Office workers from all age groups supported the offline ceremony. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Jan. 2 (Korea Bizwire) — Many office workers in South Korea prefer celebrating the new business year online, a study has revealed.
South Korean job portal Incruit conducted a survey of 843 office workers, 77.9 percent of whom preferred holding a new business year celebration online. Only 22.1 percent wanted an offline celebration.
Online celebrations mainly involve sending out a New Year’s message from the executive staff via email or social media without holding an offline ceremony of any sort.
Office workers from all age groups, including those in their 20s (79.9 percent), 40s (78.6 percent), and 30s (77.8 percent) supported the idea. Employees at large conglomerates tended to support the idea the most (89.5 percent).
Despite these preferences, 64.3 percent of respondents said their employer planned to hold an offline ceremony to celebrate the new business year.
These offline ceremonies mainly involved dining (19 percent), tea and snacks (10.3 percent), rewarding top employees (8.4 percent), and photographs (5.8 percent).
Office workers were mainly against the idea of holding an offline ceremony.
At 58.1 percent, more than half of respondents said offline celebrations for the new business year were unnecessary, because the occasion is thought of as a mere formality (55.5 percent).
Others thought offline ceremonies were inefficient in terms of budget, time, and staffing (26.6 percent), while some shunned them as deriving from Japanese business culture (10.4 percent).
The remaining 41.9 percent, however, argued that these types of ceremonies are essential for the management staff to deliver their messages and for the company to unite (33 percent), a great opportunity for all staff to convene (29.2 percent), and a chance to win gifts and dine for free (18.6 percent).
M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
