Banks go increasingly casual

Employees of Woori Bank hold a meeting clad in casual attire after the new dress code went into effect at the lender earlier this year. / Courtesy of Woori Bank

By Kim Bo-eun

Banks have become increasingly wary as tech companies expand their portfolio of financial services.

Tech companies hold immense potential, not only due to the traffic their platforms generate but also due to their flexible working culture which facilitates the development of new ideas.

This is why traditional financial firms are increasingly making new attempts to change their corporate culture, which has remained one of the most conservative and rigid among other industries.

Hana Bank is the latest lender to join the trend of getting rid of uniforms.

"In order for innovation to take place, we first need to create a working environment that is conducive to it," Hana Bank CEO Ji Sung-kyoo said in a recent note to employees.

"Let us make adopting a casual dress code the starting point for employees to have confidence and offer more sophisticated financial services to customers."

A Hana Bank official said the decision to do away with uniforms was made based on a survey of employees.

For male employees, the lender introduced a no-tie dress code in April 2018.

Hana Bank also introduced a new system in which employees address each other by nicknames, which has replaced the conventional way of addressing senior staff by their job titles.

The new system, however, is not catching on quickly, given the decades-old office culture at the bank.

"Employees have registered their nicknames on the system. It will likely take some time, though, to get used to the new names," the Hana official said.

KB Kookmin Bank became the first local lender to abandon uniforms.

"Only lower-level female employees at bank branches were required to wear uniforms. Employees in senior levels did not have to wear uniforms ― which created a divide," a KB Kookmin Bank official said.

“Through the elimination of uniforms we intend to create a horizontal corporate culture and enable flexible thinking.”

He said, however, that changing the organizational culture would require the firm to take multiple measures in addition to a change in dress code, and that it would likely take time to see the effects of these changes.

Kookmin Bank has also been taking other measures to this end such as changing desk settings. Those in managerial positions are conventionally assigned larger desks which are positioned to oversee team members, but the format was changed so that managers sit in the same line of desks as team members.

Shinhan Bank also abolished uniforms for bank tellers last year.

Lenders have recognized that only requiring lower-level female employees at bank branches to wear uniforms could be a form of gender-based discrimination.

Woori Bank followed suit in June this year, but adopted a casual dress code for all employees.

The banks' measures come amid the rapid growth of new players in the industry such as the digital lender Kakao Bank.

The lender, located in the tech cluster of Pangyo, south of Seoul, is challenging traditional banks with its young workforce and the energetic working culture of a startup.

At Kakao, all employees come to work clad in attire of their choice and address each other by English names. Employees also address the bank CEO by his English name, which is still regarded by many at conventional banks as awkward and possibly rude.

Employees at Kakao agree that this enables freer discussions, on a more equal basis.

Kakao Bank also does not have a separate room for its CEO, who works in the same area as other employees.

Kakao Bank, which was launched in July 2017, has secured over 12 million users and its earnings are growing fast after it posted its first annual surplus last year.

The bank's growth is attributed to its user friendly mobile applications and new innovative products not offered by conventional lenders.