Samsung rolls out 5‑day RTO tracking tool to curb 'coffee badging' for some US semiconductor staff

Samsung has joined the growing list of companies requiring full-time in-office attendance with a new five-day policy for some of its US-based employees.

The company implemented the full five-day RTO policy in early July for a group within its semiconductor business and is rolling out a tool internally to track employees' compliance, Business Insider has learned.

In an August internal email sent by Samsung's HR team, which was seen by Business Insider, the company said the first few weeks of full implementation had led to "more smiling faces in the hallways."

It added that Samsung now expects a "greater presence" on-site and highlighted the need to "improve adherence to our policy."

In an April email, which was also seen by Business Insider, Samsung told some staffers in its semiconductor division: "We look forward to a more consistently full campus environment, where innovation and collaboration can happen in real time. We appreciate our team members' understanding as we evolve certain policies to support this goal."

The South Korean company previously had a "FlexWork" policy that allowed employees to work from home up to two days a week. In May, employees were asked to begin returning to the office on a regular basis, according to a separate internal email seen by Business Insider.

In June, Samsung's HR team shared an update on the rollout: "We are already experiencing increased foot traffic daily, with more cars in the parking lot and hungry mouths in our cafeterias on Fridays, to name just a few signs."

In the June email, Samsung said it was developing a new tool to assist managers with enforcing the new policy. Then, in a separate email in August, Samsung told workers it would launch the compliance tool for managers in the next few weeks.

"This tool will provide each Manager with visibility to the number of days & time in building metrics for each team member," the email said. "This will ensure that team members are fulfilling their expectation regarding in office work - however that is defined with their business leader - as well as guarding against instances of lunch/coffee badging."

A company spokesperson confirmed to Business Insider that the RTO policy pertains to a specific group within Samsung's US semiconductor business but declined to comment further.

Samsung does not publicly share head count figures for all of its numerous subsidiaries, including its semiconductor business.

FlexWork UpdateJuly brought the full implementation of our revised FlexWork policy. We recognize that many employees shifted personal schedules to accommodate the daily requirements to be together in the office. The first few weeks have indeed shown increased traffic on campus with parking stations staying full, cafeteria food consumption is on the rise, and more smiling faces can be seen in the hallways.That said, there is still room to improve adherence to our policy. While our absolute attendance number will never be 100% due to a variety of factors including PTO and business travel, we do expect greater presence across all employee populations.As a means to measure the effectiveness of our attendance policy, we will launch a new compliance tool for People Managers in the next few weeks. This tool will provide each Manager with visibility to the number of days & time in building metrics for each team member. This will ensure that team members are fulfilling their expectation regarding in office work - however that is defined with their business leader - as well as guarding against instances of lunch/coffee badging.This tool is not perfect. Consider this a V1. For example, we will not be able to integrate a PTO designation. Unfortunately, PTO data originates from a different platform system that DSA does not have domain control to customnize. We are investigating opportunities to potentially Integrate PTO with reporting in a future revision later this year. This tool should serve as a starting point for conversations between Managers and Employees regarding physical presence to expectation.Unfortunately, other factors, such as business travel, customer meetings, and approved periodic exceptions, are not expected to integrate into future tool upgrades.We continue to encourage employees to engage in dialogue with their Managers and Leaders regarding adherence expectations as well as when personal circumstances might require a periodic exception. Our FlexWork policy can be found here [link removed] on SharePoint. Additional information regarding the new tool will be made available to Managers this month.

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