[2021 Yangpyeong Index] Kakao, Female Parental Leave Return Rate 98.5%

Jeong Young-ae, Minister of Gender Equality and Family, is taking a photo after presenting the Minister of Gender Equality and Family Award for the Asia Gender Equality Index to Kakao at the '2021 Asia Women Leaders Forum' hosted by Asia Economy at Lotte Hotel, Jung-gu, Seoul on the 27th. Photo by Kang Jin-hyung aymsdream@

Kakao received the Minister of Gender Equality and Family Award at the 6th Asia Gender Equality Index Awards Ceremony. Women make up 40% of Kakao's total workforce, and the proportion of women among new hires last year also reached 40%.

The average length of service for female employees is 5.6 years, which is 0.4 years longer than that of male employees. Kakao operates support systems for work-family balance, including shortened working hours during childcare and school admission periods, as well as family care leave.

The return-to-work rate for female employees who took parental leave is 98.5%, while the return rate for men taking parental leave is 90.9%. Instead of parental leave, employees can use the reduced working hours system during childcare, allowing a reduction of 15 to 35 hours per week for up to two years. Employees with children in the first grade of elementary school can reduce their working hours by one hour per day for one year.

The family care leave, leave (up to 90 days per year), and reduced working hours (15 to 30 hours per week) systems are also well received by employees. Family care leave is granted as paid leave for up to 10 days per year, separate from annual leave, and the number of male employees taking family care leave was 1.6 times higher than that of female employees.

Since October 2018, Kakao has implemented a fully flexible working hours system where employees set their own working hours. Due to COVID-19, remote work has been in place since February last year, and employees can choose whether to come to the office until the end of this year.

Kakao operates a blind recruitment process during job applications, with no gender fields or photo upload sections that could reveal the applicant's gender. Performance evaluations are also conducted solely based on results without gender-based criteria.

Kakao also runs an in-house daycare center that can accommodate about 600 children across its headquarters in Pangyo, Bundang, and Jeju.

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