Gwangju City to Conduct Integrated Recruitment of Public Service Employees Starting First Half of the Year

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] The Gwangju Metropolitan City announced on the 2nd that it will introduce an integrated recruitment exam starting from the first half of 2021, moving away from the previous department-by-department individual recruitment method to ensure fair and transparent hiring of public service workers.

Public service workers are individuals who have signed indefinite labor contracts with Gwangju Metropolitan City. Although they are not public officials, they belong to the city hall, affiliated institutions, or business offices and work as administrative assistants, simple laborers, sanitation workers, or road maintenance workers.

This integrated recruitment exam consolidates the recruitment of public service workers, which was previously conducted individually by each department, under the General Affairs Division, the personnel department for public service workers. It integrates the previously varied recruitment schedules and qualification requirements by department and will be conducted twice a year, in the first and second halves.

Unlike the previous method that recruited only through document screening and interviews, a written exam system will be introduced, with the written exam conducted before document screening and interviews.

However, the written exam will be exempted for simple fieldwork positions such as sanitation workers, road maintenance workers, and among simple laborers, building cleaners and cooking managers.

To provide equal employment opportunities to applicants, the eligibility requirements such as having more than one year of experience in the relevant field or holding relevant certifications, which were applied during individual recruitment by user departments, will be significantly relaxed.

The integrated recruitment through the written exam addresses the limitations of individual recruitment by user departments through interviews only, as the preference for public service jobs and competition rates have increased significantly due to recent difficult job market conditions. It also preemptively blocks any possible solicitations during the recruitment process.

The written exam consists of 40 questions on general knowledge (Korean history and social studies), with a perfect score of 100 points. Candidates who score 40 points or more will be selected in order of highest scores at three times the number of planned hires.

Additionally, those who pass the written exam will undergo document screening and interviews. Final successful candidates will be selected based on the combined scores of the written exam (40%) and interview (60%), ranked by excellence.

The interview method will also be innovatively improved by appointing external experts as more than half of the interview panel members. A blind method will be implemented where interviewers will not be provided with information about candidates’ alma mater, region of origin, or family relations, and candidates will not be asked about these either.

Kim Il-yong, Director of the City Autonomy Administration Bureau, said, “Since we are conducting integrated recruitment to enhance transparency and fairness in hiring, we will ensure equal employment opportunities and make every effort to hire outstanding talents through a transparent and fair process.” He added, “This improvement in the recruitment method will be an opportunity for citizens to trust the administration and for the city to provide a higher level of administrative services to its citizens.”

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