Why Does Kim Kyung-ho, Mayor of Gwangjin-gu, Keep an Eye on the 'Doljikgu Chat Room'?

District Mayor Kim Kyung-ho and District Executives Build Empathy Through Honest Conversations with MZ Generation Employees

Initiating Improvements in Welfare Benefits and Practices Reflecting Employee Opinions, Transforming Organizational Culture

Realizing a Happy Gwangjin Through Free and Sincere Communication Such as the ‘Straightforward Talk Room’

Kim Kyung-ho, Mayor of Gwangjin District, communicating with juniors (right)

The number of public officials leaving their organizations is increasing due to the conservative organizational culture in the public sector, unreasonable practices, and high work intensity compared to low salaries. Recently, public service has even been called an undesirable job among the MZ generation.

Gwangjin-gu (District Mayor Kim Kyung-ho) is attracting attention by dramatically improving its organizational culture through active communication with employees.

Marking the first full year of the 8th elected term, the district is focusing on ‘internal communication’ with employees. Since January, it has operated a ‘TF Task Force’ aiming for fair personnel management and organizational culture improvement. In the recent first quarter regular council meeting, an anonymous ‘Straightforward Talk Room’ was opened to have honest conversations with MZ generation employees.

In particular, the ‘Straightforward Talk Room’ was operated as a real-time open chat, allowing for more candid discussions. This became an opportunity for District Mayor Kim Kyung-ho and district executives to empathize with the opinions of junior staff and immediately discuss improvement measures.

The employees’ demands were mainly twofold. They included organizational culture improvements such as “Please don’t give us a hard time when taking leave,” “Refrain from excessive work orders,” and “I wish there were no days to serve the heads of departments,” as well as welfare benefits like “Please increase welfare points,” “Make the cafeteria food tastier,” and “Open a fitness room.”

In response, the district plans to actively collect employee opinions and promptly resolve feasible requests.

First, when taking leave, only electronic approval will be required without face-to-face reporting. To improve work efficiency, meeting materials will be simplified, and protective measures against malicious complaints will be established. Lunch with executives will be fully voluntary and minimized in frequency.

Alongside this, efforts to enhance employee welfare will be strengthened. Starting in March, the fitness room will be reopened to promote employees’ health. Increases in welfare points and improvements to the cafeteria will be carefully reviewed to find solutions.

Straightforward Chat Room KakaoTalk

Employees who heard the news shared their thoughts: “I was surprised that they listened to the junior staff’s opinions and immediately reflected them,” “I feel their care for employees,” and “Issues we hesitated to mention before now seem to be resolved through communication.”

District Mayor Kim Kyung-ho promised, “We plan to create various communication opportunities to approach employees first, understand each other, and become closer. We will always be your ‘good friend’ who shares and solves difficulties together.”

The district plans to build various communication channels starting with the highly popular ‘Straightforward Talk Room.’ It will continue sincere communication to realize a happy Gwangjin for both employees and residents.

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