Korea's fintech pioneer Toss out to pioneer working environment

[Photo provided by Toss]

South Korea’s pioneering peer-to-peer platform Toss which has launched the country’s third digital bank this month is out to pioneer working conditions in Korea.

Viva Republica, operator of Toss, from next year will pay employees according to their work time, instead of the standard Korean salary system of counting allowances and overtime in fixed rate in the base salary.

Employees of IT companies who usually work beyond 40 hours per week will likely to be compensated handsomely under such pay system. Toss is already one of the most generous employers by offering experienced workers 150 percent of the pay they had received in the previous workplace.

“The new wage system would significantly increase annual salary of not just the novices, but existing employees,” said the company.

The fintech platform is throwing in a 10-day ‘winter vacation’ period during the Christmas season to allow entire workforce excluding a handful of essential workers to take a 10-day leave. It will also officially adopt ‘shorter working Friday’ to let workers leave early on Fridays after trying out the system for four months. It is virtually a “4.5-day workweek,” said Toss.

The company is ditching ‘three-month review’ system that dismisses new hires who fail to pass the internal evaluation during their first three months on the job, and ‘strike-out’ system in which workers are pushed to quit if they receive three warnings after peer assessment. “By advancing our recruiting process and encouraging free feedback giving culture, we will retain talents and help workers improve their competence,” said Park Tony, leader of People & Culture team.

The new work terms are adopted across Toss, Toss Bank, Toss Securities and Toss Payments. But Toss CX engaged in customer counseling and Toss Insurance, insurance consulting provider, will have their own personnel management system appropriate to their work features.

[ㄏ Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]