Sangui: "Companies Show 'Satisfaction' with Remote Work Performance but 'Difficulty' in Continuation" Temperature Gap

[Asia Economy Reporter Ki-min Lee] Due to the spread of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), it was found that one out of three companies adopted non-face-to-face work methods such as remote work and video conferencing.

Most companies that have experienced non-face-to-face work responded that their work efficiency was similar to or even higher than that of face-to-face work, but they felt burdened about continuing or expanding it due to concerns about conflicts with existing work methods and slower work progress.

The Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry announced on the 30th that, according to a survey on the "Changes in Work Methods after COVID-19" conducted on HR managers of about 300 domestic companies, the proportion of companies implementing remote work increased more than fourfold to 34.3% compared to before COVID-19.

According to the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry's survey results, after COVID-19, company dinners, group training, and business trips/fieldwork decreased by more than 90%, and regular meetings and face-to-face reporting also decreased by 74% and 43.9%, respectively.

Contrary to concerns, the side effects of non-face-to-face work methods were found to be minimal. Only 16.4% of respondents said "work efficiency decreased" after implementing non-face-to-face work methods, while 56.1% said work efficiency was similar to before, and 27.5% said efficiency actually improved.

With unnecessary dinners and meetings reduced, employee satisfaction was also high. When asked about employee satisfaction with non-face-to-face work such as remote work and video conferencing, 82.9% responded "satisfied," greatly surpassing the 17.1% who were "dissatisfied."

However, the majority of companies felt burdened about continuing non-face-to-face work. When asked whether they plan to continue or introduce remote work after COVID-19, 70.8% of companies responded that they have "no plans to expand remote work." The main reasons cited for difficulty in continuing or introducing remote work were "conflicts with existing work methods" (63%) and concerns about slower work progress (16.7%).

To expand non-face-to-face work, companies identified the following priority tasks to be addressed: ▲ improving efficiency of reporting and instructions (52%) ▲ improving awareness among employees (28%) ▲ establishing security systems (24%) ▲ restructuring performance evaluation and compensation systems (15.3%) ▲ devising ways to enhance teamwork (9.5%).

There are also concerns that domestic companies, which are passive about expanding non-face-to-face work, may fall behind global trends. U.S. IT companies such as Google and Twitter have successively announced expansions of remote work, and Japanese manufacturer Toyota is increasing remote work to one-third of all employees.

Park Jun, head of the Corporate Culture Team at the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, pointed out, "Considering the development of IT technology and changes in members' awareness, non-face-to-face work is an inevitable trend," adding, "As COVID-19 accelerates change, it is urgent for our companies to enhance competitiveness through innovation in work methods."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.