183 Companies Selected as Work-Life Balance Excellent Companies

2025 Korea Work-Life Balance Excellent Companies Awards Held

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced on November 27 that it held the "2025 Korea Work-Life Balance Excellent Companies Awards" together with the Ministry of Employment and Labor, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, the Federation of Korean Trade Unions, the Korea Employers Federation, the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the Korea Federation of SMEs.

This year, a total of 183 companies, including 120 small and medium-sized enterprises, were selected as Korea's Work-Life Balance Excellent Companies through a judging panel composed of experts and representatives from the organizing institutions. These companies achieved outstanding results by introducing systems such as flexible work arrangements suitable for their industry and size, support for balancing work and childcare, and reduction of working hours. The selected companies will receive 29 benefits, including additional points in public procurement, exemption from regular labor inspections and tax audits, and preferential treatment in immigration, technology guarantees, and credit guarantees.

Among the selected SMEs, Ajou Continuum actively celebrates and supports pregnancy and childbirth. Pregnant employees are provided with maternity supplies worth 200,000 won, and up to 5 million won is provided for infertility treatment if diagnosed. For childbirth, up to 3.5 million won is offered for postpartum care center expenses. Male employees are granted time off for fetal checkups and paternity leave, providing comprehensive support for workers in various ways. Between Space offers up to 8 million won in childbirth support funds and provides a monthly cultural activity allowance of 100,000 won, which helps with expenses for baby products and experiential activities. In addition, employees can reduce their working hours during the entire pregnancy period without a reduction in pay, and after returning from parental leave, a remote work system is available to prevent care gaps while increasing productivity.

AppNote has operated a 35-hour workweek since 2022 through a written agreement with employee representatives. The company designates focus work hours during which meetings and message transmissions are minimized to enhance immersion in work, and monitors overtime to foster a culture of leaving work on time. As a result of these efforts, more than 50% of employees have remained with the company for over five years, and there are even cases where employees' spouses have newly joined the company. EZM&C also has an average workweek of 35 hours. Under the recognition that employees are the company's competitiveness, the company introduced a pre-approval system for overtime to reduce unnecessary late hours and distributed a suite of 10 artificial intelligence (AI) tools to boost productivity. As a result of investing in talent and thoughtful management, the company has grown to employ around 180 people within seven years of its establishment in 2018.

JNice operates a flexible work system tailored to the company using its own work management system. Staggered working hours, optional work schedules, and remote work are available, and the system records working hours and improves accessibility for flexible work applications. As all employees are able to utilize flexible work arrangements suited to them, trust and satisfaction within the organization are high, and the turnover rate last year was only 0.86%.

Park Yongsoon, Director General for SME Policy at the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, stated, "For Korea to become an advanced country in work-life balance, work-life balance must be supported in small and medium-sized enterprises, which account for 80% of total employment. We will discuss and consider necessary support measures with relevant ministries so that more SMEs can grow together with their employees, and ultimately, the entire nation can become a happy workplace."

Lee Myungro, Head of Human Resources Policy at the Korea Federation of SMEs, said, "The expansion of flexible work and support for balancing work and childcare, as well as the changes SMEs are making for a better environment, will serve as an important starting point for creating workplaces where young people want to work and stay for a long time. Despite difficult circumstances, it is necessary to provide institutional and policy support that reflects the voices from the field for SMEs that are making these efforts."

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