Seongnam City to Require Written Exams for Public Service Job Recruitment

Seongnam City Hall

[Asia Economy (Seongnam) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] Seongnam City in Gyeonggi Province will add a written exam to the recruitment process for 'public service workers' starting this year.

Public service workers are individuals who are not public officials under the Local Public Officials Act, such as clerks, road maintenance workers, and environmental managers, who sign indefinite-term labor contracts with Seongnam City and work at the city hall and other offices. Public service workers make up 884 of the total 2,825 employees (based on authorized personnel) in Seongnam City, accounting for 31% of the workforce.

On the 7th, Seongnam City announced that it will significantly improve the recruitment method, which had previously selected candidates only through document screening and interviews, to enhance fairness and transparency in the hiring process for public service workers.

The previous ad-hoc recruitment based on department requests will be centrally managed by the Personnel Department, the Autonomous Administration Division of City Hall, and regular recruitment will be conducted 3 to 4 times a year.

The scoring ratio will be 20% for documents, 40% for written exams and physical tests, and 40% for in-depth interviews.

The second written exam for candidates who pass the first document screening will be conducted as an objective occupational basic skills assessment consisting of 50 to 100 multiple-choice questions covering arithmetic, problem-solving, technical skills, and information comprehension.

Simultaneously, a personality test in the form of 100 to 250 multiple-choice questions will be administered.

For clerical applicants, a subjective major-specific test will be added if necessary.

For general labor positions, a physical fitness test will be added, requiring candidates to achieve at least grade 3 or higher in 3 out of 6 physical fitness evaluations, including sit-ups and grip strength.

The third in-depth interview will be conducted for twice the number of planned hires, selected based on the combined scores of documents and written exams. The interview evaluation will utilize the individual's strengths identified through the personality test.

A city official explained, "The completely revamped recruitment procedure for public service workers will allow all applicants to predict their chances of passing and accept the results," adding, "We also expect this to improve trust in Seongnam City's personnel administration along with hiring excellent talent."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.