CHUNGCHEONGNAM-DO — The Chungnam Fire Headquarters announced on the 7th that positive evaluations for its "personnel administration improvement" and "fairness and rationality in personnel management" have surpassed 90% for the first time in this year's satisfaction survey.

To foster a transparent and well-received personnel administration system, the provincial fire headquarters has been conducting regular satisfaction surveys twice a year, immediately following regular personnel appointments, since 2022.

Through these surveys, the department identifies and addresses issues across overall personnel operations—including promotions, transfers, assignments, and training. As a result, satisfaction with personnel administration has steadily risen over the past five years.

In this year's survey, 2,202 out of a total of 4,142 firefighters participated. Among them, 90.5% gave a positive evaluation regarding whether "overall personnel operations have improved."

Additionally, 90.2% of respondents answered that regular personnel appointments were "rational and fair." However, the survey revealed some variations in satisfaction levels across specific job roles and age groups.

Satisfaction scores and perceptions of communication and empathy were relatively lower among frontline firefighters holding the ranks of Senior Firefighter and Fire Sergeant (Sobang-gyo and Sobang-jang), those in their 30s, female firefighters, and emergency medical services (EMS) personnel.

This trend is analyzed as a reflection of realistic challenges. These include promotion bottlenecks caused by large-scale workforce increases since 2017, a sense of marginalization in promotions and rewards felt by EMS personnel relative to their high dispatch workloads, and the difficult childcare conditions faced by female firefighters.

In response, the provincial fire headquarters plans to actively incorporate frontline feedback and implement various measures to resolve personnel grievances and address the shortcomings experienced by Senior Firefighters, Fire Sergeants, EMS personnel, and female firefighters.

"Our satisfaction ratings have risen year after year thanks to the establishment of a predictable, fair personnel system and the cultivation of employee consensus," said Baek Seung-doo, Head of the Special Duty Proxy at the Chungnam Fire Headquarters. "We will dive deeper into the grievances of groups showing relatively lower satisfaction, such as firefighters in their 30s, female personnel, and EMS workers, and improve these problem areas to build a fire organization that all staff can trust and enjoy working in."

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