Is workation just a story for IT companies or startups?
Five locations across the country, 24-hour shift work,
Field workers and office workers working together in a 51-year-old port logistics company.
It seems like an environment that is the furthest from workation.
However, this company has been breaking industry stereotypes and has been running a workation program for three years.
How was that possible? 🤔
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Hello, this is the workation service DearMonday.
Today, we share the honest story of HR Manager Kim Min-jung from the port logistics company Hyepun Shipping regarding their workation operation.💌
🏢 Overview of the Company
- Company Type: Subsidiary of a major port logistics company (51 years in business)
- Total Staff: 140
- Operating Locations: Seoul, Incheon, Busan, Ulsan, Yeosu (five locations nationwide)
- Purpose of Operation: Performance Rewards · Refreshing · Enhancing Welfare
- Duration of Operation: Ongoing for three years
Part 01. A 51-Year-Old Port Company Introduces Workation
An old sign reflecting 51 years of history.
Q. What kind of company is Hyepun Shipping? I'm curious about its members' characteristics.
This year marks 51 years in the port logistics industry.
We have bases in major port cities across the country, and the biggest feature is that we are divided into field and office roles due to the nature of our work.
Since we need to operate 24 hours, we work in a shift system without distinguishing between weekdays and weekends.
Q. Given that working hours vary across the five locations,
how did you communicate the news about implementing workation, and what was the atmosphere like at that time?
Since the locations are scattered and working hours differ,
we have a company-wide Town Hall meeting on Teams once a month. It was there that we first announced the workation program.
At that time, the DearMonday homepage featured a photo of someone working right in front of the sea,
and everyone reacted excitedly, saying things like, "Can I really work while looking at that sea?" and "I want to go too!"
Part 02. "Ensuring No One Feels Excluded in Both Field and Office Positions" - Hyepun Shipping's Operating Cheat Key 🔑
Q. It seems that with the nature of shipping work that runs continuously, the introduction of workation must not have been easy.
The fact that the CEO took an interest was what triggered this.
Having lived abroad for a long time, he's open to new cultures and systems, so suggestions like "How about we give it a try?" often come up.
One of our management philosophies is 'clear rewards for performance', and we designed workation within that philosophy.
Instead of just a welfare benefit, we wanted to create a structure that elicited a reaction from team members like "I envy you, I want to go too."
/
Q. For field workers, it seems challenging to actually go on a workation... How did you address this issue?
As the operator, that was the point I carefully considered.
Field workers find it physically challenging to be absent from their workstations or to work somewhere else.
If the system is implemented but can't be utilized in reality, it serves no purpose. So, after much thought, we created one more option.
🏷️Option 1 — Workation Type
If used for workation purposes during weekdays, credits can be freely utilized over the year.
For those who wish to stay longer, personal vacation days can also be used.
🏷️Option 2 — Vacation Utilization Type
For those who find it difficult to commit to workation, separate credits can be provided for personal vacations or family trips using DearMonday accommodations.
To accommodate those who find it challenging to go on weekdays, we operated flexibly by allowing use over the weekends,
so now both field and office workers enjoy the system satisfactorily.😊
/
Q. It seems like you are wisely utilizing the options available considering the members' situations!
Is there a preference between the workation type and vacation utilization type?
Everyone is using the options according to their preferences, so it's challenging to conclude one is preferred more than the other, but what's certain is that
those who went on workation want to continue going again.
Even those using the vacation type are conveniently enjoying it through DearMonday!
This is indeed a sea-view office!🌊
A photo taken by Kim Min-jung during her workation using DearMonday.
Part 03. Change in Organizational Culture Towards a 'Job-Centric' Model, with Workation at the Core!
Q. I feel the change in organizational culture that Hyepun Shipping aims for blends well with workation.
We have started shifting towards a flexible, job-centric organizational culture about four years ago.
Instead of titles, we implemented a naming system centered on jobs and levels, and at the heart of that change, we added the benefit of workation to create synergy.
In particular, it aligns well with our management philosophy of clear rewards for performance. Once a year, we select high-performers through personnel evaluations,
and since only one or two from each team receive the award, it naturally becomes known when someone has been on workation.
Then, the reactions like "Ah, I envy them. I want to do well to go next time" emerge.
Rewards need to be visible and sufficiently enviable to serve as motivation, and this has been functioning well in practice.
