City employees to work at home

By Yun Suh-young

Seoul City plans to adopt a telecommuting system starting this month to allow employees to work at home.

The municipal authorities said Wednesday that it will begin a trial operation of the telecommuting work system starting Jan. 21.

The trial period will last for a month until Feb. 20. All divisions under the city government will be subject to the trial.

The telecommuting work system is dubbed “smart work” by the city in its efforts to create a smarter and more efficient working environment. This is the first time the city is implementing the system.

If the system is put on trial, the telecommuters will work at home once a week and work at the office for the remaining four days.

The city has already adopted a partial flextime system since 2011. The smart work system is part of the city’s plan to extend the number of flexible programs.

“The smart work system allowing employees to work at home is an extension from the current flextime. Flextime was implemented for all employees and was received positively,” said an official from the city government.

“With the successful implementation of flextime, the city government plans to try letting some employees work from home.”

Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon plans to extend the flexible work system to make up about 10 percent of work until 2013.

The flextime system is a system where employees can come to work an hour earlier and go home an hour earlier. The system was especially effective for working parents who had to pick up their child from daycare centers which closed between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m.

During the trial period, the smart work system will allow a total of 100 employees, one person per division, to work from home. Those who are eligible for the telecommuting are employees who have worked for the city government for over two years.

Couples who are expecting a child or have little children, people with disabilities and or who reside very far from the office are likely candidates to work home. If there are many employees in the same category, those with young children and those with disabilities will be given priority.

However, divisions that must work outside and that face security issues will be excluded from the telecommuting system.