Daewoong Pharmaceutical (CEO: Jong Wook Lee) has been designated as a Best Family Friendly Management company by the Ministry for Health, Family, and Welfare.

A family friendly company demonstrates that a company enables an employee to achieve a balance between one’s personal life and work life. A company must undergo a rigorous screening in order to receive this designation. This is the first year such designations have been awarded by the Ministry for Health, Family, and Welfare.

Daewoong believes that one’s self development leads to the success of this company and therefore encourages all employees to enjoy a positive balance between career and family life. Through this viewpoint, Daewoong has received an ‘AA’ rating. This is the second highest rating with ‘S’ being the highest, but there were not any ‘S’ ratings at this time. 

One of Daewoong’s self development programs is the ‘Reading Day’ program sponsored by the company. This program started in 2002 and enables employees to read recommended business related books that will help one achieve his/her goals. Employees are also encourage to have book discussions once a month to share insights one has gained through the books. Each employee can purchase up to 30,000 KRW in books as long as the books are relating to business. In addition, each employee is entitled to a stipend of 10,000 KRW to be used for refreshments during monthly book discussions.  There is even a study room onsite dedicated for employee use which is not commonly found at most companies.

The educational programs offered at the plant are also diverse. Since last year a 4-day work week program for employee development has been implemented. A plant employee can work for 4 days, take two days off and then receive 2 days of educational training. The cycle then repeats. Employees are separate into two groups which alternate working days and training/off days. This enables an employee to receive continuous education for 90 days per year and be able to take 105 days off per year and gain valuable refreshing time. Employees can participate in foreign language, six sigma, and other various programs offered in order to elevate an employee’s growth and achieve success in the workplace.

Daewoong even offers educational programs in which employees and their families can participate in together. The ‘Weekend Program’ as it is referred to, is offered every second and fourth Saturday of the month. Some examples that have been offered in the past include: chocolate art, ribbon making, and cookie baking. Families can come together to experience a new activity and have an enjoyable family outing at the same time. This is a very popular program and just last year alone, 15 different programs were offered and 2200 employees and their families took part.

With women taking a more prominent position in the workforce, Daewoong strives to create an amicable working atmosphere especially for women with families by offering benefits such as flex-time and opportunities to work from home. This enables women to have a work and life balance so that they can continue their career development and make contributions to the success of the company. In addition, Daewoong does not discriminate when it comes to promotions and remuneration. Out of 27 board members, 4 are currently women.

Through Daewoong’s family friendly management, more women have been vying for positions at the company. Meanwhile Daewoong will continue to find ways to build on the success of the family friendly management system.

A Daewoong representative expressed that,  “The facilitation of a family friendly management system not only raises the quality of life for employees, but also adds competitive power to the company as an ideal place to work. Plans are currently underway to expand the benefits under the family friendly management system.”