LINE's Hybrid Work 2.0 : Letting Employees Choose How They Prefer to Work for Best Performance

Most companies tell their employees how they should work. Based on the nature of their tasks, project cycles, and how much international collaborating they do, companies often allow everything from occasional remote work to 100% remote work. The focus is on managing employee tasks and performances, both domestically and overseas.

With the Covid-19 pandemic now receding into the past, many companies are transitioning back to office work. But not LINE, which continues to maintain its much-praised Hybrid Work system. This is based on the belief that a hybrid environment allows each team and employee at LINE to work at their best efficiency and productivity.

LINE's Journey to Its Unique Work Style

In fact, even before the pandemic, LINE had implemented its LINE SMART WORK system, which offered the option of working remotely once a month (along with flexible working hours from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., as long as a monthly standard is met). Combined with video conferencing and other collaborative tools, the remote work environment was already in place. Therefore, when the initial pandemic situation occurred, we were able to swiftly transition to full remote work, ensuring all organizations could operate 100% smoothly while staying safe from COVID-19.

As the pandemic continued, LINE began to fundamentally rethink our way of working to better realize our global business direction. The answer was an optimal way of working (or hybrid work) that could yield the best results. LINE chose a slightly different path, opting not to uniformly impose a single work style on the entire company, but instead experimenting and exchanging feedback on the optimal style for each organization and role.

In July 2021, we officially implemented LINE Hybrid Work 1.0, making LINE the first major company in Korea to implement a remote work system after the pandemic. Depending on the work style needed by each department — based on the nature of their work, project cycles, and degree of global collaboration — we provided a range of options from 100% remote work to coming to the office for a number of days a week. Through the “Working in _____ for a Month” pilot program, we experimented with flexible working options from various locations. As a result, we decided to give our employees flexibility to work anywhere they wanted in Korea, with the approval of their department lead, as long as their tasks and performance could be responsibly managed.

In July 2022, LINE once again proposed a new work paradigm, LINE Hybrid Work 2.0, which allowed people to work from overseas too. This was made possible because over the previous two years, LINERs built trust that they could deliver results responsibly and professionally.

LINE Hybrid Work 2.0

With LINE Hybrid Work 2.0, it's possible to work from overseas locations (within a 4 time zones of Korea). Employees can work from anywhere in Korea for as long as they like, and overseas for up to 90 days per year. This expansion opened up such places as LINE’s major markets of Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, and Indonesia, as well as Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Maldives, Guam, New Zealand, Saipan, and Australia. With LINE’s 200 million users around the world, being able to work abroad really helped our employees gain new insights and increase work efficiency through new experiences in a diversity of global environments.

To create an optimal work environment, we provide Hybrid Work Points. You can freely use points worth KRW2.04 million each year to build a remote work environment that best suits you and your working style.

Finally, we've updated our company-wide collaboration rules, which we call the Ground Rules. The Ground Rules refer to guidelines we’ve added to ensure successful offline collaborations and interactions, such as regular face-to-face meetings, managing members' sense of belonging and bonding, and intensive onboarding for new members. Thanks to these Ground Rules, LINERs can efficiently interact with other roles/teams. We also support Ground Rule-related training programs, helping organizations to set their own policies that suit their work, projects, and collaboration style.

 

Office or Remote? Office and Remote!

LINE has fully renovated its office in Korea to reflect the hybrid work situation. The office has transitioned from a simple workspace to a central space for face-to-face collaborations and interactions. We've reduced the total number of seats, implementing free-seating system for most people instead of individual fixed seats, and filled the resultant space gains with larger and more pleasant multi-person meeting rooms and gathering spaces. Considering the increase in video conferences, we've also increased the number of single-person meeting rooms (called “Focus Rooms”) and installed personal lockers to everyone can secure their belongings.

Each floor has public spaces for refreshments, tea time with colleagues, and casual idea meetings.

LINE Hybrid Work 2.0 Snapshot

With the implementation of LINE Hybrid Work 2.0, we introduced LINE Hybrid Work 2.0 Tips! to enhance LINERs' collaborations and interactions. Offering a wide range of meeting rooms, office equipment available for day rental, ways to increase bonding in a remote work environment, and security health checklists, the Tips guide has been used by about 75% of LINERs, making it a go-to resource for both existing and new employees curious about Hybrid Work.

Next, a company-wide special lecture was conducted to help people improve work skills in a Hybrid Work environment. From the ultimate purpose and meaning of Ground Rules (our steps for ensuring efficient collaborations and trust in each department), to the use of 1-on-1s for seamless synchronization between the organization heads and members, and from education on concentration/space/time management to effectively managing the environment surrounding individuals and increase work productivity! Especially for space management, there was an opportunity to receive direct home office consulting from space experts.

Finally, everything from new employee onboarding to all internal events have transitioned to hybrid. We broadcast offline events online, allowing all LINERs to participate regardless of their location.

Presenting two keywords: “Jeju” and “Bali”. Can you guess what they are? They are the top places LINERs like to go for remote work. Jeju Island for people staying in Korea (followed by the east coast cities of Goseong and Yangyang), and Bali, Indonesia for those going abroad (followed by Chiang Mai and Bangkok in Thailand and Tokyo in Japan). For overseas work locations, we could see that LINE's main markets are popular. This confirms the needs of LINERs who want to see and experience firsthand how the services they create are used overseas and hear the users' voices.

* Editor’s note: As I’m writing this, I'm currently in Jeju, working and living on my own. Only my physical location has changed, but I've not experienced problems getting my work done or communicating with team members. However, I do think working here has made me a lot more efficient and productive. Changing where I’m based has really helped me clear my head, making me more focused on my work! Experiencing what this is like firsthand has really made me more confident in LINE’s remote work program.

* Editor’s note:  The LINER who provided the above photo spent a month in Bali with their colleagues. Although they had a strong camaraderie, they didn't know much about how each other worked or what specific tasks they did due to the detailed division of work roles. However, through this Bali remote work, they were able to better understand each other's tasks and roles.

The future of work is here

So, that’s the story of LINE Hybrid Work. LINERs are finding the optimal work style according to job-specific, organization-specific, and individual styles, sometimes in the office and sometimes remotely, for the best results. If you’re interested in working for a company that lets you find the work environment that’s right for you, come join us!

 

 

 

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