2 Million Won Appliances and Monthly Rent Support... Why Startups Are Focusing on Welfare

Backpackers Receive 5 Days of Reward Leave for Electronic Device Support
Croqui.com Provides Rent and Loan Interest Support
Welfare Enhanced to Secure Talent

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Cheol-hyun] Startups offering employee welfare benefits comparable to those of large corporations are increasing. The methods vary, including support for purchasing electronic products, interest support for loans to ensure housing stability, and stock option grants. This is to boost the morale of employees who contributed to continued growth amid the COVID-19 situation and to secure outstanding talent.

According to the industry on the 15th, Backpacker, which operates the online handmade market ‘Ideas’, recently decided to award 2 million KRW worth of electronic products per employee and is currently accepting applications. This is in recognition of achieving a monthly transaction amount target of 20 billion KRW in December last year, and all employees who were employed as of December 31 and are still working are eligible. The electronic products available for selection include massage chairs, home cinema equipment, dryers, dishwashers, and high-spec PCs, which have become highly preferred due to COVID-19. Employees can choose up to three products within the 2 million KRW limit, and any remaining amount is given as Ideas points. In addition, Backpacker decided to grant five days of reward leave to all employees, including those who joined this year. A Backpacker representative said, "We decided to provide rewards to share our gratitude with colleagues and families who became one team toward a single goal."

There are also startups that have eased employees’ ‘housing worries.’ Croquis.com, which operates the women’s shopping app ‘Jigjag’, has implemented a housing stability support system to reduce employees’ housing burdens and allow them to focus on work in better environments. It covers actual interest payments on loans for jeonse (long-term deposit lease) or monthly rent deposits, or mortgage loans up to 100 million KRW. For monthly rent, support is provided up to 200,000 KRW per month.

Wadiz, which operates a crowdfunding platform, pursued a KOSDAQ listing with 2022 as the target and granted stock options worth at least 10 million KRW to all employees last year. This was to share the company’s growth and corresponding rewards with employees. In particular, Wadiz plans to grant stock options equally to employees who joined in the first half of this year.

Jarvis & Villains, which operates an AI tax accounting platform, also paid special performance bonuses this year. This was due to the success of its AI comprehensive income tax filing service. The bonuses were determined based on team and individual goal achievements and were paid from 100% to 200% of the base salary. In addition to the bonuses, Jarvis & Villains supports product purchases tailored to individual preferences up to 500,000 KRW per person.

Many startups also support employees to use their own services directly related to their daily convenience. Uisikju Company allows all employees to use the dry cleaning service of the non-face-to-face mobile laundry service ‘Laundrigo’ for free. Life Research Institute supports cleaning services from ‘Cleaning Research Institute’ once a week. MyRealTrip provides 1 million points annually to use travel products. Online lecture platform Class101 supports free course enrollment.

An industry official explained, "Several startups on a growth trajectory are making efforts to increase employee satisfaction through various welfare services," adding, "Notable welfare benefits also have the effect of securing the most important outstanding talent in growing startups, so this trend will continue."