In addition, the company will run the scheme in a flexible manner, allowing the workers to choose the work hour in any way they want as long as they meet the 40 hours-a-week requirement.

Seoul, KOREA ¶ May 09, 2012 -- Samsung Electronics has introduced, beginning on the first day of April, the “WorkSmart” scheme whereby employees work 9 hours from Monday to Thursday and go home on Fridays after just 4 hours of work. This is the first instance of mass-implementation among corporations in Korea. In addition, the company will run the scheme in a flexible manner, allowing the workers to choose the work hour in any way they want as long as they meet the 40 hours-a-week requirement.

The company will start this scheme at the DMC Labs in Suwon and the Semiconductor Research Center in Hwasung on an experimental basis and expand it to all business divisions in July after dealing with adverse effects.

Won Ki-Chan, Samsung’s vice president in personnel affairs, said, “Everyone is different when it comes to the time of the day when she can work better. Some ones are a morning person and some others a night person. By implementing the flexible work hour scheme, we believe we can boost productivity and creativity of our people.”

Sean Chung (press@whowired.com)