A Comparative Study on the Work-Life Balance Certification Systems of Korean Government

Abstract

With COVID-19 Pandemic, workers' work-life balance is being reexamined as telecommuting expands in terms of “social distance” and “corporate risk” management. For this, a comparative study was conducted on the work-life balance certifications currently operated by the Korean government. The first is the “Family Friendly Certification (FFC)” by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, the “Work Innovative Incentive Certification (WIIC)” by the Ministry of Employment and Labor, and the third is the “Leisure Friendly Management Certification (LFMC)” by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. In the comparative analysis, the government agency's policy data, statistics, press releases, website announcements, and public-private research reports were reviewed for empirical analysis. According to the analysis, the work and life balance certification of the Republic of Korea is related to low birth rates
and aging policies such as shortening working hours, flexible work, and maternity protection. It also provides policy incentives for company to produce financial and non-financial results. It is meaningful that the findings of this study can help a lot of SMEs which are considering the adoption of the work-life balance system by providing the pros and cons of the currently existing certification systems. Moreover, this research would be a pioneering study because there is little comparative research on the various work-life balance certification systems