Companies offer more programs to help staff manage stress

Korean companies have begun to pay attention to their employees’ mental health as stress from fierce competition in the office and the economic downturn can hamper concentration on work and have a negative effect on productivity.

Companies have so far focused on setting up fitness centers to enhance the physical condition of staff, but are now establishing healing centers to promote mental health.

Ye Ji-eun, a senior research fellow at Samsung Economic Research Institute, said, “Korean global companies have introduced meditation programs to help raise productivity by improving employees’ ability to focus on work," adding, "For such companies, stress management for staff is a type of investment because Korean society suffers from a high level of stress according to objective indicators such as the rates of divorce, depression and the like.”

○ From fitness centers to healing centers

“Personal issues including family problems: 39.6 percent,” “Working environment: 33.6 percent,” “Work-related: 11.9 percent,” and “interpersonal relations: 9.5 percent.”

These are the problems that employees of Lotte Department Store brought to the company’s counseling centers from January last year to June this year. Lotte employee welfare team was surprised to find that personal issues such as family problems, relations with the opposite sex and anthrophobia topped ranked higher on the stress scale over work-related problems, including the office environment or compensation, because the centers were established to help solve workplace issues.

Realizing the need, Lotte opened healing centers Sept. 1 at its 32 department stores across the nation, including the main store and its Jamshil branch in eastern Seoul. These centers provide seven psychological tests including those for color therapy, depression, anger and stress vulnerability.

Samsung Electronics has expanded its “Life Coaching Center,” which was established in 2000, to 13 centers in its seven business establishments. Psychological counselors and psychiatrists at the centers offer online counseling 24-hours a day. Samsung also added a psychological test to its physical checkups from this year.

Neowiz Games, a venture company, began a psychological counseling program named “Haengbok-ae (Happiness and Love),” last month.

○ Developing in-house psychotherapy programs

More than a few companies have developed their own mental therapy programs. Among them is Google, whose professionalism in treating the mental health of staff has been widely acknowledged to the extent that Search Inside Yourself, a book about Google’s meditation program, was published.

Samsung Medical Center in Seoul plans to open an online healing program under tentative name "Healing Cafe," which will be a first for Samsung Group. The program will provide video classes to conduct self-tests on mental health so that anyone with problems can get professional help.

Hyundai Department Store ran a healing camp for stress management for employees who applied for the program in July. Offering classes such as those on meditation and yoga, the camp was named the most favored program among 131 entries by employees.

Hyundai`s Apgujeong branch in Seoul opened a “Gangnam Style” program to help all employees ranging in age from 20 to 50 to relieve stress by learning the horseback riding dance from rapper Psy’s worldwide hit "Gangnam Style." The department store`s staff have been having a hard time raising sales due to the business slump.

kimhs@donga.com jjy2011@donga.com