Pan-government junior civil servant innovation group launches third cohort

The Ministry of Interior and Safety held the inaugural ceremony and a workcation for the third cohort of "Organizational Culture Refresh (F5)," a pan-government innovation group for junior civil servants, at the Suncheonman National Garden Workcation Center in South Jeolla Province from Thursday to Friday.

The Organizational Culture Refresh initiative was launched to identify and discuss fresh ideas for reforming civil service culture and to spread those ideas across public institutions. The third cohort comprises 97 junior civil servants from central and local government agencies with a strong interest in organizational culture reform.

On the first day, Thursday, participants watched a video recap of the second cohort's achievements and shared their impressions before the inaugural ceremony. F5 members had previously judged a competition recognizing outstanding organizational culture improvement cases and contributed to a "Communication Guidebook" documenting real-world successes and failures in workplace communication.

Particularly notable was the group's direct identification of on-the-ground reform tasks, including banning the practice of offloading undesirable or miscellaneous duties onto new employees and establishing systematic job handover procedures. The ministry incorporated these findings into its plan for reforming work practices and organizational culture, which it distributed to all agencies last May.

At the inaugural ceremony, participants shared the operational plan for the third cohort. The plan calls for F5 members to drive a range of activities as agents of organizational culture reform and outlines a strengthened cooperation framework among the ministry, F5, and organizational culture officers at individual agencies to ensure members' ideas are meaningfully adopted and disseminated.

The workcation that followed featured a discussion on the key requirements for an effective job handover manual.

At the second cohort's general assembly in July, F5 members identified "systematic job handover" as the most urgently needed reform among organizational culture improvement tasks.

Drawing on handover manuals submitted in advance by their respective agencies, participants discussed ways to make job transitions more efficient. They also shared reporting practices across ministries and attended an expert lecture on establishing a more effective reporting culture.

The second day was devoted to preparing activities that would sustain momentum for organizational culture change. During a "relay interview with hidden contributors to organizational culture" session, F5 members reflected on colleagues within their ministries who had helped improve workplace culture and planned the content and format of upcoming interviews with those individuals.

In a follow-up activity, participants wrote notes to colleagues who had helped them settle in after joining the civil service, reflecting on the value of positive communication within an organization. An expert lecture on "people who drive organizational change" was also held.

Park Hee-geon, director of the Administrative Systems Division at the Ministry of Interior and Safety, said the event demonstrated the passion and diverse ideas that junior civil servants — who will form the backbone of the public sector — bring to organizational culture reform. "We will continue to actively incorporate fresh, practical ideas from the field so that the civil service can become an even healthier and more vibrant workplace," he said.