IT company Next Jump dances and exercises during work hours... Employee exercise participation rate exceeds 80%

Which is the best company to work for in the United States? According to a 'KBS Special' video broadcast in June 2016, Harvard Business Review selected three companies across the United States in March of that year and published the research results in a book. The first company introduced among them is Next Jump, an IT company founded by Korean Charlie Kim. The broadcast reported that this company, selected as the best company to work for in the United States the previous year due to its human-centered management, is emerging as a new model of corporate innovation.

In April of the same year, at a global fashion conference held in Dubai, another Korean CEO gave a lecture. It was William Kim, who became the leader of the struggling British fashion brand AllSaints four years ago. In just three years, he transformed this company into a global fashion company expanding into 20 countries worldwide. The broadcast introduced that these two Korean leaders are presenting a new direction for companies of this era to move toward.

AllSaints, closer to an IT company than a fashion company

On Oxford Street, the shopping hub of London, United Kingdom, there is an AllSaints store among global clothing companies including the representative British brand Burberry. AllSaints belongs to the so-called contemporary brand category, which is lower in price than luxury brands but more sophisticated than general brands. It is a comprehensive fashion brand that sells not only clothing like leather jackets but also bags and shoes.

Customers using large tablet devices can be seen throughout the store. Using these devices, customers can check the stock status of desired products and place orders to receive them at their desired location within a single day. When a customer asks if a certain product is available, instead of going to the room where stock is kept, the employee takes out a mobile phone and scans the barcode of a sample product. With this system developed in-house by AllSaints, employees can immediately check how many handbags are left in stock and even identify the stock in the nearest surrounding stores to ensure the customer receives the product as quickly as possible.

AllSaints directly operates about 150 stores in 20 countries, including Asia, the Middle East, and South America, with an employee count reaching about 3,000. At the time of the broadcast, the company was experiencing its fastest growth since its founding, with plans to open 90 new stores worldwide. Most of the people working in front of the CEO's office are about 90 computer programmers and IT developers. To respond to the shift where online and mobile shopping is becoming the mainstream, AllSaints mobilized data analysis scientists to analyze customer consumption patterns, and as a result, generated 20% of its sales through digital devices the previous year. This is a performance that is double the industry average.

Unlike most fashion companies that purchase and use software, AllSaints develops its own IT systems to respond quickly to customer changes. The video introduced an internal goal to have customers around the world complete payments within 30 seconds, along with a direction to challenge themselves as a fashion company by creating a culture, process, and empowering model as much as Google or Facebook.

Next Jump dancing and exercising during work hours

Next Jump in New York, United States. At five o'clock in the afternoon, while employees are still working, a man in sportswear appears in the office. It is Charlie Kim, the founder and CEO of this company. He heads toward the company gym, where employees began to dance under the guidance of New York's top instructors, and the CEO, without exception, also moves his body. After dancing hard for 30 minutes, the whole body is drenched in sweat. In addition to dance, many types of sports classes such as boxing, Pilates, and weight training are held during working hours, and there is also a dedicated spinning gym where people ride cycles like dancing along with music.

After finishing their exercise, employees access a system developed by the company to record their exercise results. They also record their sleep time from the previous day to systematically collect health-related information. Thanks to this system, which uses gamification to make exercise like a fun game, the employees' exercise participation rate averages over 80%. Employees can eat healthy meals provided by the company for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for free, allowing them to save time and use that time to exercise during working hours. Refrigerators placed throughout the company are full of expensive beverages and organic foods that employees can take out and eat at any time.

Next Jump is an IT company headquartered in New York with 150 total employees, and at the time of the broadcast, it was selected as the healthiest workplace in the United States by Johns Hopkins University. The broadcast reported that Charlie Kim has practiced the philosophy that if employees are the most important asset, their health must be taken care of first. This company develops and operates employee welfare service programs used by large corporations in the United States and the United Kingdom. Employees of client companies can buy various products at low prices on this site and can also receive support for company club activities or cultural events. The video introduced that about 700 companies are using this service.

Measurement program made with Olympic team coaches

In the company gym, a female employee was receiving measurements while exercising. It is a program that measures in what situations employees' stress levels rise and suggests appropriate work styles, which was developed jointly by Next Jump and coaches from the United States Olympic team. It is a method of seeing where a person performs best and uses energy most efficiently, and conversely, where they perform worst. In the graph in the video, one employee showed amazing performance when going slowly, but performance was very poor when going fast. Based on the measurement results, employees are recommended customized exercise programs by professional trainers.

The company believes that when employees' physical abilities improve, their work performance also improves. Employee Rokia not only lost 13kg through the company's exercise program but also increased her work performance. After exercising, her sales performance rose noticeably, and she became the person in charge of the entire company's profit management. The video also mentions that getting stronger every day makes a stronger company.