systems, such as by adjusting the ways they evaluate such employees' performance," Kim added.