Shinhan Financial Group is helping small and mid-sized companies balance work and family life by funding the hiring of replacement workers for employees on parental leave at some 3,300 firms.
About 5.5 billion won in "replacement staffing support payments" had been paid to roughly 3,300 small and mid-sized companies through the end of May, drawn from a large-small business cooperation fund financed by Shinhan Financial Group, according to financial industry sources on the 26th. The group is adding private money on top of the government's replacement worker program to reduce the staffing gaps and costs that small companies face when employees take parental leave.
In August 2024, Shinhan Financial Group signed an agreement with the Presidential Committee on Ageing Society and Population Policy and the Korea Foundation for Cooperation of Large & Small Business, Rural Affairs to support work-family balance at small and mid-sized companies, committing 10 billion won to the large-small business cooperation fund. It was the first case of a private company contributing to the fund under the government's package to reverse the declining birth rate, announced in June of that year. Shinhan's contribution is used to help very small companies find replacement workers when their employees take parental leave.
Payments from the fund began in July last year. Small companies with fewer than 50 employees that hire a replacement worker for a parental leave for the first time and apply for the Ministry of Employment and Labor's replacement worker subsidy receive an additional 1 million won each at the three-month and six-month marks of the hire, for up to 2 million won per company, funded by Shinhan's contribution.
Shinhan's response to the declining birth rate goes beyond replacement staffing. The group has made building a better child-rearing environment a central pillar of its social contribution work and is expanding care and child support programs. As part of that effort, it operates some of its corporate day care centers as shared facilities that children of employees at nearby small and mid-sized companies can also attend. It has also created about 200 "Shinhan Dream Dodamteo" play spaces nationwide by remodeling unused space owned by local governments.
In May, Shinhan Bank launched a 205 million won program with ChildFund Korea to provide groceries and ready-to-eat meals to children at child care facilities and community child centers in financially difficult circumstances, and to improve living conditions, including replacing air conditioners. The bank also plans to support talent development through scholarships for promising baseball players from vulnerable households and equipment for middle and high school baseball teams.
"Social contribution programs such as the replacement staffing support payments create the practical conditions for a stable child-rearing environment and help expand the scope of care," a Shinhan Financial Group official said.
