[2022 Yangpyeong Index] Naver, Parental Leave Up to 2 Years... Reinstatement Rate 99% for 3 Consecutive Years

7th Asia Gender Equality Index Award Winner - Minister of Gender Equality and Family Award

Won Yunsik, Executive Director of External Communications at Naver, is receiving the Minister of Gender Equality and Family Award from Kim Hyunsook, Minister of Gender Equality and Family, at the '7th Asia Gender Equality Index Awards Ceremony' held on the 19th at Lotte Hotel in Jung-gu, Seoul. Photo by Kang Jinhyung aymsdream@

Naver received the Minister of Gender Equality and Family Award at the 7th Asia Gender Equality Index Awards. Naver operates various welfare programs focused on supporting work-life balance and maternal protection. In addition to the legally mandated parental leave period, Naver provides an additional year. It also supports family care leave for child-rearing, allowing up to 10 days annually. A mother-and-child friendly room equipped with breast pumps is available within the office building.

Since July, Naver has implemented a system that quickly recognizes employees' pregnancies and prevents extended work hours or holiday/night shifts for the affected members by providing a pregnancy registration incentive of 500,000 KRW. Naver also operates daycare centers in partnership with professional workplace childcare institutions. Thanks to these work-family balance policies, the return-to-work rate of employees who took parental leave has been over 99% for three consecutive years since 2018.

Naver also has a high proportion of women in managerial positions. As of last year, women accounted for 36.8% of all employees and 26.9% of leaders, steadily increasing every year since 2018. There are two female executives on the board, including CEO Choi Soo-yeon and Naver External & ESG Policy Head Chae Seon-ju. On its career page, Naver discloses various supports for female employees related to pregnancy and childbirth, as well as the ratio of female leaders, demonstrating that there is no gender-based unfair hiring treatment. Additionally, in IT and development roles where female numbers are low, Naver has established systems such as growth roadmaps and onboarding guides to support employees' career development.

Since July, Naver has operated the ‘Connect Work’ system, allowing employees to choose between remote work five days a week or coming to the office three times a week. This enables employees to select a work style optimized for their work-life balance. Furthermore, flexible work systems such as selective working hours and reduced working hours are in place to enhance employee satisfaction. Starting this year, a system allowing up to six months of unpaid leave after three years of continuous service has been introduced to support employees’ self-development.

Naver’s top 10 human rights guidelines include provisions prohibiting all forms of discrimination, as well as clauses banning workplace harassment, sexual harassment, and sexual violence. The company established the Human Rights team under the board of directors to identify and mitigate human rights risks.

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