Office Workers' Happiness Ranks No.1 'Here'... Last Year's No.1 Kakao Drops Below Average

'Blind Index' Announced After Survey of Over 50,000 People
Naver Tops with 62 Points... Kakao 39 Points
Average 41 Points... Assistant Manager Happiness Lowest
"Companies Investing in Employees Will Survive"

In a happiness survey conducted among 50,000 office workers, Naver received the highest score (62 points) among major group companies. Kakao, which had the highest index the previous year, dropped to 39 points.

The office worker social platform Blind announced the results of the 'Blind Index,' a happiness survey for office workers jointly developed with the Korea Labor Institute, on the 15th.

The Blind Index, which collects samples from more than 50,000 office workers annually, evaluates employees' happiness in three areas: work, relationships, and culture. This survey was conducted through the Korean Blind application from June 28 to November 28 of last year.

Last year's office worker happiness score rose by 1 point from the previous year to 41 points. The average happiness score of Korean office workers has never exceeded 50 points since the survey began in 2018. High stress levels and low job satisfaction are cited as the main causes.

Among major domestic group companies, Naver received the highest evaluation from employees, while Kakao, which had the highest evaluation the previous year, saw a significant drop in its index.

The group company with the highest index was Naver (62 points). Most affiliates, including Naver Webtoon and Line Plus, received high evaluations. Kakao (39 points), which had the highest index the previous year, declined and did not exceed the overall Korean average.

Among individual companies, the highest-rated company by employees last year was △Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety (82 points). △University Tomorrow △Google Korea △SAP Korea △Synopsys Korea △Naver Webtoon △Danggeun △Korea Midland Power △Qualcomm Korea △Nexon Games also received scores above 70 points. Four of the top 10 companies in employee evaluations were foreign companies.

By occupation, professionals such as doctors (60 points), pharmacists (59 points), and lawyers (59 points) showed the highest happiness, while soldiers (30 points) and journalists (34 points) recorded the lowest happiness. Soldiers (30 points) had more than 40% lower happiness compared to the U.S. Forces Korea (51 points).

By years of service, assistant managers (37 points) had the lowest happiness. Among job factors, the sense of meaningful work was low, and among relationship factors, the score for relationships with supervisors was low.

According to a research team led by Professor Shin Jaeyong of Seoul National University analyzing four years of Blind Index data, job satisfaction and organizational commitment were revealed as key factors significantly affecting corporate performance.

When employees' job satisfaction and organizational commitment increased by 10 points, the company's market value rose by 4.2% and 4.5%, respectively, compared to the average. This correlation was more pronounced in companies with higher research investment ratios and larger human resource sizes.

Professor Shin analyzed, "Considering the demographic structure where workers are becoming scarce, the era when companies choose people is over, and now people choose companies. Companies should focus on improving the satisfaction of low-tenure employees with low satisfaction. Only companies that invest in their members will survive in the future."