Strange 'Blind Recruitment' by the Financial Supervisory Service... "Age, Gender, and Photo All Required"

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Sun-mi] The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) is facing controversy for requiring applicants to include gender, date of birth, and photos on their job applications, despite promoting a transparent and fair blind recruitment process.

According to the FSS recruitment website on the 25th, the FSS is requesting applicants for the 2021 new employee (Grade 5) recruitment?the largest ever with 90 positions?to provide their gender, date of birth, and attach a photo on the application form. Applicants must also include official English test scores. The FSS has been accepting applications for these 90 new hires since the 19th and plans to close submissions on the 28th.

Since a 2017 audit by the Board of Audit and Inspection revealed recruitment irregularities, the FSS has abolished document screening and applied a blind recruitment process throughout all hiring stages starting in 2018. The FSS emphasizes ensuring fairness and transparency throughout the recruitment process in every job announcement. However, requiring date of birth, gender, and photos on the application form contradicts the principles of blind recruitment.

The blind recruitment system, a key pledge of President Moon Jae-in, prohibits asking applicants about their regional origin, family background, academic history, or physical characteristics. Resumes must not include photos. Physical characteristics refer to height, weight, appearance, etc.

In fact, most financial public enterprises such as the Korea Housing Finance Corporation, which has already closed applications and completed written exams, as well as the Korea Deposit Insurance Corporation and Korea Credit Guarantee Fund, which recently announced recruitments, do not require applicants to disclose age or appearance on their application forms. Most large corporations, including Samsung Group?which introduced open recruitment in 1994?Hyundai Motor Group, and CJ, also follow the blind recruitment trend by not requesting date of birth, gender, or photos on applications.

An FSS recruitment candidate expressed dissatisfaction, saying, "Generally, public enterprises and public institutions handling official duties do not require applicants to disclose academic background, gender, age, or appearance on their applications, but the FSS application form violates the principles of blind recruitment."

Although the FSS requires date of birth, gender, and photos on the application form, it emphasizes that these details do not influence the selection of successful candidates during the recruitment process. The FSS explained that among the 'Consent to Provide Personal Information to Third Parties' section for applicants, date of birth, address, gender, and contact information are provided to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA), the authority responsible for COVID-19 response.

This is to prevent confirmed or self-quarantined individuals from mixing with other candidates during the written exam and interview stages amid the COVID-19 outbreak. An FSS official stated, "Ahead of the written exam scheduled for the 12th of next month, we plan to identify candidates with self-quarantine history through the KDCA in advance," adding, "We will also prepare a separate testing site for those with fever who come to the exam venue."

Some argue that instead of requiring blind recruitment-incompatible items on the application form to identify COVID-19 confirmed or self-quarantined candidates, it would have been better to establish a separate verification procedure to maintain the credibility of blind recruitment in public enterprises.

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