Olympus Korea, the local unit of the Japanese camera and optics manufacturer, is working toward helping employees perfect the balance between their work and home life to improve productivity.

“We believe when our employees become happier, their productivity and creativity levels rise in tandem, which is why we place so much emphasis on recharging and self-motivated development,” said Hong Seung-gap, director of Olympus Korea’s human resources strategy department.

He added that ultimately, it was the company’s goal to offer a more comfortable but efficient working environment, and to encourage the staff to spend quality time with their families so they may strike a better balance between work and home life that will help improve things on all fronts.

Understandably, one of the company’s main welfare campaigns goes by the theme of creating “a place that’s good to work in.”

Among such efforts is Olympus Korea’s decision to allow more paid holidays.

For instance, the company gave employees almost the entire week off from Oct. 1 to Oct. 4 as Tuesday was the company’s Foundation Day, while Thursday was National Foundation Day.

This was designed so that when employees added the weekend of that week with Hangeul Day, along with some of their other paid days off, they would be able to take a maximum 12-day vacation from work.

The main idea was not to allow excessive time off, but to give workers a chance to recuperate while causing as little disruption to company operations as possible so that the employee welfare efforts did not affect the customers, Olympus officials explained.

Other efforts include offering cultural events for employees and their families by opening up the Seoul-based Olympus Tower for free to concerts and performances.

The company also is an avid patron for employees’ activities outside of work, such as sports, language learning, and theater-going.

Further, no Olympus employee ever goes hungry in the mornings since the company offers a free buffet breakfast on weekdays. On a daily basis, up to 200 workers stop by the buffet, Olympus said.

By Kim Ji-hyun (jemmie@heraldcorp.com)