KOICA Hosts Work Innovation Contest... Grand Prize Goes to 'Let Data Work'

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] KOICA announced that it held the ‘Post-COVID-19 Work Style Innovation Idea In-house Competition’ online on the 15th.

This competition, open to KOICA employees, was organized to discover ideas for improving work methods that the public can feel and the global community can empathize with amid the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, aiming to achieve innovation in KOICA’s work style.

As a result of the judging, various innovative ideas were selected, including establishing a data collection system, digital transformation of the construction industry, video production of project survey reports, technical improvements for effective online training, non-face-to-face project formation surveys, and installation of transparent partitions for daily quarantine.

From October to November, KOICA received innovative ideas to transform work methods in three categories: remote work, work innovation, and daily quarantine. Based on criteria such as contribution to management efficiency, social value contribution, feasibility, and creativity, a total of 10 entries advanced to the final round after preliminary judging.

At the final round, the grand prize went to Deputy Manager Lee In-ho of KOICA’s Knowledge Data Team for proposing the idea of ‘Standardizing Reports Using Data.’

Deputy Manager Lee suggested introducing a data-driven work method by standardizing the formats of various KOICA project reports and adding a data automatic extraction function.

In particular, he attracted attention by proposing a plan to revitalize the data economy through free internal and external use by building ‘Linked Open Data (LOD)’ via data openness and connectivity.

The excellence awards went to the innovative ideas of △ Digital Transformation of the Construction Industry (Kim Hyun-i, Manager of South Asia-Pacific Office) and △ Office Space Innovation ? Additional Installation of Transparent Partitions (Oh Haram, Junior Staff of HR System Improvement Team).

The merit awards were given to △ Video Production of Project Planning Survey Reports (Choi Jong-seong, Deputy Director of Nepal Office), △ Strengthening Overseas Office Response Due to Online Transition of Training Projects (Kang Byung-seok, Coordinator of Rwanda Office), and △ Conducting Untact Project Formation Surveys Using Local Consultants (Jung Jun-young, Deputy Director of Iraq Office).

The encouragement awards were given to △ Digitization of Various Forms and Ledgers Using QR Codes (Kang Seung-heon, Director of Guatemala Office), △ Non-face-to-face Remote Work Using Office Communicator (Song Young-jun, Deputy Manager of Management Performance Team), △ Development of Operation Manual and Equipment Support for Volunteer Group Video Conferences (Yoo Jae-jun, Coordinator of Rwanda Office), and △ Improvement of Employee Welfare System in Remote Work Environment (Yoon Hyung-hak, Manager of Global Talent Education Center).

The 10 awardees received certificates signed by the Director and a set of prizes. KOICA plans to prioritize the six ideas awarded excellence or higher for early implementation in 2020 and will also gather opinions from relevant departments to reflect other proposed ideas in practice.

KOICA Director Son Hyuk-sang said, “Innovation is essential for KOICA to leap beyond Korea to become a global development cooperation organization,” adding, “Let us work together to actively implement the innovative ideas submitted in this competition and create innovative outcomes.”

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