World of HR: South Korea is paying young people to leave the house

The South Korean government is hoping that a new financial incentive will persuade its isolated young people to get outside.

The South Korean Ministry refers to them as hikikomori, people who avoid friends, school, and work for months or years. The condition is more likely to show up in people who are financially or socially disadvantaged, according to Fortune, and was exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic. The program is a temporary way to bring more people into the workforce, Time reported.

Where in the world? Young people in South Korea are struggling with socializing, and the country itself is dealing with the lowest birthrate in the world and an increasing worker shortage.

So, the government is trying to convince young people ages nine to 24 to get outside by offering a $500-per-month incentive to leave their homes. The Youth Welfare Support Act offers additional funds for school tuition and fees, job support, mental health coverage, legal fees, and even cultural experiences, Insider reported. Despite the program’s goal, payment recipients won’t need to prove they’re actually leaving their homes.

“While it’s good to try various approaches to boost [the] working-age population, it cannot be seen as a long-term solution to fix the population problem here,” Shin Yul, a political science professor at Myongji University, told Time.

Satellite view. But South Koreans aren’t alone in social isolation: Young people globally have grown more isolated in recent years, “in conjunction with the rise of smartphone access and increased internet use,” per a recent study in the Journal of Adolescence. That can seep into work-life as well, so experts say that employers should get involved to help alleviate worker loneliness and isolation, according to multiple studies. “We found that loneliness [costs] employers approximately $154 billion annually, substantially contributes to worker job-withdrawal and has negative implications for organizational effectiveness and costs,” Anne Bowers, senior health-services researcher at Cigna, told Marketplace.—KP