Jin Kyo-hoon holds two-hour forum with more than 50 employees to discuss personnel system reforms, including criteria for high-workload and unpopular posts; district also replaces 'situation reports' with 'issue sharing' to speed up interdepartmental communication
Gangseo-gu District Mayor Jin Kyo-hoon is pressing ahead with efforts to transform his district's organizational culture — holding candid talks with staff on personnel policy and overhauling entrenched reporting practices.
Jin attended the 2026 Personnel Empathy Forum at the district office's main conference room on Monday, exchanging views with more than 50 employees representing different job series and grades. Union representatives and personnel officials also took part, and the session ran for two hours — well past its scheduled one hour.
Opening the forum, Jin said "fairness, validity and reliability must be secured as prerequisites for introducing sound systems," and pledged to "actively reflect employees' opinions while setting aside, as much as possible, the existing criteria for designating high-workload and unpopular posts."
Drawing on the results of a prior survey, participants discussed a bonus-point system for high-workload and unpopular assignments and ways to handle employees whose conduct harms colleagues. They also weighed in on sensitive personnel matters directly tied to their careers, including the criteria and duration for designating such posts, selection procedures and committee composition.
Participants then split into six groups to debate whether to abolish the daily cap on overtime and how to operate a mentor-mentee program for junior civil servants. Gangseo-gu plans to review the proposals, run them through a personnel-improvement evaluation committee and incorporate them into policy changes.
"Personnel management is not a matter of authority for those who hold it — it is a matter of responsibility," Jin said. "I will build a personnel system where every employee can demonstrate their abilities and everyone can feel it is fair, creating an organization people genuinely want to work for."
The district is also changing how it handles internal reporting. Gangseo-gu has renamed its longstanding "situation report" practice "issue sharing" and will strengthen systems for rapidly exchanging information across departments.
At his first expanded senior staff meeting since his re-election, Jin urged officials to "share updates quickly via KakaoTalk or text messages in between tasks, rather than through in-person reports," adding that "communicating promptly and without hesitation is the way to improve work efficiency."
Items covered under the new issue-sharing framework include urgent incidents and accidents, disaster situations, media coverage and press inquiries related to district affairs, and major community events at neighborhood community centers. The policy calls for immediate sharing upon becoming aware of a relevant matter, with urgent issues reported first by phone before written documents are circulated to the relevant departments.
The district expects that using messaging apps will reduce the burden of drafting formal reports and accelerate collaboration between departments.
"It starts with a small change — swapping one term for another — but it is an important turning point toward a more flexible organizational culture," Jin said. "Once a system of sharing current information in real time and collaborating becomes established, we will be able to provide residents with faster, higher-quality administrative services."
Jin's efforts to embed employee voices into personnel policy and streamline reporting procedures are drawing attention for the changes they may bring to Gangseo-gu's organizational culture.
seouldream01@heraldcorp.com
