To face with rapid changes in the socioeconomic environment and respond to uncertain future, all public and private organizations are striving to strengthen their competitiveness. Agriculture, the oldest industry in human history has been transformed into a science and technology based industry. This sector, based on precision agriculture, is preparing to enter the era of the fourth industrial revolution. The Rural Development Administration(RDA) sets out its vision to take a lead in improving the quality of people's lives through innovations in agricultural technology. Public servants in research account for approximately 63% of the RDA's total staff members, which is the highest proportion among Korea's research institutions. Thus, along with the fairness asked from society, expertise and capacity of public servants in research are critical who are in charge of research and development of agricultural science and technology. The RDA recruits research officers through two routes: open competitive recruitment and competency-based recruitment, which is the only institution that recruits public servants in research through open competition.
This research aims to investigate issues arising from the two recruitment methods: assurance of expertise in the open competitive recruitment and fairness in the competency-based recruitment. Based on findings, recommendations are made to improve the systems. To achieve the above aims, this research reviews the current employment data and recruitment methods; conducts literature review on public servant recruitment including relevant research reports, papers, and a range of periodicals; and analyzes other countries' public servant recruitment schemes. The study also identifies changes to written tests by reviewing revisions made to the regulations on the recruitment of public servants both in research and extension; and analyzes personnel audit cases of individual ministries and departments implemented by the Ministry of Personnel Management in 2018. Based on this work, it identifies issues and recommendations on how to develop the systems. To boost the appropriateness of the recommendations Focus Group Interviews (FGIs) is conducted with the RDA's staff in charge of recruitment.
The fairness of the recruitment is crucial. On the other hand, this causes to harm the expertise and capacity of research officers. For better open competitive recruitment, it is suggested to revise the current exam subjects and set the minimum standard educational requirements to enhance the expertise of public servants in research. It is needed to revise specialized subjects of written examination by exploring the relevancy with curricula of agricultural colleges and job performance to respond to rapid progress in science and technology. It is also recommended to recruit bachelor degree holders or above as the minimum standard educational requirements. Regarding the competency-based recruitment, individual ministries/departments should develop their own recruitment systems tailored to the characteristics of each department while standardizing the document screening for public servants in research. And it is important to bolster expertise and capacity of recruiters. The Ministry of Personnel Management is advised to find novel recruitment routes and assist individual ministries and departments in recruiting talents.