Fun-packed year-end party reflects KakaoBank's horizontal corporate culture

KakaoBank employees participate in games during the company's year-end party held at its Pangyo headquarters in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, Thursday. Courtesy of KakaoBank

KakaoBank's headquarters in Pangyo — the hotbed of the country's most innovative tech companies located within Bundang District in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province — has turned into an indoor theme park for a day to host various games, such as a treasure hunt and dalgona candy challenge.

The game-packed event is part of the internet-only bank's year-end party for this year. The mobile bank has held a fun year-end party annually since its opening back in 2017.

The highlight of this year's party, held on Thursday, was a scavenger hunt. Stickers sporting the letter B were hidden around the office for employees to find. Those who found the stickers were awarded gifts according to the grade of the sticker — platinum, gold, silver, bronze or black.

The dalgona candy challenge, a Korean game that became internationally known through Netflix's "Squid Game," was also held during the year-end party. The tweak to the game was that participants were given random tools to carve out objects from dalgona candies, such as needles, clips and wooden sticks, raising the game's difficulty up to the next level.

An employee of KakaoBank participates in a dalgona candy challenge using a wooden stick during the company's year-end party held at its headquarters in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, Thursday. Courtesy of KakaoBank

Another game that was enjoyed by employees was to create the largest number possible using five balls chosen randomly from an air ball machine. The balls indicate either numbers or arithmetic symbols.

Besides individual games, various group games were held to strengthen the employees' teamwork spirit. One such game was "Street Target Fighter," a toss game where teams of 10 took turns throwing items at a target. The final match was held between two teams — tech XR and tech planning against the account expansion team — and the tech team won the final victory.

KakaoBank employees draw balls from an air ball machine during the company's year-end party held at its headquarters in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, Thursday. Courtesy of KakaoBank

The mobile bank's year-end party is voluntarily planned through a year-end party task force. Despite the need to put extra time and energy outside of regular work to join the task force, the seats on the team are filled rapidly, reflecting the mobile bank's unique corporate culture that focuses on autonomy, independence and sharing.

"The preparation took much more time and effort than expected, which made me newly appreciate fellow colleagues' hard work. I feel rewarded and grateful that I could contribute to the successful year-end party," an employee who joined the task force said.

KakaoBank CEO Yun Ho-young, who also goes by Daniel Yun among employees, sends an online message during the company's year-end party held at its headquarters in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, Thursday. Courtesy of KakaoBank

An official from KakaoBank explained that its corporate culture is based on seven principles: user-centricity, autonomy, independence, finding ways, sharing of processes, respect for differences and reflection.

"The internet-only bank's uniquely horizontal organizational atmosphere, as shown in using English names with one another without relying on job titles or any honorifics, unlike usual Korean corporate culture, is thus the result of firmly rooted principles in the corporate culture," the official told The Korea Times, adding that such corporate culture made communications among employees easier with confidence.

"With this year marking the sixth occasion that KakaoBank has hosted the year-end party since 2017, it has now become a unique tradition of KakaoBank employees, representing the bank's horizontal and autonomous corporate culture. We will continue to make efforts to create diverse corporate culture events for our members in the future."