"So comfortable that there's nothing else for the person in charge to worry about"
- Hyepun Shipping's Kim Min-jung during the interview
Part 04. Three Years with DearMonday, The Honest Review from the Manager 🗯️
Q. If there is a decisive reason for maintaining a partnership over such a long period of three years, what would it be?
The biggest point is that it is so comfortable that "the HR manager doesn't have to worry about anything separately".
From the operator's standpoint, there’s no better advantage than this!
While operating, the employees sometimes propose ideas about "how about this place," but upon review, we encounter two walls.
The first is the realistic difficulties of operation.
Considering accessibility, work environment, and response to unexpected situations, the risks are high for one person to handle alone.
The second is a more fundamental concern.
"Is this of sufficient quality as a reward for high performers?" If the satisfaction level felt by employees falls short of expectations, the meaning of the reward itself becomes blurred.
DearMonday solves both of these issues simultaneously.
Having a nationwide network of branches provides a sufficient selection, and everything from booking to settlement and customer service runs smoothly within the platform, so there’s no need for the manager to intervene.
Moreover, new branches open every year, which allows us to provide employees with "different options than last year" each year, playing a significant role in keeping the rewards fresh.
/
Q. What patterns have you observed in actual usage data?
There was a very interesting pattern in the usage over the past three years.
We allow users to utilize personal vacation days together if they extend beyond the workation days, and more than one-third of total users voluntarily took additional vacation days to stay longer. [This means employees are taking vacation days on their own without company encouragement.]
Each year, arranging and encouraging unused vacation days is quite a labor-intensive task, but
after implementing workation, that burden has notably decreased.
Rather than forcefully saying "please take your vacation," the structure has evolved where employees naturally express **"I'll take vacation and stay longer."**
From the manager's perspective, workation solves both the welfare and vacation encouragement tasks simultaneously.
/
Q. Are there any memorable comments from employees' feedback?
We regularly conduct satisfaction surveys for those who went on workations.
Among them, the feedback that stands out is "I was able to spend good time with my family, which was a rare opportunity."
Being able to offer a great accommodation as company welfare that they might hesitate to pay for themselves gives the employees a much greater sense of pride.
Responses such as "It was stimulating working in a new environment and a good experience" are also numerous, indicating that it left a meaning beyond just simple refreshment.
Many products linked with subsidies can also reduce the burden significantly...
- During the interview on tips for implementing workation
Part 05. Tips for HR Managers on Implementing Workation ✔️
Q. What tips would you give to other company managers who are hesitant to implement workation due to budget or operational burdens?
If you try to set a new budget from the start, it will be hard to begin.
Using the existing workshop budget to plan is a good method, and there are many products linked with local government support funds on the DearMonday platform,
so using these can greatly reduce the burden.
Q. What are Hyepun Shipping's future plans for operating workation?
Moving forward, we aim to expand from individual achievers to team building programs that reward entire teams that have made significant contributions.
We hope as many employees as possible enjoy this experience.
Also, during this interview, I learned that we had not been using the corporate-specific feature of DearMonday. (laughs) Since we hadn’t encountered any inconvenience with the current setup, we’ll be making it a priority to implement that.
💬 Conclusion — Workation is a matter of 'design', not industry.
Even with constraints like five locations nationwide and 24-hour shift work, Hyepun Shipping has continued with workation for three years. This clearly demonstrates one point.
Workation is not an issue of industry but of design.
For high achievers, it offers rewards for accomplishments,
and for field workers, it provides consideration without exclusion. This single design of two options has connected employees from entirely different environments through one benefit.
And the results are reflected in the data.
The fact that 1 in 3 users voluntarily took additional vacation days to stay longer is the most honest evidence that this system is genuinely welcomed by employees.
Even in traditional industries, when the will of management meets the considerations of those who understand the field,
workation can become the most powerful organizational culture tool.
May Hyepun Shipping's example provide an answer for those managers asking, "Is it possible for our company?"
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✔️ CHECK POINT ✔️
♦️What is the [Corporate Exclusive Page] mentioned in the interview? 🤔
> Customers using the corporate prepaid rates can easily create a tailored corporate exclusive page featuring the corporate logo and thematic colors through the corporate management page. Necessary guides on how to utilize workation can be freely added to the landing page.
You can also create a dedicated workation website just for our company by selecting only the products chosen by the corporate manager.
Since only the company’s employees can view the contents, there is no issue with external security.
[Example of Corporate Exclusive Page]
♦️What are the products linked with [local government support funds] mentioned by Hyepun Shipping?Explore here 🤔
♦️If our company also wants to implement smart welfare like Hyepun Shipping?