Hyundai Card opens first digital office

An employee at Hyundai Card checks her work cubicle reservation at a kiosk set up in the firm's new digital office in Seoul, Tuesday. Courtesy of Hyundai Card

By Lee Min-hyung

Hyundai Card opened its first digital office in Seoul to enhance employees' work efficiency by relieving the burden of commuting they face, the company said Tuesday.

The office is located in the nation's densest business district near Gangnam Station in southern Seoul. Equipped with video-conferencing booths and a variety of spaces for working, meetings and rest, it serves as a base office for employees who live in the southeastern part of the city and enables them to hold video conferences with other employees who are either at the firm's headquarters on Yeouido or working remotely.

The card firm decided to open the new office space to embrace the new paradigm of remote work that has emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic. The company gives employees the autonomy to work from home or remotely from other places and allows them to set up their own work schedules one week in advance, which are processed immediately without approval from the department head.

Starting from early May of this year, the company grabbed industry attention by introducing what it calls its "always telecommuting" system for the first time in the nation's financial circle. Under the system, each division of the company is classified into one of three categories ― on-site, hybrid or remote ― depending on its work style. If face-to-face interaction is frequently necessary, the division works "on-site."

But regardless of division, employees can work remotely for up to 40 percent of their 20 work days every month.

"The opening of the new digital office is expected to help maximize employees' work efficiency, while at the same time alleviating the burden of commuting they have," an official from the card company said.

Those living at southeastern Seoul and southeastern areas of Gyeonggi Province will benefit most from the operation of this first new base office.

The digital office is also expected to help the company recruit and retain IT experts, as it is located in the nation's high-tech cluster, at a time when Hyundai Card is showing strong interest in securing IT specialists and data scientists.

The company plans to open up more digital offices in major bases nationwide.

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