In 2016, South Korea officially became an “aged society,” which means that, according to United Nations (UN), more than 14 percent of the population are over the age of 65. Not much has changed since then, and the Korean population’s average age has been speedily increasing. As a result, demand regarding all things senior-citizens-related has risen in respective fields. Accordingly, the need for senior employment has grown in magnitude as well, but jobs suitable and attainable for them remain rare. Responding to this issue in with their unique take, the start-up team Silver Lining has presented a service called Halbaedal.

Also a commonly used phrase, the team’s name Silver Lining is the juxtaposition of silver, referring to seniors, and line, referring to the link between objects. Silver Lining started in 2020 as a social venture start-up team. Team leader, Jung Hyun Gang (’14, History) had worked at a start-up venture where he dealt with various domestic and international social venture projects. Through his experiences, he realized the merits of start-ups pursuing social values and decided to establish one as well. As their name suggests, the start-up team Silver Lining endeavors to link the elder generation, who are often alienated from the fast-changing world, to their communities by providing employment. Silver Lining launched a service called Halbaedal that creates jobs for elderly workers and energizes the regional economy.

Halbaedal is a service that employs seniors between the ages of 60 to 75 to deliver foods from local restaurants to the customers by foot, as long as their travel distance is shorter than 750 meters in lineal distance. On February 4, a beta version of Halbaedal started to service in Anam-dong and Jegi-dong, and by March, more than 1,000 deliveries had been carried out through Halbaedal. Additionally, Halbaedal has become affiliated with 24 franchises, and eleven silver employees are equipped to perform delivery. The monthly income that senior citizens can earn through Halbaedal is between 600,000 and 1 million won, which is two to three times the average monthly wage of most senior citizens' jobs.

A Novel Service, Halbaedal

Halbaedal started from the acknowledgment that the number of jobs for senior citizens in Korea is less than enough. Most of the jobs for seniors, whether prepared by the government or private sectors, are limited and usually require strict qualifications. In short, a number of senior citizens often have nowhere to work. “Did you know that 72 percent of senior citizens who now make a living picking up wastepaper were once entrepreneurs, civil servants, and middle and low-income workers? It was very shocking for me. Now, they only make 3,000 won for an entire day’s work of picking up waste and recyclable materials,” stated Jung. Wanting to resolve this issue, Halbaedal has attempted to create jobs suitable for the elderly in the middle and lower socioeconomic classes.

Halbaedal significantly has its advantage in various aspects, and the most notable one is that it can save time compared with existing motorcycle deliveries which do not cater to a single order, but bunch many orders together. Due to the fact that the delivery worker receives food from several store owners before delivering to individual customers, the average delivery time is about an hour. However, in the case of Halbaedal, an average of 26 minutes is enough because only a single delivery is made at a time. The service has also proven to be environmentally friendly; it has reduced carbon emissions by 150 percent, compared to existing delivery service, owing to the fact that the deliveries are performed on foot.

Nevertheless, the team has encountered various hardships while moving forward with the project. Firstly, in terms of recruiting the seniors, the recruitment process had not been easy. Due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, the existing places where many seniors often gathered, such as senior citizen community centers, were closed; so the team had to recruit by mail and by posting flyers in subways. Also, Silver Lining member Hong Seok Bum (’19, Business Administration) mentioned that seeing and thinking like seniors have been difficult. The occupational training for elders takes for nearly two hours because, unlike young people generally, they are often unfamiliar with using mobile applications. The struggles were to effectively explain, at their eye level, how to use the mobile applications.

Silver Lining team is consistently striving to find ways to make their program easier and more comfortable for seniors. To help seniors familiarize themselves with the service, including the utilization of mobile applications, Silver Lining carefully formulated a senior-specific curriculum. Their one-day offline training provides education on appropriate service attitudes, and on the mobile application, a platform for the service. The team also created a helper application so that seniors can readily use the main mobile application.

The Outlook for Halbaedal

Halbaedal aims to steadily expand its service area to Bomun-dong, Hoegi-dong, and so on. In June, the team will launch a village delivery service. Having been promised a steady stream of goods deliveries from Coupang and local post offices, Halbaedal will soon deliver goods to local people as well. Silver Lining also plans to deliver items straight from Cheongnyangni Market to customers’ homes, therefore boosting the convenience of purchasing at the traditional market.

Ultimately, Silver Lining wishes to grow from a platform that matches seniors to a social community, based on work. “We will attempt to solve issues associated with poverty and alienation of elders by providing opportunities through which local elders can meet each other and form connections –by offering them jobs,” stated Jung. When the communities they hope to create are formed in various parts of South Korea, seniors would no longer be alienated.

By connecting the silver community to the fast-paced world through employment, the team Silver Lining seems to say, like how sunlight shines through even the densest of clouds, there is always hope to solve even the hardest of problems: for example, the employment of seniors. As such, Silver Lining’s Halbaedal seems to be laying a steppingstone to making a better society for seniors.