Public Recruitment of a Record 90 People
Must Include Gender, Date of Birth, Photo, and Official English Test Scores
[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 began accepting applications for the 90 new hires on the 19th and plans to close submissions on the 28th.
Since a recruitment scandal was revealed in a 2017 Board of Audit and Inspection audit, the FSS has abolished document screening and applied a blind recruitment process throughout all hiring stages starting in 2018. The FSS emphasizes securing fairness and transparency in all recruitment procedures with every job announcement. However, requiring date of birth, gender, and photos on the application form contradicts the principles of blind recruitment.
Blind recruitment, a key pledge of President Moon Jae-in, prohibits asking applicants about their place of 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, do not require age or appearance-related information on their application forms. Most major 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 institutions handling public duties do not require academic background, gender, age, or appearance information on applications, but the FSS application form violates the blind recruitment principle."
FSS states "Date of birth, gender, and photos do not affect selection of successful candidates"
The FSS insists that although it requires date of birth, gender, and photos on applications, these details do not influence the selection of successful candidates during the recruitment process. The FSS explained that personal information such as date of birth, address, gender, and contact details provided in the 'Consent to Provide Personal Information to Third Parties' section is shared with the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, 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, "The reason for attaching photos is to verify identity against ID cards during the written exam," adding, "Ahead of the written exam scheduled for the 12th of next month, we plan to obtain information on candidates with self-quarantine history through the Disease Control and Prevention Agency. We will also prepare separate exam rooms for those with fever who come to the test center."
They further emphasized, "Personal information such as date of birth, gender, photos, and address submitted during application is not disclosed to judges or interviewers," affirming, "This is consistent with blind recruitment."
Some critics argue that instead of requiring blind recruitment-incompatible items on applications to identify COVID-19 confirmed or self-quarantined individuals, a separate verification procedure should have been established to maintain the credibility of blind recruitment in public enterprises.
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