Young employees at Bank of Korea dissatisfied over hierarchical, inflexible office culture

Bank of Korea headquarters in Seoul / Yonhap

By Lee Min-hyung

Young employees at the Bank of Korea (BOK) are more dissatisfied than in the past over the organization's strict, authoritarian and bureaucratic office culture, as well as its poor company welfare benefits system.

Back in the 1990s and early 2000s, the central bank was considered a top-notch workplace that only hired a select few young people who studied economics at the nation's leading universities.

In the past, BOK employees enjoyed lifetime job security, just as in other state-run organizations. They were also proud to be perceived as elite economists at the nation's central monetary authority.

But a growing number of young economists at the BOK appear to be losing their pride in their jobs, due to a sense of disillusionment concerning their salaries, benefits and overall company culture.

“Job security is no longer regarded as a privilege among the younger generation, unless they have the potential for self-development within that organization,” an official from the banking industry said. “This situation appears to be the case for young BOK employees. Most of them are not satisfied with their salaries. In addition, the central bank's inflexible and hierarchical office culture also makes them less motivated to work and increasingly passive in their jobs.”

According to data posted on the state portal All Public Information in One (ALIO), BOK employees' average annual salary in 2020 reached 100.61 million won ($89,000), similar to what is offered at major commercial banks in Korea. For instance, the figure for KB Kookmin Bank, the nation's largest commercial bank, came in at 100.4 million won ($88,800) during the same period, according to data from the lender. Other top-tier local banks ― such as Shinhan, Hana and Woori ― also offer similar average salaries to their employees.

McKinsey conducted a survey recently of about 1,300 BOK employees to examine the internal company culture. The major keywords of the survey results included: “conservatism,” “bureaucracy” and “inefficiency.”

After receiving the report from McKinsey, the BOK put forth its medium- to longer-term development vision, called the BOK 2030, in a bid to reshape its company culture and push for organizational innovation.

“This problem (of a company's culture being rigid and hierarchical) is not limited to the central bank, as the staff of conventional banks express similar opinions,” an official from a major lender here said. “But as institutional culture can take some time to change, young officials in the banking industry will likely continue to feel dissatisfied in the foreseeable future, while they watch the rise of fintech startups and highly rewarding financial firms with more open-minded company cultures encourage their young employees' creativity and self-development.”