The government is set to make a big push for “smart work” -- working away from the traditional office using the latest information technology products. Today, employees don’t need to be physically located in the office. They can work anytime and anywhere using the Internet, smartphones and teleconferencing devices. Under a plan announced on Tuesday (July 20), the government aims to boost the share of “smart workers” to 30 per cent of the employed population by 2015.
Smart work is nothing new. It has been around for more than a decade. For instance, the United States started to introduce telecommuting in the public sector in the early 1990s. In 2008, the number of executive branch employees who teleworked at least once a month accounted for 9 per cent of the branch’s workforce. In Japan, more than 10 per cent of people in the private sector were smart workers in 2005. It plans to double this ratio to 20 percent by 2010.
Compared with advanced countries, Korea lags far behind. According to government data, teleworkers accounted for a mere 2.4 per cent of the public sector workforce in 2006. When the private sector is included, the rate is even lower at 0.7 per cent. These figures are disappointing in light of the frequently cited claim that Korea is one of the most wired nations in the world.
Although belated, the push for smart work is more than welcome because it can offer enormous benefits to the nation. In the first place, smart workers will be able to save the time and expenses they spend commuting to and from work. They will also be spared from the stress caused by getting stuck in rush hour traffic.
Remote working will reduce the cost of traffic congestion and carbon dioxide emissions. According to government estimates, traffic congestion costs the nation 26 trillion won a year. And if 8.6 million office employees sign up for the smart work program, it will cut carbon dioxide emissions by 1.1 million tons a year.
More importantly, the new work arrangement is expected to boost the nation’s low birthrate by enabling female employees to work at home or at a smart work center equipped with child care facilities. In Korea, the female employment rate drops sharply for women in their 30s due to the difficulties in balancing work and child care. Smart work will help women return to work after delivering a baby.
For corporations, the new work mode will help improve efficiency and productivity. Korean workers are known to work the longest hours among the OECD countries. But not all the hours they spend in the workplace are actually put into work. Junior employees often stay in the office doing nothing simply because they cannot leave before their boss does. These hours are counted as work hours and contribute to lowering Korean workers’ labor productivity. Smart work will cut these idle hours.
To reap all these and other potential gains, it is necessary to change Korea’s workplace culture. One characteristics of this culture is the high importance attached to face-to-face contact. As a result, teleworking employees could suffer disadvantages in performance evaluation. This may explain the low uptake of working away from the office in Korea.
For its part, the government needs to build the necessary infrastructure to facilitate the adoption of the system. It needs to set up smart work centers, enhance the speed of the Internet and expand free Wi-Fi hotspots.
