'아빠의 육아'가 상식이 된 공직사회, 유리천장을 넘어 변화의 파고를 타다 > K-wave Trends

Last year, the number of male public servants who used parental leave exceeded that of women for the first time in history, accounting for more than half. As recently as 2016, 10 years ago, the proportion of men on parental leave remained at about 1,500, less than 20%, but last year, more than 10,000 men decided to temporarily leave the workplace to raise children. This is a result of a nearly seven-fold increase in the number of men taking parental leave over the past 10 years, and reflects a change in the values ​​of the public service society that goes beyond simply utilizing the system and recognizes childcare as a joint responsibility of both spouses. The number of women on childcare leave is also steadily increasing, but the rate of increase for men is truly explosive. Now, in the public sphere, fathers' parental leave is not a special event, but has become a right that everyone should enjoy and a common part of daily life.

In line with the gender reversal phenomenon in parental leave, women's influence in decision-making within organizations is clearly expanding. It is a very symbolic indicator that the number of third-level female civil servants, who are considered candidates for high-ranking civil servants, has exceeded 200 for the first time. The proportion of women in the entire senior civil servants also exceeded 14%, sending a positive signal that female leaders are entering the core of policy-making, breaking away from the male-centered pyramid structure of the past. The fact that the proportion of women among all national civil servants is close to 49% and is close to reaching 50% suggests that the public service community is continuing to improve its constitution to catch the two birds with one stone: demographic change and gender-equal organizational culture. As a strong pool of female talent is formed through which women can be promoted to senior positions, it is expected that more diverse and detailed voices will be reflected in future policy implementation processes.

Changes in public service are not limited to gender issues, but are also making clear progress in practical tasks such as improving human resources management and treatment. Last year, the number of administrative state civil servants increased by nearly 900 net compared to the previous year, reflecting the demand for manpower in the public life and security field. In particular, the recruitment of field public officials directly related to public safety, such as in the fields of police, fire, and industrial safety supervision, was noticeable, showing that the government is strengthening the deployment of field-oriented personnel to increase the efficiency of administrative services. On the other hand, the number of educational civil servants was inevitably reduced in accordance with the inevitable trend of decreasing school-age population. In this way, the process of flexibly redeploying and responding to social changes is evaluated as an essential measure to maximize the efficiency of national administration.

Another notable change is that there has been a noticeable decline in the number of people leaving public service. The number of voluntary retirees, including honorary retirement, decreased by more than 3,600 compared to the previous year, and the phenomenon of desertion from public office has somewhat calmed down. This is evidence that the government's work-life balance (work-life balance) policy, along with its efforts to improve the treatment of civil servants with low seniority and working-level positions by realistically providing basic salaries and allowances, is receiving a positive response in the field. As the public service culture is breaking away from the rigid framework of the past and improving to be flexible and reasonable, an environment is being created where young talents can settle into public service and work for the long term. This kind of personnel innovation based on objective data will increase the self-esteem of individual public officials and, as a result, will become the foundation for raising the quality of administrative services to the public to the next level.