SK at forefront of transforming Korea's workplace culture

SK Innovation's co-working office in Seoul / Courtesy of SK Innovation

By Kwak Yeon-soo

SK Group has been leading the pack among large business groups when it comes to transforming the country's often “rigid” and “seniority-based” workplace culture.

Korea's third-largest conglomerate under the leadership of Chairman Chey Tae-won has taken steps to make work schedules more flexible and create a more “horizontal” office environment in a bid to promote employee happiness and contribute more to local communities.

In SK's latest attempt, it plans to abolish bureaucratic job titles among its executives starting Aug. 1, as part of its efforts to foster a more horizontal corporate culture and encourage competency-based reward systems.

The drastic shift in the organizational structure comes as the company hopes to remain agile by disposing of the nation's top-down office culture.

Chairman Chey is widely known to put an emphasis on “happiness,” urging each affiliate to establish a team dedicated to crafting and executing happiness strategies.

Under the new system, the company will reshuffle executive positions above team leaders based on their performance, not seniority.

For instance, the company will eschew the use of existing job titles like “vice president,” “executive vice president” and “managing director” and unify them into a single title of “vice president.”

SK is the first among chaebol groups to drop such job titles.

“The change is the result of the group-wide movement to encourage a more open environment where employees can share their ideas, regardless of their ranks or titles,” an SK Group official said.

“This also goes in line with Chey's keen interest in making a deep change and encouraging happiness at the workplace.”

The company added that it will conduct personnel appointments whenever an employee gets promoted to an executive or a president.

Earlier this year, SK Group became the first conglomerate to introduce extra days off at SUPEX Council and SK Holdings.

Employees at the two companies are allowed to take the second and fourth Fridays of the month off work.

According to SK officials, the move reflects Chairman Chey's management philosophy of promoting “happiness” and “deep change.”

He stressed that both stem from humans and technology, citing that the company needs to improve its human resources and research and development divisions to secure competitiveness in the industry.

Several SK affiliates, including SK Innovation and SK Telecom, have adopted an open office with unassigned seating to enable freer and more collaborative workspace and stimulate creativity.

According to the company, the new co-working space is designed to promote collaboration among workers by allowing them to choose their seats and work in an open environment.

There are many shared spaces near the office for workers to set up casual meetings or to rest.

“We also encourage employees to add 'nim' as the suffix to their names to show respect and promote horizontal corporate culture,” the company official said.

SK Group said the changed office structures will help stimulate more creativity and boost teamwork.