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Entering a new era of endemic, many are returning to the office. However, anyone at NAVER is free to choose how they work. This is all thanks to the company’s unique “Connected Work” system, where employees can enjoy options to work either in the office or from home without fixed working hours in place.

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NAVER’s way of working has evolved over time

NAVER has been a pioneer in designing various new work policies reflecting constructive feedback from employees for about 20 years. In the early days of business, the company boldly decided to start work at 10 AM for the first time in Korea’s IT industry. In 2014, it launched the “Responsible Work” system, which does not track the working hours of employees. In 2018, NAVER went a step further by implementing “Flexible Working Hours,” letting members work when they have the most energy and focus.

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Finally, in 2022, when the pandemic forced many businesses around the world to change the way of working, we initiated a new design for how we work, named Connected Work, which has enabled employees to choose not only “when” they work, but also “where” they work.

The new design provides each employee with two options: Type O, Office-Based Work and Type R, Remote-Based Work. Type O workers will go to the office at least three times a week and choose to work remotely for the rest of the time. On the other hand, those choosing Type R will work remotely except for mandatory in-person team meetings.

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What matters more than when and where to work

Then, you may wonder why NAVER has put so much time and energy into advancing its work policy. The answer lies in our efforts to find ways to help the best talents bring out the best in themselves. As seen in daily lives, remarkable advances in technology are now accelerating innovation and transformation. Furthermore, unlike traditional industries running in fixed hours, the IT service needs to be available 24/7 for users, which requires even more proactive operation and flexible management.

Given this circumstance, our employees always take on challenges and do their best to find creative solutions, leading the era as frontiers. That is why NAVER has come to realize the need to create a collaborative, effective and productive work culture that helps each individual share their objectives and direction, get out of their comfort zone, and achieve growth together with the company. At the same time, we firmly believe that everyone at NAVER is committed to their job and takes the initiative with a strong sense of responsibility.

In other words, NAVER has been refining its work policy considering what is the essence of work and what direction is right to move forward, which has served as our top priority. For this reason, we have given our employees more discretion for other matters. This long journey to find the best fit for NAVER’s work system led to the new Connected Work.

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How to stay connected while working from different locations

As Connected Work was the first of its kind in Korea, we decided to run a year of beta operation before the full-fledged implementation. To explore whether the new work design fares well, the company-wide survey and interviews with multiple focus groups were carried out, aiming to hear the voices of NAVER members. In addition, we analyzed data on work patterns as well. The findings suggest that employees have been quickly adapting to the new work policy and working efficiently in terms of collaboration and organizational management.

In May 2023, CEO Choi Soo-yeon announced at Companion Day the result of the beta operation as well as the official introduction of Connected 23/24, a refined version that reflected various opinions from employees. Along with the official roll-out of the new work policy, the company has also strengthened the Culture Code to make sure that the core value of collaboration with colleagues is not being compromised while each individual freely decides when and where to work for their best performance. The Code has enabled all people at NAVER to have good emotional interactions with their peers, newcomers, and fellow colleagues from new projects, building a collaborative spirit.

NAVER WORKS, the number one business messenger in Japan, has also been supporting the new system. It allows for seamless connections between members regardless of their locations, providing many useful services such as email, messenger, conference call, work notification, schedule coordination, and cloud sharing.

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To make the new way of working stay in place

NAVER believes that Connected Work will help great talents stay committed to their work and take responsibility by allowing them to choose when and where to work, driven by trust. We will continue to monitor and evaluate how this design works every year and keep advancing NAVER’s own way of working to ensure everyone can unleash their potential ●