Strategic Personnel Management Activities Undertaken by Japanese Firms
Recruit's Work Institute conducted a survey
of the top 8,000 companies in Japan ranked
according to their paid-up capital, number
of employees, and turnover in 1999 to determine
the type of strategic personnel management
activities conducted by Japanese firms and
the future direction such activities will
take. The Work Institute received responses
from over 500 companies.
According to this survey, the average Japanese
firm:
1. Regards the hiring of new graduates as
important, expects these new employees to
work long-term, and places the greatest priority
on their loyalty to the company.
2. Emphasizes monetary benefits, takes account
of corporate performance in short-term benefits,
does not determine promotion based on years
of work, but takes account of performance
and results when determining wages.
3. Protects employment as much as possible,
even if corporate performance takes a downturn,
but will cut personnel development expenses.
4. Believes that the ultimate responsibility
for skills development rests with the individual.
These firms have also implemented or introduced
the following personnel development reforms
in the last 10 years (in order of programs
undertaken or introduced):
1. Offering assistance or giving priority
to employee self-improvement activities
2. Paying work duty and responsibility allowances
3. Hiring non-regular, non-full-time employees
as full-time employees
4. Offering assistance or giving priority
to employee skills development
5. Introducing discretionary work or "flex-time"
systems
The firms also indicated that in the future,
they would like to introduce reforms to the
system by which monetary benefits are paid
out to existing employees. Other reforms
cited include promotion of young people in
their 30s to positions of greater responsibility
and introducing personnel evaluations and
wage systems that take into account employee
competencies.
This survey showed that Japanese firms are
working hard to disassociate themselves from
the seniority wage system and establish a
system in which salaries are paid according
to each employee's contribution and results.
Japanese companies have, over the last ten
years, been exploring various ways through
trials and errors, in which they could implement
this transition. While the results over the
last twenty to thirty years show that no
easy solution will be found to make this
transition, looking at the progress that
has been made (including recent efforts to
reform salary payments to public services
employees), it is clear that Japan has reached
a real turning point.