In the Pangyo and Gangnam regions, which are responsible for the Korean information technology (IT) industry, the recent winds of raising salaries and paying incentives are in full swing. The competition for annual salary and various welfare benefits is fierce as even existing IT companies that have started digital transformation (DX), starting with the game companies that have grown affluent with the benefits of Corona 19, are eager to “recruit developers”. Companies contemplating how much to raise their salary, developers with a wide range of options, and non-development employees who feel relative deprivation have become a situation where they can only notice each other.
The beginning of the wind to raise salaries was in the game industry. Nexon, the number one game company in Korea, drastically changed the annual salary system on the 1st to increase the initial salary for new employees to 50 million won for development and 45 million won for non-development workers, and to increase the annual salary of current employees who already attended by 8 million won. decided. Accordingly, on the 10th, Netmarble also announced an increase in salary to the same level as Nexon. Netmarble also decided to pay additional points worth 100,000 won per month.
Naturally, attention was paid to the decision of NCsoft, the other axis of 3N. On the 18th, there were rumors that NCsoft would increase the annual salary of all employees by 10 million won, but this is not known to be true. However, in light of the previous cases in which annual salaries were set between March and April, the industry’s view that there is still a possibility that an annual salary increase will be announced in the future.
In addition to 3N, Com2uS and Gameville also decided to increase their annual salary by an average of 8 million won to each employee, taking into account performance, competence, and job functions. He raised his annual salary by 15 million won. Kim Chang-han, CEO of Krafton, announced that the plan for an annual salary increase was released through the company’s communication program’Krafton Live Talk’ and that the initial salary for new recruits and college graduates was set at 60 million won and 50 million won, respectively. CEO Kim explained, “It is shifting the weight from the’project-centered’ organizational management method to the’personnel-centered’.”
As CEO Kim said, the goal of securing excellent talent is behind the background of successively raising salaries by game companies. In addition to game companies, treatment is inevitable because various industries such as Coupang, Big Hit, and Toss are eager to hire developers. In the meantime, developers often work with project nature instead of becoming regular workers due to the nature of their work, but now companies are trying to have as many developers as possible for as long as possible. In addition to the salary increase, Krafton suggested that the’Reboot Cell’, which temporarily placed members without a member of the organization, was reorganized into a’Challenger Room,’ which gives an opportunity to form a project or team on its own, and to strengthen management of low performers.
In the IT lounge of the’Blind’ application, an anonymous social network service (SNS) for office workers, you can easily find the articles of those evaluating each company. An IT industry practitioner commented, “It seems that’Kkubae (Crafton, Coupang, Baedal’s people)’ is the most popular these days, instead of’Nekara (Naver, Kakao, Line),’ which was previously called the 3rd leader.” Another game industry developer predicted that “Krafton will raise his annual salary, so Taecjin and his brother (Kim Taekjin, CEO of NCsoft) will also be troubled.”
There is a voice of envy among non-development workers who have stepped aside from the atmosphere of a salary increase. An employee of a game company admitted, “It is natural for game companies to prioritize developers as a law firm treats lawyers,” but said, “Non-developers are regrettable that their salaries are easily reversed even for juniors of developers with low annual years.”
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