“KOSHA takes a bold move to transform its organizational structure focusing on occupational accident prevention”

A move to streamline departments in the Headquarters and create ‘Accident Prevention Task Force’

In January 2010, KOSHA (President: Min-ki Noh) took a decisive action to transform its organizational structure. The key details of the action include: the creation of Accident Prevention Task Force for the Service Industry; streamlining of KOSHA headquarters’ hierarchical structure; and the strengthening of personnel who work at organizations that conduct accident prevention activities.

The latest move to reorganize KOSHA will make it a flexible agency that well responds to industrial changes. Through the process, KOSHA aimed at meeting occupational accident reduction goals and enhancing efficiency in human resources utilization. One thirds of all industrial accidents involve workers in the service industry. Therefore, ‘Accident Prevention Task Force for the Service Industry’, established within KOSHA’s headquarters, will set up accident prevention divisions in 20 leading organizations in order to support occupational accident prevention activities within the industry. At the same time, KOSHA plans to eliminate safety blind spots in the service industry by focusing on six fields, with the most frequent accident occurrences, including the wholesale and retail sales, Also, for the effective distribution of quality contents to training divisions in other organizations, KOSHA strengthened is contents distribution capability through the integration of Occupational Safety and Health Media Development Department and Training Support Team.

Furthermore, KOSHA streamlined the structure of its headquarters to raise the effectiveness of occupational accident prevention projects. In the past, there were separate offices and departments but now, there are only departments. Instead, task forces were newly established.
Therefore, the organizational structure of KOSHA is currently composed of 9 departments and 4 teams. On the other hand, a task force conducts works that are focused on a certain task.
This requires initiatives from the heads of task forces as they have to actively engage in important and difficult tasks.
The latest reorganization of KOSHA sought to simplify its structure, in order to expedite decision-making process and facilitate communication. This will make KOSHA a more productive and flexible organization.

Some of the administrative personnel in KOSHA’s headquarters, OSHRI and OSHTI were reduced and re-dispatched to organizations that conduct accident prevention activities in order to reinforce their related activities. In addition, new Management Support Teams were set up in Incheon, Dague and Daejeon areas to help on-site support.

With the latest organizational restructuring, KOSHA will raise the autonomy and responsibility in occupational accident prevention activities. At the same time, practical accident prevention projects, which focus on performance-based management, will be a turning point in reducing accident rate to fall below 0.7% in 2010.