The Rise of the Home Ludens?

In recent research conducted by JobKorea and Albamon, 72.3% of Korean Millennials considered themselves as Home Ludens Home Ludens, (a pun on the word Homo Ludens, first used by Dutch historian and cultural theorist Johan Huizinga to describe the importance of the play element of culture and society).

Home Ludens Home Ludens, would much prefer to stay at home and entertain themselves (Cooking, gaming, movies, youtube, Netflix, yoga, hobbies, house party), rather than spending time and money outside.

When Korean Millennials were asked why do they prefer to stay at home, their top 5 responds:

79.4% Home is the most comfortable place to be

38.1% To reduce expenses

20.1% of Dealing with people is stressful

13.1% I can focus on my hobbies, favorite things

13.1% I can do a variety of things at home

What does it all mean?

We are already seeing marketers reacting to this preference to stay at home by designing products that are catering more towards Home Ludens generations.

The rise of Market Kurly a food delivery and logistics platform caused tremendous disruption for the traditional retail outlet. Many restaurants, realizing the challenge it poses to their business model, are rushing to use the online platform to distribute their product.

Increasing preference in staying at home could be a factor contributing to the rising popularity of home decor as we are set to witness Swedish furniture retailer IKEA look to open the 4th in Busan this year.

Pub and Bar better watch out as Homebrewing is looking to target the Millennial Market and crack open the fizzy Korean market of alcohol consumption as well.

What about the workplace?

Consider the strong preference for Korean Millennials to stay at home, organisations could look to offer work from home options for their employees.

While work from home is a good start from the company to its employees, there are things that both parties need to be ready in order to ensure work from home to be a successful arrangement.

Start with a HOT conversation!

HOT conversation: an Honest, Open and Transparent discussion about the expectations of both the company and employees on the work from home arrangement.

Objectives, KPI, expected output, time frame, dos and don’ts. All needed to be clearly and explicitly discussed and aligned beforehand.

Establish communication

Communication is so important for any team to function effectively and even more so when collaborating remotely.

When should communication happen, how should it happen? What needs to be communicated? Methods, channels, and format, agenda all need to be clearly defined and aligned and respected by all stakeholder

Infrastructure

And of course, technology needs to be tested to be functional, users are fully trained on how to operate them, and most importantly serve their purpose of adding value rather than creating more steps and processes that take away the time and energy of the users.

At the end of the day, expectations, boundaries must be aligned, committed, and respected by all parties involved before work from home can be a productive experience for all.