While South Korea’s corporate culture is enmeshed in issues of age discrimination, EverYoung, a content monitoring company, is showing that seniors could be an untapped resource in the labour market. It has a strict hiring culture to have only staff over the age of 55.
Staff are trained to use platforms on Naver, South Korea’s Google equivalent, to censor sensitive information on Naver Maps, and monitor content on their blogging platforms. They are also trained in other IT skills, and sometimes even conduct coding classes for school kids.
The company rosters their workers on four-hour shifts, and makes it compulsory to have a 10-minute break every 50 minutes. The office is decked out with a chic pantry, a breakout area with couches and books, and even a blood pressure machine that staff can use during their break time.
While people usually assume that seniors are “slow” or at a loss when it comes to technology, those who work here prove that the skills gap in South Korea’s highly tech-focused economy is not deterring them from being part of it.
Staff also display a high level of attention to detail, which is a trait that is not so common in younger employees these days. Phones are kept away in lockers, and seniors don’t get distracted as easily.
EverYoung employs 420 seniors across Seoul from a range of backgrounds – they have staff who were engineers, and even some who have been unemployed for a long time.
“Korea is ageing and the phenomenon is accelerating, so we believe that their participation in our economy would in fact, revitalise it, as well as breathe some life into the aging society,” said Mr Kim Seong-Kyu, a manager at EverYoung.
Watch the video below for interviews with employees
Read more here.
Source: Channel NewsAsia, 13 June 2017