Did Coca-Cola and MS also create it?... Increasing Dedicated Teams for Well-being, Culture, and Flexible Work [Jjinbit]

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Hyunjin] Over the past two years of experiencing COVID-19, every department in companies has faced deep concerns. Among them, there was one department that had to be the busiest: the Human Resources (HR) team. At the early stage of the COVID-19 outbreak, due to lockdowns and quarantine measures in various countries, they had to suddenly change work styles and come up with measures to protect employees' safety. Even afterward, they were busy responding flexibly to the demands of health authorities and company employees according to the COVID-19 situation.

Having gone through chaotic times and effectively passed the COVID-19 period, HR teams in companies worldwide are now facing a time that requires innovation based on global changes in work styles and employees' perceptions. With the spread of new work styles such as remote, telecommuting, and hybrid work, and the growing needs of employees who prioritize work-life balance (Work-Life Balance, or "WLB"), it has become necessary to find ways to increase productivity while satisfying employees' satisfaction.

This is why some global companies have placed organizations and executives focusing on ▲organizational culture ▲well-being ▲flexible work. In fact, assigning dedicated teams and executives for employee happiness and satisfaction is unfamiliar in Korea. Especially since expanding corporate operational organizations incurs additional costs, companies tend to hesitate. Nevertheless, looking at the measures global companies have introduced as necessary, we will take a closer look at whether these can help domestic companies struggling with work styles and organizational culture.

"Create the Work Environment Employees Want"

According to information released by social networking service (SNS) LinkedIn on the 10th of last month (local time), jobs dedicated to organizational culture, well-being, and flexible work have increased by 13% compared to 2019, before COVID-19. Generally, organizational culture, well-being, and flexible work were broadly handled by HR teams. However, these roles are now separately assigned to dedicated executives who take responsibility and develop them. LinkedIn stated, "The positions companies seek to fill say a lot about the state of the organization and the direction it wants to go," adding, "Companies are responding to the ways employees want to work."

(Source=LinkedIn)

Representative examples include the Chief Culture Officer (CCO) at the UK insurance brokerage company Aon, the Chief Well-being Officer (CWBO) at Japan's Rakuten, and the Vice President of Flexible Work at LinkedIn. These companies have secured executives dedicated to organizational culture, well-being, and flexible work to enhance employee satisfaction. Beyond these, companies with dedicated staff in these three areas span various industries, including Barclays in finance, Viacom in telecommunications, Delta Air Lines and Southwest Airlines, TikTok, and Microsoft (MS).

For example, Coca-Cola recruited an executive last December from UK consumer goods company Unilever, who was responsible for global learning and well-being mainly in Southeast Asia, and is working to create an agile culture within the organization. Additionally, LinkedIn reported a 20% increase in jobs related to flexible work. Johnson & Johnson also hired an executive responsible for global flexible work strategy, and venture capital firm Equi appointed an executive for remote work.

Ultimately, all these corporate efforts aim to increase productivity by enabling employees to feel satisfied while working at their workplace. Alex Edmonds, a professor at London Business School, recently told The New York Times (NYT), "The idea that companies should care about happiness arose with the increase of jobs that are not manual labor," adding that as it becomes harder to measure performance, it has become important to motivate employees to work on their own initiative.

Why Organizational Culture, Well-being, and Flexible Work?

So why are companies assigning dedicated personnel to organizational culture, well-being, and flexible work? It is because these have become key factors to consider due to changes in the work environment experienced during COVID-19.

First, during the COVID-19 period, the spread of remote work reduced communication among employees. In such an environment, it became difficult to form organizational culture among employees. It also became harder to feel a sense of achievement from cooperating and producing joint results based on shared understanding while seeing each other face-to-face. As more companies adopt remote and hybrid work, there is a growing need for organizations that focus on fostering a sense of solidarity as one organization among employees and thereby increasing productivity.

The well-being issue reflects employees' increased interest in health after experiencing COVID-19. Even before the pandemic, some global companies had created dedicated organizations for employees who valued work-life balance. After COVID-19, with the blurred separation between home and workplace, companies had to care for employees accumulating stress and those in burnout. Consequently, one of the core tasks of teams dedicated to well-being became creating programs to reduce the stress employees receive from the company or seeking changes in organizational systems.

Jen Fisher, Chief Well-being Officer (CWBO) at Deloitte, told LinkedIn, "As a result of the pandemic, executives felt they had to do more than just care for employees' health and are creating resilient and agile work environments." Fisher emphasized, "The most important thing organizations and leaders need to know is that well-being and high achievement are not mutually exclusive," adding, "If you want high performance, you need people who can take care of themselves."

Flexible work has been mentioned several times on Jinbit as well. There are many issues to solve to introduce and operate it. Complex issues accumulate, from managing employees to creating communication methods and fairly evaluating employees. Therefore, it seems that a dedicated person was needed to take responsibility and experiment with introducing appropriate work styles and methods suitable for their company.

Editor's Note[Jinbit] is short for 'Jeong Hyunjin's Business Trend' and 'Real Business Trend,' a corner that shows trends in corporate management such as organizational culture and HR systems. Based on analyses from foreign media and major overseas institutions that have not received much attention so far, we will deliver fresh and differentiated information and perspectives.